This document discusses vulnerability and cycles in the landscapes between Vardø and Hamningberg in northern Norway. It examines the people who historically lived in the area as fishermen and the empty spaces left behind. It also looks at the natural cycles of the landscape and how human activities like trawler fishing have disrupted these cycles. Trawler fishing has had negative economic impacts on smaller fishing communities and its unsustainable practices threaten the interdependent ecosystem. The region is vulnerable due to its climate and endemic species.

1. :No One belongs Here more than You
Series of investigations on Vulnerability. The first part, will concern
the people that live, and the people that once lived in the landscapes
from Vardø to Hamningberg. In the second part I will look closer at
the landscape, what can be found in this landscape. The third part
takes forth a reading of vulnerability and empty spaces. These three
investigations are an attempt to understand vulnerability as something
that changes depending on what aspect you are taking on. And trying
to discover something that we did not see before, something that was
hidden to us.

2. This is where they settled
Vidda : Endless
The Sea : Endless
:The people in the landscape
In between two eternities, on the shoreline, is where they settled. Built their
homes and lived for generations. On the small strip inbetween two endless
landscapes, in a raw and unpredictable nature. Life must have been hard. One
out four fishermen lost their lives at sea. Life was not so poetic as we imagine
it. What is left behind? People still live here. They still have to deal with heavy
weather and endless horisons on both sides. Though times have changed. Few
people live of fishing, a road has now been built, you can drive all the way from
Vardø to Hamningberg.

3. :The houses in the landscape
Bodies in the landscape. Standing alone. Those simple constructions. Built
of driftwood that came over an ocean from Siberia. A result of the landscape.
A response to the landscape. Silent and warm. Versus endless. Versus
winter storms. Versus snow covering the windows. Versus all the men that
lost their lives at sea. Versus that wooden boat that never came back. The
house is still. Never moves. The house is full of life, is full of laughter, is full
of sorrow, is full of stories. The house remember generations. It remembers
their movements, it remembers everybodys secrets. The house that saw you
grow up. The house that saw you disappear. The house is still. Is still.

4. Harald lived here :The stories of the people
his whole life Hamningberg in the landscape. Small
stories. Big landscape.
Marked in grey are the
settlement areas along the
shoreline.
The spot where We walked for
Jardar lost his hours, my rain Louise and Roar stay-
shoe in the sea jacket is leaking My father was lost ing up all night in the
at sea. I was 4 Midnight Sun
I’ve never Øystein sold his boat and Today on the
climbed a tree moved, just like that shoreline, we found
a coconut!
Everybody
knows this is
On New Years The
nowhere
Eve, a firecracker smell of
a Grand Roy-Arne insists
set fire to the old on wearing his
shed fathers
house Converse even
The first
though they are
patch of
too small
snow
Jonnys Staring at the Is Kjell
There’s no bike, left Northern lights, Farsken tute no så back in I could tell by the
future for me to rot I told him I’m du uvettig ut! town? ache in my back,
here pregnant What’s for and the catch of
Even burned his dinner? the day, my fishing
soccershoes days are over
The radio
played for
34 years I forgot my gym
Her hands were
bag at school
very cold
Fish again today,
always fish
I can’t hear
Signe disappearred, the I’ll be happy Æ spurt om hann
you! The
reappearred, just behind here, always sku værr me’
wind!
that stone over there Men han bare så i
vottan’
I know everyone
here, really Marias secret cloud-
berry spot
Walkman: Love will Vardø
tear us apart I’ll never get
When it finally
a boyfriend
stopped snow-
ing, everything
had disap- I’ll move to London and play in a REAL
peared band, fuck this!

5. Eagle for a day
Fish steams over
a month
A Fox movements
during a week
Birds coming from the
south nesting on the cliffs
:The Landscape and what exists here.
Using the same map as the previous page, I want
to look at all those other stories that can be found
here. This specific region is within the border of
what we call an Arctic climate. This means that
none of the summer months have an average
temperature of more than 10 degrees celsius. It
also means, that this region has species that only
occur in this area. The sitespecificness of species
in an area, is connected to what can be found in
Lemmings that area. All species are interdependent. None
of the species can live separatly from the others.
A week in a They stick to the same places, birds come back to
Rabbits life nest on the same rocks every year, the fish swim
in the same parts of the sea, depending on time of
the day or time of the year.

6. :Some examples of cycles and interdependency
1 year All living species develop in
cycles. The cycles relate to
each other. Example : One
rain year : Much rain, little sunlight :
plants few plants flourish.
daylight
In a ten years perspective
10 years it affects other species, for
example the population of lem-
ming, that eat the plants, which
fox again influnces the population
lemming of foxes that eat the lemming.
plants
Over a hundred years period,
one will see how the differ-
ences equal out. These are just
two representations of cycles,
100 years
as all living species go through
fox these cycles, all species and
factors could be added to the
lemming graph.
In the 18th century whales
where being hunted near
Hamningberg - Vardø. Hun-
1000 years dredandfifty years later they
disappearred. This affected the
amount of plankton (whales
plankton
eat plankton. The amount of
whales
plankton increases drasticly,
then equals out after a couple
of years.
100 000 years
The longest cycles. Those that
change everything on the surface of
life, nature the earth. Ice-ages. What happens
in the nature and what happens with
ice age the people at this point?

7. :Empty spaces, fishing history and vulnerability.
Hamningberg was one of the largest fishing villages in Finnmark. Its orgins go
back to the 16th century. At that time, Hamningberg was a roadless society. A
road between Vardø and Hamningberg was built i the late part of the 20th cen-
tury. Hamningberg was an important port in the Pomor trade between the Rus-
sians and Norwegians from 1720 till 1918. The village was abandonned in 1964,
as no money was granted from the state, for the construction of a new harbour.
Today, the houses are empty, but serve as summerhouses for the latter part of
the poulation.
The village had approximatly
200 inhabitants.All where fish-
erfamilies. The boats would sail
out on daily basies, except in
winter when the weather was
too bad.
The Nordlandsboat is an open
wooden boat, the smallest in
the series and the mostly used
for fishing along the coast,, is
14 feet long.
Fish racks on the shoreline.
The fish would be hung to dry
immediatly after coming in with
the boats.
The boats were light wood
constructions, and could be
pulled up on land during the
winter storms.

8. :Vardø
Vardø is the oldest fishing community in Finnmark. Its harbour was the capital of
the Pomor Trade. In the 19th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century
it was one of the biggest fishing ports in Finnmark. As seen on the photograph,
one could walk from one side of the harbour till the other, over the fishing boats.
Around the harbour lay fish factories and processing facilities. And the States The ‘sjark’ fishes on a daily
School for Fishindustry is also situated in Vardø. As the fishing industry went basies, leaving at the break of
from smaller ‘sjarkfiske’ to trawler fishing, Vardø lost many inhabitants. As there dawn. The boats have a crew
was no longer work to find in the city. The number of inhabitants dropped drasti- of 2-3 people, depending on
cally from 4187 inhabitants in 1970, to 2124 inhabitants in 2010. the size of the boat.The boats
are 25-50 feet long.
On the radar of the boat on can
see where the fish steams are
situated. The fish is caught in
big nets, that are pulled me-
chanically back into the boat.
The gutting can take place on
the boat.
The buildings closest to the
harbour, where the ‘sjarks’
would deliver the fish to the
factories. When the ‘sjarkfiske’
was downgraded, the buildings
were left empty. And half of the
houses in the city stood empty.

9. :Trawler Fishing
Is fishing where pulling a trawl behind the the vessel. The trawls are huge fishing
nets that are being pulled along the bottom of the sea. The trawlers can mesure
from 100-360 feet, and weigh between 2-3000 tons. Their size offer them the
opportunity for having fish processing facilities on board, which again makes it
possibleto stay at sea for weeks, and reaching the fishing banks situated far from
the main land. The fish does no longer need to be taken back to a harbour for
freezing or filletating, but can be transported directly to China for further process-
ing. The entry of these huge vessels on the fish market has affected the fishing
industry along the coast and especially in smaller places such as Hamningberg
and Vardø. It is no longer profitable to run smaller fish industries in these places.

10. Housing area :Empty spaces, Hamningberg, Vardø
When an important function in a society disappears, as in the case of Hamningberg and Vardø,
these places become vulnerable. They were are built up around fishing, in program, function
Shoreline and structure. The empty spaces that are left behind, that were once the strongest spaces in the
Hamningberg Fish Racks society, have become the weakest. The absence of boats in the harbour, absence of fish on the
Harbour racks, empty factories, and empty houses, the empty spaces as a result of economic changes.
The building up of these places are significant. Both Hamningberg and Vardøs centres were built
up around the harbour, fishing. When this disappears, it is difficult to reinvent the place, as all
spaces have a specific function connected to fishing. And where they are situated (in Norway)
is also an important aspect. There were few options of reinventing a place like Hamningberg
in 1964. It was abandonned. Vardø has gone through severe periods of crisis, as the popula-
tion was halfened in a very short time, but they are working today on giving the the place new
programs. Are these empty spaces key spaces in the city, because the city was built up around
them? Can these spaces become key spaces agin in the society?
Harbour
Vardø
Factories
Housing area
:Cycles
The other aspect of the trawlers fishing industry, is the impact it has on nature. Humans are, the
Humans only species that do not develop in cycles. To a certain point in history, humans developped to-
gether with nature, but after the industrial revolution (and later in Norway given the two examples)
we are driven by growth and economics. Our activities as human beings, are not proportional
with the cycles that are ongoing in nature. In contrary with cycles in nature, human beings are no
longer bound to place or interdependent. Trawler fishing is a good example of this. One can fish
anywhere, not only along the coast, one does not have to bring the fish to the factories daily. It is
not people from anywhere working on the trawlers. The fish is sent to China for further treatment.
Big Fish :Interdependency
algea Nature is interdependent. If trawler fishing leads to eradicating fish in the sea, what will then hap-
Plankton
pen to the other species? What happens if the marches dry in because of global warming, and
Fish million of species get affected because they can no longer find food for living. The region between
Whales Vardø and Hamningberg is vulnerable, as it is one of the only regions that is situated in an arctic
Swrimps climate, and has several species that exist only here.
Spunge
Eagle