Paparazzi Ethnography

Attending in Helsinki:

Aleksanteri Conference: Fueling the Future

10/27: Conference registration was quiet for the first hour, but luckily we had a chance for a fascinating one-on-one exchange with geographer Dr. Corey Johnson about distinctions of pipeline politics between the U.S.-Canada grid system and the European network of pipes. I often refer to the North American natural gas pipeline system, a 2 million mile coagulation of steel pipes, as a techno-ontological system.

I use that phrase because, no matter what, those pipes are there, and even after a hundred years, they will still be there in the ground. Just like a Teotihuacan pyramid, pipes have a certain materiality, that remain long after we’re gone, or off to doing something else, but not using those pipes.

An even more interesting fact about our pipeline system —  is that it is constantly being interpreted in different ways. Sometimes the network of pipes is a transportation system, that moves natural gas around. But more recently, it has become a critical system, whose needs, above all, require protection. Thus, there are different ways to think about the materials, as well as the different ways that specialists (e.g., energy analysts), describe its materiality, through the use of graphs, etc.

Pipes.

In contrast to North American pipes, Corey reminds us that in Europe, natural gas pipelines are politicized objects in ways that the very names of pipes are well recognized in the public consciousness. And this doesn’t happen too often in the United States. Sure, some of us can mention TAPS (trans-Alaska pipeline system), but for the most part, ask your neighbor to mention three names of pipelines, or even one natural gas pipeline, and the only thing that will come to mind, is probably the blow-out that burned down several blocks of houses near San Francisco, recently.

If you’re not in the energy business, there’s a strong likelihood that you don’t know the names of natural gas pipes in the United States. And this difference, suggests that in Europe, there is a sort of politico-ontology (my inchoate term). That the materiality is not simply a technical issue, but in fact, a highly political one.

Here is a link for Names of Gas Pipelines in US and Canada.

After speaking with Corey, we scampered over to introduce ourselves to Dr. Ekaterina Novikova, who received her PhD in Finance from Plekhanov Russian Economic University in Moscow and is now affiliated with Northern Dimension Research Centre and currently working on conceptualizing Finland as a hub for intellectual networks and knowledge transmissions between Russia and Scandinavian countries. Fascinating that the topic appears so interesting, and yet, Ekaterina spoke in such an everyday manner, signifying the development has been underway for some time, and a topic that shouldn’t really be surprising to anyone, least of all, us, who have made this kind of research an exploratory endeavor.

10/26: Opening day tomorrow for Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Conference: Fueling the Future —  Your special correspondents here, Arthur Mason, reprising his role as PaparazzI (PI) ethnographer to the not-so-famous, reporting on events, accompanied by the international talent, Samantha Catalyst, StudioPolar‘s Project Coordinator, Photographist and International Travelry Specialist. In this special case… we will be following all those involved in Russian natural gas development in the Barents Sea — We plan to have photos, testimony, etc. posted continually….

It is a toss-up, of course, on whether we should have attended Aleksanteri or the Gazprom VNIIGAZ conference in Moscow, taking place at the same time. The thought reminds us of when we traveled recently to Teriberka (Barents Sea coastal village in Russia), proposed off-loading site of the Shtokman natural gas development project. In June, we attended the 5th Norway-Russia Arctic Offshore Workshop in Murmansk, wherein local entrepreneur and German expat to Russia for the past umpteen years, Ulrich Kreuzenbeck, hosted a fabulous picnic for workshop participants at the former Teriberka High School which he’s remodeling into a hotel. Speaking of valuable events we missed out on recently was NUPI’s Russia, Europe and Energy conference, brought to our attention by former Norwegian Consular General to Murmansk, Russia, Dr. Kåre Hauge, who is on the top of StudioPolar‘s list of valuable mentors for this project. Thanks for your continued support Kåre!