I don't really put much about uni on this blog, which is probably bad considering I'm on Erasmus for uni and writing this blog for uni. So to bridge the gap I've decided to compile some of the work I've been doing into a post, just so everyone is aware I do actually work here not just visit Santa, stare at reindeer (when I see them) and take loads of snow pictures to annoy everyone on Instagram.
For semester one I chose to do quite a few practical modules in comparison to theory modules. The one theory module I chose was an Introduction to Arctic Cultures. I was quite excited about this, I love learning and being in a new environment and culture meant it was pretty likely I wouldn't be learning about anything I already had a prior knowledge of.
The excursion I went on at the end of August required me to produce a photo book of the images I'd taken whilst in Raattama. I ultimately decided to focus on colour when I made the photo book as Lapland in August is full of it.
I chose to take part in another module named Adaptation Charting, which is specifically for exchange students. The brief was very, well brief but it fit the job. We were to make a project showing our adaptation or lack of, to our new environment by doing one piece of art a day in any form that we liked.
The group met intermittently throughout the first semester for a number of reasons for around 4 hours at a time. The discussions in these sessions took us onto many subjects, both academic and personal. To help these along the class participated in a series of activities from choosing our own Finnish name to analysing the difference in our daily routines.
I was unsure how to proceed with this project. After one of the seminars and a discussion on the project being as personal or impersonal as we would like I decided to do something a little out of my comfort zone by using my phone to create this work. So (almost) every day I put something that caught my eye or interested me on my Snapchat story and created a video at the end of the semester. I elected to continue this module during my second semester in Lapland as I wanted to see how my project would progress and I wanted to carry on the work as a record of my time.
The final practical module I chose to pursue this semester was Independent Photography Seminar. As with Adaptation Charting it was very open, we could do our project on almost anything. As the environment and landscape here is very different to what I'm used to I wanted to incorporate it into my project. It was interesting to me how the built up environment of Rovaniemi interacted with the nature around it, so I attempted to explore that idea through my imagery.
