Hilevaara, Katja. 2023. The Finch Girl Project. [Digital]

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Abstract or Description

At the centre of this interdisciplinary research project is an unusual archaeological find dating to 17th century Poland. The skeleton of a young girl was discovered in a limestone cave, and a tiny skull of a chaffinch was found in her mouth. Scientific methods traced the girl’s origin to Finland; testified by her DNA and historical writings depicting Finnish soldiers and their families in that Polish region at the time of the burial. Finnish folklore and its close relationship with forests was used as evidence that could feasibly explain the idea of a ‘soul bird’ being placed in her mouth. However, the results were inconclusive, and this unique burial remains elusive. The purpose of this project is to bring together a team of artists and scientists to work together with the aim to discover more about the story. Scientists base the construction of a narrative on the most probable evidence, pieced together from a range of verified sources. Artists, it could be argued, employ imagination and speculation, and invent in the gaps where evidence might not be found. The project sets out to explore how might these different approaches to storytelling mutually benefit each other. We ask, how might we imagine other possibilities and uncover further so-called scientific data through conversation and creative exploration? How might the narrative uncovered so far be filled-out and re-told? The evidence questioned and verified in new ways? This beguiling story evokes questions about the mystery itself, but it also opens an enquiry about what this story might mean beyond its specific circumstances. In the context of the ecological crisis we face, might we think about the relationship between the girl and the finch as an example of the kind of biopolitical symbiosis we should strive for? How might local folklore and mythology shed light on the mystery of the burial and suggest new ways of thinking beyond the Anthropocene? What might the Finch Girl tell us about other ways of inhabiting the earth and coexisting with the environment?

These questions frame this interdisciplinary research project, which proposes to bring together artists and scientists, each of whom will be tasked to respond to this unique find drawing on their own specialism, as well as collaborating throughout the project. Given the ‘site of mystery’ at the centre of this case – the girl’s mouth – the project begins with foregrounding conversation (with reference to voice, vocality, speech, song, sound, ethno-musicality) as a methodology. Centring the girl and the finch as the location at which the team assembles and engages in open conversation across disciplines, rehearses Isabelle Stengers’ ‘ecology of practice’, which foregrounds a continuous ‘process of learning’ and an ‘act of creative resistance’ challenging disciplinary borders (2005). The conversations and exchanges sharing forensic and speculative working methods and research outcomes will attempt to meaningfully bring together different disciplinary perspectives with a hope that not only will scientists and artists learn from each other, but that scientific and artistic methods converge, and new methods emerge from the process that may in turn be beneficial for others, particularly in the fields of archaeology, art and ecology.

Item Type:	Digital
Additional Information:	Goldsmiths QR funding enabled a research trip to Poland (May-June 2023) to meet with the archaeologist Dr Malgorzata Kot, and to visit the site of the burial. The outcomes of this visit: Dr Kot agreed to be part of the interdsicplinary research project and Hilevaara made a promotional video detailing the trip, which is published on the website. The Finch Girl website was created to support a funding application (Kone, Finland) in September 2023, which was unsuccessful. Hilevaara is currently putting together a funding bid for AHRC Catalyst Award, to be submitted at the end of April 2024.
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Theatre and Performance (TAP)
Date:	July 2023
Item ID:	35881
Date Deposited:	15 Apr 2024 14:21
Last Modified:	15 Apr 2024 14:21
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35881

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