Liv Bugge: We Would Not Call Ourselves Trilobite (2017). © Liv Bugge, Hans Arne Nakrem, Natural History Museum, Oslo, and Museum of University History, Oslo.
Welcome to our talk, Det trønderske gull (“Trøndelag gold”) by Ragnhild Hutchison, followed by a conversation with Hutchison, Mats Ingulstad and Pål Thonstad Sandvik!
Entry is free.
Ragnhild Hutchison, historian and award-winning educator, has followed Trøndelag’s copper ore on its journey around the world. Copper connected Trondheim with the wider world in the 1700s. The industry created great riches that had an impact on the lives of both rich and poor, and left its marks on the region that are still prevalent today.
Today, the mining industry is high-tech – e.g. NTNU is pushing the boundaries for what can be mined, and where. NTNU historians Mats Ingulstad and Pål Thonstad Sandvik will talk about this, as an extension of their respective work on the topic of resource-based industries and their economies.
This evening tells us about what happens when humans find minerals that are considered valuable, and the defining societal consequences that follow.
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About the participants:
Ragnhild Hutchison was awarded The Norwegian Historical Association (HIFO)’s Sverre Steen award for excellence in the teaching of history. Hutchison is a historian, and in the project, “Kobber i tidlig nytid” (“Copper in the early modern era”) at the University of Oslo she worked in particular with questions regarding the role of Norwegian copper in the economy and in globalisation.
Mats Ingulstad is a researcher at Department of Modern History and Society at NTNU and associate professor II at History Studies at UiO. His special field of interest is in minerals and their international histories.
Pål Thonstad Sandvik is a professor Department of Modern History and Society at NTNU and professor II at Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen. Sandvik has conducted research on several resource-based industries, and recently published the book Nasjonens velstand – Norges økonomiske historie 1800-1940 (2018).
Mats Ingulstad and Pål Thonstad Sandvik have contributed with a newly written essay, “The transformative power of metal. Reflections on metal and society in Trøndelag” for the Rivers of Emotions, Bodies of Ore exhibition catalogue, which will be launched in Trondheim on 3 November to tie in with Sakprosafestivalen (Norwegian festival of non-fiction), and in Oslo on 7 November at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).
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Det trønderske gull is arranged in collaboration with Kunnskapsbyen, and is part of a larger educational programme about the history of mining at Kunsthall Trondheim in the autumn of 2018, as well as a part of the programme for the group exhibition, Rivers of Emotions, Bodies of Ore. The theme for the exhibition is mining and extraction, using Trondheim’s history of copper mining as a starting point. The exhibition raises important questions regarding the connections between mining industries and culture, put in a contemporary context.