Knowledge at Sea – transdisciplinary community practices for sustainability

What happens when artists, researchers, and cultural workers set sail together to explore sustainability—not just as a concept, but as a lived, shared practice? Dive into transdisciplinary action—share knowledge, build skills, and co-create sustainable futures aboard across the North Atlantic and ashore at the Icelandic Westfjords.

Call for Participation

Research shows that tackling complex challenges like biodiversity loss and sustainable ocean living requires collaboration and partnerships across diverse knowledge traditions. Transdisciplinary approaches—bringing together artists, societal actors, and researchers—are often highlighted as especially powerful in generating new questions and deeper understandings of these planetary issues.

Studies also emphasise that both trans- and interdisciplinary work demand facilitation, the development of transversal skills, and the ability to engage with localised, situated knowledge found in varied practices and perspectives.

This is the foundation of the study trip Knowledge at Sea – Transdisciplinary Community Practices for Sustainability, which gathers students, artists, researchers, and cultural workers for a facilitated learning experience where we learn from and with each other.

If you’re interested in learning beyond the siloed structures of academia, sharing your knowledge practices in a dialogical and cross-pollinating environment, and building long-term collaborations for sustainability work—you’re warmly invited to submit a proposal.

Facilitators:

The facilitation draws on selected passages from Olaus Magnus’ Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555), explored through experimental reading practices and artistic research methods. These texts—describing the seas, landscapes, flora, fauna, myths, and cultural customs of the Nordic-Baltic region—offer a worldview markedly different from our own.

This contrast provides a rich foundation for dialogue on scientific worldviews and fosters collaborative partnerships beyond disciplinary boundaries, opening space for multiple ways of knowing.

Join us for fun and insightful collaborations!

Travel itinerary

• May 8: Departure from your institution. (Åbo Akademi students depart from Turku Harbour at night)
• May 9: Arrival in Frederikshavn, Denmark.
• May 10: Ferry departure from Hirtshals, Denmark. (The sea journey is a core component of the course methodology)
• May 13: Arrival in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
• May 13–21: Workshops and field encounters in Ísafjörður and the Westfjords.
• May 21: Ferry departure from Seyðisfjörður.
• May 24: Arrival in Hirtshals, Denmark (Return travel to home destinations follows)

Participation in the full study trip is required for students and for collaborators planning community projects together on the return trip.

Researchers or others may return home on their own expense as early as May 21st. If this is your preference, please indicate in your application that your option is participation with individual return.

Participation costs:

Prices will vary from 300€-950€. More information is forthcoming!

The price includes the travel to/from Iceland by boat and train, food and accommodation on the boat to Iceland, transportation costs in Iceland and accommodation in Ísafjörður. Participants will need to cover costs for food and extra activities in Iceland.

There are funds available to cover travel and accommodation costs for students and artists. Please indicate in your motivational letter if you have institutional support or need a scholarship.

How to participate

Artists: If you’d like to contribute to the study trip, you’re invited to propose a workshop or facilitation that introduces the community to your artistic research practices. To apply, please submit a short bio and a description of the workshop you wish to offer.

Knowledge partner: Are you a researcher, cultural worker, or entrepreneur engaged with sustainability or blue humanities? If you’re interested in forming partnerships and participating in communal learning environments that deepen your work, expand your knowledge, and enhance your contributions to knowledge of the seas – you’re warmly invited to join us.

Photo credits: Pekko Vasantola

This study trip is supported by: