ESTHER DORSMAN
102
The Snow Fox is ready at the Pello snowpark Photo: Esther Dorsman
was realized through student courses and workshop practices embedded in my own personal design work while keeping lo-cality and community in mind (Coutts &Jokela 2008). These two projects, overlapping each other, lasted for four months from start to finish and were conducted as action research (Denscombe 2010). The work required flexibility as I took on many different roles – project manager, educator, designer-art-ist, and researcher – often at the same time.
THE PELLO SNOWPARK
The first project started with a request from the company Torni-onlaakson Yrityspalvelu, Inc. in Pello, a company that offers business advice services to other small local companies. Their request was two-fold. Firstly, they wanted a snow playground, an outdoor leisure park for tourists and locals, children and adults, and secondly, there was a need to gain new knowledge about snow and ice as building materials. In September 2012, a kick-off meeting was held together with another company, Arc-tic Power, Inc., that was responsible for building a snow dome and cone on the playground. My responsibilities were to create the overall plan and design in cooperation with the company from Pello, as well as to organize the project in its entirety. This
constituted the first phase of the project, and was followed by another phase some months later when some students of the University and the local junior high school were taught and su-pervised. By late December, all of the activities culminated in the Pello Snowpark.
When starting the project, the functions and business objec-tives of the company provided a basis for the first design sketch-es. Quite soon, however, changes occurred. For instance, the original location was no longer available for use due to the lack of the water supply needed for making artificial snow. A new location next to the river and main roads was chosen. Thus, the plan and sketches needed changing. Moving to a new location also meant that the space was three times bigger than anticipat-ed. Although easily accessible to visitors, it was a challenge to make such a large place attractive and to design it in a way that both workshops could still be carried out. It required a massive organizational effort as well as flexible thinking and acting. Al-ternative plans were made and it was time to steer the students’
designs toward the desired direction and theme. Due to practi-cal building concerns, the cone and dome were placed on the sides with snow walls in between and a slide at the riverside.
Students filled in the rest of the plan by creating their own ideas
103
for snow sculptures. Lectures were also given and models were made under the supervision of another snow sculpture teacher.
The result was a snow playground with sculptures of a wolf and a bear at the entrance surrounded by many nicely sculpted walls and a twenty-meter long fox as the central art piece of the play-ground. The dome and cone served as beacons of light and the dome functioned as a location for ice sculpting competitions.
Teamwork, developing ideas as individuals and in groups, being guided by professionals in creating snow art, and learning from practical changes at the site were the highlights of this pro-ject for the students. For the companies, the propro-ject was, above all, an experiment but also a learning process illustrating how to incorporate snow and ice into local activities and business oper-ations as well as working with other local companies or schools.
Highlights of the experience included a new collaboration with a professional snow designer-artist and university, gaining new knowledge and adjusting one’s actions to the ever-changing cir-cumstances. Some of these challenges were unexpected delays, unpredictable weather, snow quality issues, the novelty of dis-course used as well as working with snow and ice as new build-ing materials and with unfamiliar equipment. In the end, the original ideas and designs remained intact for future use, such as different ways of making a super slide, snow cinema, sports snow sculptures, and skating rink.
THE LEVI LOUNGE
The second project, the Levi Lounge, started in October and finished in mid-December 2012. It was carried out for the small company Luvattumaa in Levi and encompassed a snow hotel with 15 rooms, a snow chapel, and a snow restaurant. As the hotel had been built every year for the past four years, the com-pany was already familiar with the elements of winter art and was ready to take the next step. While collaborating, our shared goal was to design a hotel focusing more on the aesthetic fac-tors in order to attract more tourists and gain more knowledge about the process.
The collaboration started with several meetings where
wish-es and expectations were discussed. It turned out that in this project it was also necessary for me to take on an array of roles.
Being the manager of the entire project included steering over-all design decisions and organizing the practicalities hands-on, being a teacher of the student workshop and acting as the main designer-artist of the entire interior concept as well as creating my own personal artistic contribution.
During the preparation phase, before the lectures and work-shop started, the main concept was presented as a set of ideas and final drawings and then agreed on by the owners. My first contribution was to design and execute the innovative new space, the Levi Lounge, a disco and lounge in a twelve-meter snow dome where visitors relax on snow terraces and in colored light caves. The Levi Lounge as a design project was created to function for large tourist groups and for children to play hide-and-seek. I based the design on my idea to create snow caves as a reference to a survival mode of the people in the north and to the old connotations of a shelter. The second contribution was the Star Heaven created by placing lights in a special way on the dome ceiling that presented stars related to Lapland, such as the Swan, Fishnet, Rabbit, and the Big Dipper. I created this starry heaven to give visitors an extensive “Lapp” feeling. My overall concept for the hotel included elements that I call Design
Con-Making the Northern Lights in Luvattumaa workshop. Photo Esther Dorsman ESTHER DORSMAN
104
nectors. These connectors are clear design and architectural el-ements used with the aim of perceiving different spaces as one entity. A connector makes a connection between those partic-ular spaces and, at the same time, it is design in and of itself.
There were five of these connectors in total. The first ones were the snow terraces – designed in the Levi Lounge dome and in the snow chapel. The second one was the ongoing sculpture of the northern lights – everywhere on the walls going from one space to another. The third ones were the robust reliefs – repeat-ed on the walls of the hotel. The fourth and fifth ones consistrepeat-ed of snow trees and routing signs carved out of ice plates – placed at the important intersections to connect the main spaces and to give directions. These five connectors formed the basis of my concept and gave the snow hotel a feeling of “unified design.”
Within this concept, the corridors were decorated based on the students’ ideas, and the trees and the rooms on the hotel own-ers’ ideas. The corridors showed snow sculptures of the flora and fauna of Lapland with an abstract river created of blue light at the bottom. These sculptures were made in layers so that the light and shadows were caught to maximize the effect. Supervi-sion made sure that these designs fitted in well with my overall design concept.
While the owners of Luvattumaa had winter art experience, they were glad to receive further guidance on applied visual winter arts. Through the project, the company learned how to design more comprehensively as well as to collaborate with and learn from a professional snow and ice designer-artist. Natu-rally, challenges were also met in this project. Machines broke down due to freezing, weather conditions delayed the build-ing process and forced us to improvise schedules and artwork.
Light sources and electrical assistance were limited as well. All of these issues required a flexible and improvisational attitude, as well as the ability to keep everyone happy. In the end, all of the design components were very welcomed by the owners.
That is, the corridor sculpted by the students, and the innova-tive Levi Lounge and Star Heaven, as well as the Design Con-nectors created by me.
CONCLUSIONS
The project description above shows how working with small winter tourism businesses can increase new knowledge, making companies aware of the benefits of collaboration with profes-sional designer-artists and university. All companies stated that they had learned a lot about applied visual winter arts and de-sign processes in addition to incorporating this new knowledge into their business strategies and future activities. The process of ‘learning by doing’ should be led by a snow and ice art expert who is able to take on different roles simultaneously. The pro-jects also show a clear opportunity for professional designer-artists to work together with small tourism businesses. Finally, in conclusion, I personally would like to add that both projects were a way to do research, to create new and innovative snow designs, to educate companies and students in the process, and to organize Pello Snowpark, the design concept of Luvattumaa and Levi Lounge from scratch and, in the end, achieve great results. It was a pleasure and a great opportunity for me to or-ganize such projects with a new approach, giving new insights, and to have the possibility of using my experiences in future projects.
Star heaven in the snow restaurant. Photo: Esther Dorsman APPLIED VISUAL ARTS IN PUBLIC PLACES
105
ESTHER DORSMAN
has worked as a professional ice and snow designer for seven years and, at the moment, is finalizing her Master of Arts degree in Applied Visual Arts. She has a background and studies in architecture, design, marketing, and education. She teaches project courses and workshops at the University of Lapland and other schools, works as a consultant for companies, and creates and leads various snow projects every winter collaboratively and by request.
REFERENCES
Huhmarniemi, M., Jokela, T. & Vuorjoki, S. 2003. Winter skills. A Guide-book for Snow and Ice Sculpting. Publications of the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of Lapland. Series D. Rovaniemi.
Huhmarniemi, M. 2003. Snow Sculpting in the Schools. In Huhmarniemi, M., Jokela, T. & Vuorjoki, S. (Eds.) Winter Art, Statements on Winter Culture, Winter Art, and Snow Construction. Publications of the Faculty of Art and De-sign of the University of Lapland. Series D. Rovaniemi, pp. 89-95.
Jokela, T. 2003. Introduction In M. Huhmarniemi, T. Jokela & S. Vuorjoki (Eds) Winter Art, Statements on Winter Culture, Winter Art, and Snow
Construc-tion. Rovaniemi: Oy Sevenprint Ltd, pp. 6-9.
Liikanen, H. 2004. A new kind of art event: The Snow Show in Rovaniemi and Kemi in 2004. In Huhmarniemi, M., Jokela, T. & Vuorjoki, S. (Eds.) Sense of Winter. Statements on Winter and Winter Arts. Publications of the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of Lapland. Series D. Rovaniemi, pp. 98-107.
Hiltunen, M. 2008. Community-Based Art Education in the North: A Space for Agency? In Jokela, T. & Coutts, G. (Eds) Art, Community and Environment.
Educational Perspectives Bristol: Intellect Books, pp. 91-112.
Vuorjoki, S. 2003. Art from Snow and Ice in the Heart of Winter. InHuh-marniemi, M., Jokela, T. & Vuorjoki, S. (Eds.) Winter Art, Statements on Winter Culture, Winter Art, and Snow Construction. Publications of the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of Lapland. Series D. Rovaniemi, pp. 37-39.
Coutts, G. & Jokela, T. 2008. Art, Community and Environment. Educational Perspectives. Bristol: Intellect Books.
Denscombe, M. 2010. The Good Research Guide, for small-scale social research projects. Berkshire: Open University Press.
The Levi Lounge. Photo: Satu Jussila
i
n autumn 2011 four art education students from the University of Lapland met with the small village community of Meltosjärvi to plan a willow-sculpting project entitled the Village of a Water Bird. The pro-ject was to form a 2-day community-based art workshop with joint planning meetings. The project was initiated to serve as part of on-going landscape-mending program in the village and was carried out in May 2012. This article is based on the author’s Masters’ thesis and the project report writ-ten by Leena Koivunen, Aino Mäntyvaara and Virve Viita.MELTOSJÄRVI
The offset for the project was my family connections to Mel-tosjärvi. My father’s family comes from that small village located in central Finnish Lapland. It is a beautiful former agrarian village surrounded by several hills and lakes. The village is known for its rich water bird population with rare species nesting there every year. A few of the lakes have been restored to improve the living conditions of these valuable populations. (Pääkkö 2011.)
In the past decades though, Meltosjärvi has been strug-gling with major structural changes due to the fall of agri-culture and migration to cities. Desolated houses and un-cultivated lands have lead to overgrown and uncared village scenery. The invasive natural spread of willow thickets has
blocked the view to the lakes, colonized the fields and thus damaged the valuable culture scenery. (Pääkkö 2011.)
In 2008 the village association of Meltosjärvi decided to tackle the problem by applying funding for a landscape-mending program. The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY) granted the funding and the program was launched in 2009. The aim was set to thin out the willow and vegetation overgrowth by the end of the year 2012. (Pääkkö 2011, 4-20.)
BUILDING ON THE PROBLEM WILLOW
“Willow? It is absolutely hated here!”
This blunt remark of a villager summed up the feelings of the whole village community. Willow was seen as an invasive
“enemy” since it grew everywhere, spread fast and was hard to eliminate.
Even though the landscaping program was initiated to solve these problems, the village association had difficul-ties activating the community to participate in the program.
Everyone in the village supported the program with positive feedback, but took rarely any concrete action to contribute for the common good. It seemed that people, especially the elderly women perceived clearance work as difficult and found no suitable way to take part in the process.
These issues became the overtone for the preparations