The kelp congress

Kelp..? That?s right, seaweed! There was a week-long Kelp Congress at LIAF, an international art festival in Norway based in the Lofoten Archipelago in 2019. It focused on the lesser explored artistic and cultural dimensions related to kelp and other macroalgae. What is going on in terms of industries of energy, food, nutrition, agriculture, cosmetics, and medicine, how about current and future ecological and environmental discussions on it, and how are artists responding via performative, narrative, conceptual, and material approaches? This book assembles artworks, essays, photographs, poems, stories, and other writings that contribute to the recent interest in kelp and seaweed within contemporary art and thinking. The book forages for the insights that emerge through spending time together with these ecologies, revealing their inherent and entangled values. The book covers a range of approaches for 'thinking through' and working with kelp and seaweed in ways that are contra to extractivist mentalities, and the treatment of macroalgae as a resource to be exploited by humans. By striking a balance between play, discovery, concern, and care, the book invites curious and interested readers to consider companionships and collaborations with the living materials of these other-than-human-communities, and to examine the cultural, narrative, and artistic properties that connect us to these special lifeforms.