Hope and inspiration for futures under climate change

To galvanise evidence-based, constructive action, UCL Grand Challenges funded a science-art collaboration to learn from existing successes for applying them to future success. Composer-musician Heloise Tunstall-Behrens produced a new three-movement piece sung by a children’s choir that incorporates eco-inspiration and eco-hope from the work of UCL scientist Ilan Kelman. After showing the video of the performance and short talks by the artist and scientist describing their collaboration, a panel of three Norwegians will respond with their thoughts of using this work within a petroleum-based economy being affected significantly by human-caused climate change.

Speakers

Heloise Tunstall-Behrens, Composer/Musician

Heloise Tunstall-Behrens is a composer, producer and performer of both electronic and acoustic music as well as a vocalist. Her sound covers contemporary classical, pop, experimental and choral music and aims to explore and elucidate the workings of the natural world through engaging with scientific research.

Reidar Staupe-Delgado, University of Tromsø

Reidar Staupe-Delgado is an Associate Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellow (MSCA-IF) at Roskilde University, Denmark. His research interests revolve around disasters, health emergencies and broader social problems, with a particular focus on slowly manifesting disasters.

Ragnheiður Skúladóttir, Festspillene i Nord-Norge

Ragnheiður Skúladóttir is the Artistic Director and CEO of Festspillene i Nord-Norge.  She holds a BA in theatre and multimedia from University of Iowa and MFA from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 2000, following a 13 year stint in the U.S, she moved back to Reykjavík  to become  Dean of Department of Theatre and Dance at then newly founded Iceland University of the Arts (LHI). While working LHI she initiated new programs in contemporary performance practices and contemporary dance. She is the co-founder of LÓKAL International Theatre Festival (Iceland´s first international theatre festival). She was artistic director of the Akureyri City Theatre from 2012 to 2015 and manager of Iceland Dance Company 2016-2019.

Roar Espevik, Swedish Defense University and University of Bergen

Commander s.g. Roar Espevik has served on submarines for nine years (five years as CO). He has been in several position at the Royal Norwegian Academy for twenty years: Dean, Head of Leadership Training, lecturer and researcher within the field of operational leadership. He has been Head of the department of Psychosocial Science at the University of Bergen. His present position is Professor at the Department of Leadership and Command and Control (Swedish Defense University) and at the Center for Crisis Psychology (University of Bergen). His present research interests are team and leadership training in extreme situations.

Professor Ilan Kelman, UCL

Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, UK and Professor II at the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. His overall research interest is linking disasters and health, including the integration of climate change into disaster research and health research.

Image: Hammerfest, Norway: Fossil fuel infrastructure amid Arctic beauty (photo by Ilan Kelman).

Interested in these ideas?

Find out more about the research project and watch more performances on the Hope in the Dark Youtube channel.