Affiliated with the University of Helsinki, the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station allows researchers and students to stay there to study cultural and natural sciences in the northern region of Finland. The project acquired a residency of two weeks there that used to observe and collect samples of bipolar bryophytes. We alternated between observations in situ to understand the mosses in interaction with their environment and laboratory observation. During this trip, we installed Cybryonts next to spots where we identified some of the bipolar mosses that interest us.
Read our account of the residency here.
Before getting to Finland, we had identified six different bipolar mosses species that we knew we were susceptible to find at the station or around it.
- Polytrichum Strictum
- Polytrichum Juniperinum
- Cinclidium Stygium
- Plagomnium Elipticum
- Distichium capillaceum
- Tortella Tortuosa
Kilpisjärvi is 400km above the arctic circle. During our stay, the sun would hover above us, it would get hidden by the mountain Saana during the night, but never fully set.
It took us two weeks to find the spots where we wanted to leave our sculptures. We used different methods to try and map out the base and its surroundings and find the bipolar mosses we were looking for. When we did, we installed the sculptures and started identifying the plants that constituted the ecosystem of the mosses.
We constituted a herbarium, taking samples of the mosses themselves and some of the plants around them.
