LASER Talks in Bergen presents Small Climates, Big Issues: Visualizing, sounding, touching, and reading microclimate data

Forest ecologist Robert Lewis from the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) and multidisciplinary artist Alinta Krauth come together to discuss the important role that microclimates and microclimatic data play in our understanding of forests, and more broadly, the Earth's future.

Chaired by: Jason Nelson

EVENT INFO

When: 14:00 25 February 2026 Oslo time zone. 

Where: Online via Zoom

Access Info: Join via ZOOM , Meeting ID: 659 0941 3240, Password: pR9bP0Fx

Website: https://www4.uib.no/forskning/forskningssentre/senter-for-digitale-fortellinger/aktuelt/leonardo-laser-talks-bergen

Forest ecologist Robert Lewis from the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) and multidisciplinary artist Alinta Krauth come together to discuss the important role that microclimates and microclimatic data play in our understanding of forests, and more broadly, the Earth's future. Importantly, they think-through how artists can rethink microclimate data and the role of science communication through interactive digital art, literature, and sound in what is otherwise science-led research. They will focus predominantly on the project "Understanding the role and interplay of forest microclimates for successfully balancing productivity and biodiversity among Nordic forest landscapes", funded by Nordic Forest Research (SNS), and the artworks that followed from the 'Intimate Atmospheres' exhibition, to reinterpret, refract, and diffract this project from its origins. Join us to explore the same concepts through two parallel lenses: the scientist's aims and the artist's eye.

SPEAKERS BIOS

Robert Lewis is a Researcher in forest ecology at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Bergen, where he investigates how biodiversity patterns emerge, persist, and decline across managed and near-natural landscapes. Drawing on plant, community, and ecosystem ecology, he combines field surveys with quantitative, reproducible workflows to link species composition to drivers such as forest development, land use, and environmental change. His recent collaborations include work on near-natural spruce forests, examining how forest age helps explain variation in species composition and what that means for interpreting ecological condition. Lewis also contributes to research on “dark diversity” — the species that could occur at a site but are currently absent — and has highlighted how integrating dark diversity into conservation and land-use planning can help identify habitats with restoration potential and hidden biodiversity loss. He has engaged with methodological innovation in ecology, including work on improving species-pool estimates and developing FAIR approaches for sharing long-term ecological data. At NINA, he works in interdisciplinary teams and communicates results to practitioners and policymakers, from mapping vegetation change to designing open-data tools that strengthen biodiversity monitoring nationally, helping turn ecological evidence into actionable guidance for management and restoration.

Alinta Krauth (PhD) is a new media artist and artistic researcher interested in digitally innovative connections between machine learning, animal intelligences, and interfaces. Her work often looks at topics related to interspecies relations and collaborations, including the creation of interactive artistic devices as a response to more-than-human agency, and the building of interactive and wearable devices for use by other species. More recently, she works to implement machine learning in practices such as digital art, digital storytelling, and immersive digital experiences. Her outcomes include award-winning innovations in the fields of digital art, digital poetics, and creative Artificial Intelligence, including commissions for OpenAI, partnerships with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) to use their Data in AI models, fellowships with Leonardo ISAST/The Institute for Science and the Imagination, and shortlistings with Ars Electronica/S+T+Arts Prize. Her artworks have been seen at spaces such as large screens in Times Square for ZAZ10st Gallery NY (USA), The MCA (Australia), Science Gallery Detroit (USA), The Glucksman Gallery (Ireland), HOTA (Australia), GentleMonster (South Korea), Art Laboratory Berlin (Germany), and many more. See more at www.alintakrauth.com

SPONSORS

LASER Bergen largely operates under the pressing themes of 'Posthuman Communication', 'Narratives of Interspecies Care', 'Animals and AI', 'Animal-Computer Interactions' and 'Climate Storytelling' - each contributing to an overall theme of SciArt Interventions for Ecological Survival. We provide panel talks and artistic engagements that discuss emergent epistemologies and technologies for communication, narratives, meaning-building, and the potential roles played by artists and storytellers in multispecies futures.

The Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) is a Norwegian Centre of Excellence at the University of Bergen, funded by the Research Council of Norway for 2023–2033 to establish a new, interdisciplinary field focused on digital storytelling. Working across arts, humanities, media studies, game studies, and informatics, CDN explores how narratives shaped by computation such as electronic literature, interactive games, social-media conspiracies, and AI-generated stories are transforming culture. The center operates through six research nodes and organizes rich academic activities including exhibitions and podcasts. In particular, the LASERs will be hosted by the CDN's Artistic

Integrated Research node: The Artistic Integrated Research node serves as a vital experimental hub where digital technologies are leveraged to create, interpret, and contextualize digital narratives. AIR champions groundbreaking artistic research that
materializes in digital art, creative writing, interactive installations, and site-specific works, often showcased in galleries, libraries, and museums to engage diverse cultural
audiences.

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 60 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks