Skogsparlamentet / Council of Forest

Presentation & Prototype Launch

Council of Forest – Project Presentation
June 2nd, 18:00 CEST
Online & at Transit, Telefonplan (Stockholm)

What would an ancient pine say about deforestation? How would fishes react to a hydropower plant? Can AI embody the wisdom of a river, a tree, or a reindeer herd?

Join us for the presentation of Council of Forest, a new digital artwork by Nonhuman Nonsense in collaboration with the Vindelälven-Juhttátahkka Biosphere Reserve, developed within the framework of Framtidsprototyper för en hållbar skogsvärdekedja, a project funded by Vinnova.

Through AI, nonhuman entities—trees, fungi, rivers, and animals—gather to deliberate the fate of their shared home. Their voices are shaped by a mix of knowledge systems, including traditional and Indigenous worldviews, ecological science, and data. They are drawn from interviews and conversations with people living in and caring for the Vindelälven biosphere area—reindeer herders, forest owners, rewilding organizations, pollinator experts, and cultural workers—each with a deep connection to the land.

The event will include a short film from a research journey through the biosphere reserve and a live demonstration of the web-prototype Council of Forest.

Council of Forest functions as an forum where the forest’s inhabitants consider the impact of human activities like logging, rewilding, and climate shifts. Humans are invited to listen, ask questions, and reflect. Each session concludes with a collective statement and a policy recommendation made by the forest.

An experiment in ecological thinking and speculative design—exploring how technology can mediate between humans and the more-than-human world. What does it mean to act in the forest’s best interest? Whose knowledge counts? And what happens when we take nonhuman voices seriously?

Thanks to Gundega Strauberga (visualisation), Johannes Rydinger (film) andAlbin Karlsson (Programming)!