Nearly 200 people visited r/v Oceanograf and r/v Oceania in Bodø – between the 21st and 22nd of June, both ships were open to the public. The research vessels interested science and art lovers, as the guided tours showed the ‘Women’s View of the Sea’ exhibition and the scientific potential of the vessels.
‘We are so happy that we are a part of the SEA-EU Alliance. We are working together to develop a new education model for Europe, and a cruise such as this means a lot towards developing as a good family. I think for the future to bind universities together more research cooperation will be needed.’ said Nord University Rector Hanne Elenora Solheim Hansen.’ We do need to know a lot more about what’s going on in our seas because they’re changing, and we have to make our use of them sustainable. So, I’m very happy that we are doing some research to understand what’s going on.
The second day of events in Bodø was a combination of art and science. 22nd of June began with a creative writing workshop conducted by Zygmunt Miłoszewski. BaltArctic Research Cruise chronicler described the ubiquitous story formula used in the most famous stories worldwide. Can researchers learn something from ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Harry Potter’?
– The workshop was very interesting. It was cool to see how this story structure is present in so many popular stories, and how can it be applied to different things, that aren’t just creative fiction, but also things like storytelling in a conversation or communicating your research – says Olivia O’Connor, PhD student at NORD University – ‘As scientists, we also tell stories and explain things, but we are not trained in storytelling in the way that artists are.’
In the afternoon, r/v Oceania and r/v Oceanograf were open to the public. Citizens of Bodø had a unique chance to see the gallery of ‘Women’s View of the Sea’ art. The exhibition presents a dual perspective. One is a perspective of a female researcher describing her project, and the second is of a female artist whose work was inspired by this research.
The exhibition interested a lot of Poles living in Bodø. One of them – Michał Młynarczyk – came to Bodø a few years ago and fell in love with the North. Right now he runs a wonderful restaurant called LystPå. On the 22nd of June Michał invited the UG representatives – Vice-rectors Anna Jurkowska-Zeidler, Arnold Kłonczyński, and Chancellor Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek – with Nord University Rector Hanna Elenora Solheim Hansen to his restaurant.
After the visit of both ships, the exhibition will live on in Norway and then get back to Poland with 10 more entries from Norwegian scientists and artists. As for the research vessels – r/v Oceanograf sails back home to Gdańsk and r/v Oceania ventures further north for their annual AREX expedition.
