Sustainability in Performing Arts Production

With this research project, which involved the entire performing arts department, we aimed to raise questions and methodologically explore ways in which performing arts processes and productions could be realized in a more climate-friendly manner. The climate transition is the greatest societal change we are facing, and the performing arts field had barely begun to understand what this would mean for our practices. Therefore, there was a great need to investigate, educate ourselves on, discuss, and plan how the performing arts could adapt. This project aimed to develop this knowledge across all disciplines within performing arts production.

At the Department of Performing Arts, we worked with the project's research questions in a fictional production through two analytical perspectives. Firstly, by inventorying and exploring various practical and material climate-friendly alternatives, and secondly, by reflecting on and analyzing how these functioned and affected the artistic process. The second analytical perspective focused on how the artistic vision and execution were influenced, both within the different disciplines and in the collective staging.

The overarching research question was: How could we continue to create relevant and innovative performing arts with a smaller climate impact? The purpose of this project was to explore how we could reduce the climate impact through the way we planned, produced, and supported performing arts production. The project also discussed contradictory needs and changes within the performing arts, such as: How can we further develop our craftsmanship in this transition even though we need to reduce material usage? How can we continue working with increased internationalization while simultaneously reducing our climate impact?

The project’s overall method involved allowing co-researchers from various disciplines to test alternative methods, techniques, and material choices from a climate-friendly perspective in a fictional production. While the disciplines maintained their distinctiveness in the process, they were intertwined in the artistic process. The co-researchers involved in the project teach in disciplines where they are also active professional artists and are in daily contact with questions about how an artistic idea can be visualized and materialized within an artistic project. The goal was to develop methods to create performing arts with drastically reduced climate impact in all the disciplines the Department of Performing Arts educates and researches. By investigating and developing methods around these questions, we as an institution can prepare and empower our students and future performing artists to operate in a transformed performing arts field during the climate transition.

Co-researchers: Gunilla Pettersson, Mihra Lindblom, Anders Larsson, Anders Duus, Anders Aare, Synne Behrndt, Jon Refsdal Moe, Anja Susa, Camilla Damkjær

The research project began on July 1, 2022, and concluded in the spring of 2024, but the work continues tirelessly...