Intention to contribute to the ADAPT-r Creative Practice Research Conference Towards Togetherness: a Lada Niva as a vehicle for participation by Rosanne van Klaveren – www.towardstogetherness.org - www.nivatonenets.org (Estonia Academy of Arts + Media, Arts and Design Faculty, KU Leuven) Creative participatory practices can establish connections that enable different people, approaches and traditions to meet. When looking at these practices from the perspective of the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we can see how mediators link social relationships to materials. In this lecture I will describe an empirical case study using the ANT approach as a framework. The case study involves the Niva to Nenets art project, which focuses mainly on the various ways in which a Lada Niva functioned as a vehicle for participation. In this project, a Lada Niva is driven from Belgium towards the Nenets Autonomous Region in the Northwest of Russia in 2013, in order to discuss (post)colonial structures and the wish to do ‘good’ for an indigenous reindeer herding people. The car was transformed into a small mobile film studio, equipped with GPS and seven GoPro cameras. Situations and conversations on the road were recorded simultaneously from different view angles, while participants accompanied the artist and discussed possible side effects of her intentions. A road-movie about this journey, as an interactive documentary on a website and as an art installation, is scheduled to reach its final stage in 2015. The Niva to Nenets project is realized within the setting of a PhD in media art, conducted at KU Leuven in Belgium and EAA in Estonia, and focuses on participatory practices that try to create a temporary feeling of togetherness. Within this artistic research, an ANT approach turned out to be meaningful for the participatory practices that were included in the road trip, as it motivated participants to explore, discuss and share their thoughts. Also during the design of an interactive interface for the viewing of this documentary road-movie, a focus on ANT was inspirational. As the whole project departed from my personal wish to give my beloved car to a Nenets family in order to support them in times of accelerated climate change and modernization, the Niva was considered a gift. Besides that, the car was also the embodiment of a mobile film studio, an object of camp [1], a Soviet icon, a contributor to CO2 emissions, and even a piece of garbage in the eyes of some participants. From all these associations, the car gave rise to many interesting discussions and thus exposed different relations and connections between the various agencies or mediators. Participants who accompanied me for certain parts of this long road trip, for example from Copenhagen towards Stockholm, shared their opinions and experiences on these topics. Also during local events, people were asked to contribute. Within these participatory moments, the Lada Niva functioned as the starting point for mapping out

the relational structures between the colonial history, contemporary situations, philanthropy, and ethnocentrism. As the actor within an actor-network, the car was an influential part of the course of action during the road trip, by breaking down three times. Import procedures turned out to be extremely complicated and put the stubbornness of Russian bureaucracy on the foreground. Eventually, the Lada Niva was experienced as a burden instead of a beloved friend.

Filmstill 2, breakdown near St. Petersburg ANT has been valuable for the Niva to Nenets project as a tool for reflection, both during the participatory moments as during the making of the road-movie. As a magnifying glass it helped focusing on relations and connections between the various actors (actants or mediators) involved in this project, providing a clear(er) view upon its reality. Although many actor-networks are involved, the one deriving from the Lada Niva is the most significant. During the road trip and the participatory practices that accompanied this journey, many discussions derived from the characteristics of the car or from direct associations. For example, the car triggered thoughts about oil and gas extractions from the Nenets tundra, needed to fuel this and many other cars. And, it triggered stereotypical responses to the design and the (in)capabilities of the car, that often resulted in questioning similar stereotypical imagery of Nenets livelihood on tundra (f.e.: Are we romanticizing too much?). The fact that this specific car was driven to the high north of Russia also triggered the imagination and adventurousness of participants.

Just as important for the creative practice, ANT helped to map out the diversities in opinions, influences and initiatives that were part of the Niva to Nenets project. This resulted in collections of related scenes, a variety of actor-networks, which form the base of a navigational design that enables viewers to explore the content interactively by following certain actors. Departing from Latour’s metaphor on ANT as a travel [2], trails starting from the Lada Niva were followed and a map is drawn of the encountered material and social relationships. For example, during the selection of scenes and the recording of voice-over reflections, associated connections were followed and mapped out. A rhizomatic network of influencing aspects that focuses on relational connections can reveal many truths, including paradoxes and contradictions. Altogether, the car functioned as the energizing center of the project, both as object and as subject, which exposed many connected accounts.

Filmstill 1: Leaving Copenhagen with Iben Mondrup and Kulunnguaq Petersen. [1] Camp as an aesthetic, see Susan Sontag (1964) and Marc Booth (1983). [2] Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social. An introduction to actor network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

A mock-up Niva during PDC’12, Roskilde, Denmark.