I just signed a petition calling for Norwegian universities to use research expertise on AI when deciding how to implement it, rather than having decisions be made mostly administratively. , If you are a researcher in Norway, please read it and sign it if you agree – and share with anyone else who might be interested. The petition was written by three researchers at UiT: Maria Danielsen (a philosopher who completed her PhD in 2025 on AI and ethics, including discussions of art and working life), Knut Ørke (Norwegian as a second language), and Holger Pötzsch (a professor of media studies with many years of research on digital media, video games, disruption, and working life, among other topics). This is not about preventing researchers from exploring AI methods in their research. It is about not uncritically accepting the hype that everyone must use AI everywhere without critical reflection. It is about not introducing Copilot as the default option in word processors, or training PhD candidates to believe they will fall behind if they do not use AI when writing articles, without proper academic discussion. Changes like these should be knowledge-based and discussed academically, not merely decided administratively, because they alter the epistemological foundations of research. Maria wrote to me a couple of months ago because she had read my opinion piece in Aftenposten in which I called for a strong brake on the use of language models in knowledge work. She was part of a committee tasked with developing UiT’s AI strategy and was concerned because there was so much hype and so few members of the committee with actual expertise in AI. I fully support the petition. There are probably some good uses for AI in research, but the uncritical, hype-driven insistence that we must simply adopt it everywhere is highly risky. There are many researchers in Norway with strong expertise in AI, language, ethics, working life, and culture. We must make use of this expertise. This is also partly about respect for research in the humanities, social sciences, psychology, and law. Introducing AI at universities and university colleges is not merely a technical issue, and perhaps not even primarily a technical one. It concerns much more: philosophy of science, methodological reflection, epistemology, writing, publishing, the working environment, and more. […]
Doesn’t this look wonderful? It’s from Christian Yde Frostholm’s 1998 project Permanent poesi. Writing poetry in light seems like a good idea for dark countries. I still want to play with something like Lazano-Hammer’s Two Origins
Marina
Oh that’s a great idea! In Turin they do something similar for celebrating Christmas: insthead of lightening up the city with the usual christmas lights, they give the chance to artists to put artistic lights. And that’s the result: http://www.torinoartecontemporanea.it/luci-artista/
Well…that’s in italian but you can look at the photos of the installations, which are wonderful.
S¯ren Pold
It actually took place on a Summer evening by the sea just outside Aarhus some years back, where it wasn’t really dark, but only dusk. A great evening with poetry readings by the water and this light stuff, that really looked great. It was a still night, and Pia Juul, another Danish poet, who are not especially romantic, read a poem by the water, where she read something about the waves rolling in. The water was totally still, but just after her reading this, a wave actually came in and made her feet wet. It was a wave from an express ferry coming in, so it was quite magical, and she and the audience with her were totally astonished, even though the situation was also kind of ironic and tacky. Great evening!