In this room of the exhibition you will find two artefacts, all relating to the meaning and use of the stinging nettle [brännässla] to the Nordic Forest Farmers:
An excerpt of ethnographic field notes published half a decade ago (artefact A) and images of the current reconstruction process of a tool of great significance to the forest farmers (artefact B).
Before continuing, we ask you to do the following – or something that suits you and your body:
Look at the palms of your hands. Notice the lines.
Now…
1. Recall the sense of touching a stinging nettle [brännassla] by accident,
2. then on purpose.
3. Recall the smell of wool. Milk. And electric devices.
Please scroll to examine the artefacts.
Find the next door or return to the museum hall below.
- Artefact A
- Artefact B
Artefact A
These excerpts are from a field journal written by an anthropologist during her fieldwork among the Nordic Forest Farmers in the years of 2027 and 2028. The anthropologist’ grandfather was reportedly a forest farmer who emigrated from the area as he fell in love with a city dweller during tradetrips. The ancestral link presented the anthropologist with a chance to live among the forest farmers. The following field notes visualize how the anthropologist got to know the nettle as an important constituent in the world, as well as how her perspective gradually opened up to other kinds of sensing, working and being in landscapes.
Materials: Pen and ink on notebook paper.
Artefact B
The images are digitized renditions of a Brännässla Bracelet, a navigation device essential to the nomadic farming praxis of the Nordic Forest Farmers. During the anthropologist’s stay among the forest farmers in 2027 and 2028, she captured photos of the device. After several attempts to develop the photos, the film came out blank for unexplainable reasons. Informed by the anthropologists’ descriptions of the device, a biologist and a tech engineer are currently in the process of producing a reconstruction of the bracelet, performing structure analyses and prototypes mimicking the unknown 3D printing technology of the forest farmers.
Materials: Nettle fibres, dyed wool, flax thread, bronze pearls, lichens and mosses processed by hand and digital programming.
