Bifrost: Developing the Environmental Humanities

The first iteration of the Bifrost project, titled “Developing the Environmental Humanities” exhibited at Sigtunastiftelsen in Sigtuna, Sweden in October 2011. This multi-screen documentary was produced by NIES and Zoopeople in partnership with the Sigtuna Foundation, and premiered in 2011 at a major international conference organized by the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies.
This multimedia work explored the environmental humanities as a domain of growing significance. Researchers interviewed included ecocritics and historians of science, technology and environment James Fleming, Ursula Heise, Greg Garrard, Sarah Elkind, David Nye, Donald Worster and Hannes Bergthaller.
A second iteration of this project (running time 50 mins.) was produced in 2012, including new materials and case studies drawn from interviews with more than two dozen researchers. It exhibited at the Hornafjordur Art Museum in Höfn, Iceland in May in 2012.
Both versions of the Bifrost 1.0 installation have subsequently travelled to exhibit at other venues in the UK, the USA, Scandinavia and the Caribbean, both as spatial installations in their original multi-screen format and in a single-channel format.
In partnership with Sigtunastiftelsen, this installation was the first in a projected series that seeks to explore the environmental humanities as a scholarly domain of growing significance.
Scholars interviewed for this installation include the following ecocritics and historians of science, technology and environment (in their order of appearance in the film): James Fleming, Ursula Heise, Greg Garrard, Sarah Elkind, David Nye, Donald Worster and Hannes Bergthaller.