Forests have always been a realm of ongoing change. However, the question remains what is our idea of the forest beyond the demands for its protection and apart from its use as natural resource in the Baltic Sea Region? To what extent do images, narratives, practices, discourses, and economic requirements create powerful trajectories that promote or socially antagonize (the recent) human-made changes in forest landscapes? Thus, the panel is devoted to the intersection of art, music, history, and ecology in the construction of meaning, identity, interactions, and imagination of the forest. We aim to examine changes of perceptions and imaginations of the forest int he Baltic Sea Region through the centuries fostered by various practices, narratives, and discourses. We, therefore, ask, what is the impact of long-lasting national topoi, concepts of territory, and also diverse notions of wilderness on our perception and imagination of forest landscapes today? In how far does it interfere with concepts of post-colonialism and post-growth that evokes new meanings and changes?

Wiebke Staasmeyer (University Heidelberg)

Forest and Wilderness as Musical Constructions of Home in the Grand Duchy of Finland

Giedre Mickunaite (Academy of Arts, Vilnius)

Into the woods: cases of being with the forest in Lithuanian culture

Karin Reichenbach (GWZO, Lepzig)

Children of the Forest. Conceptions of Forest and Rurality in Ethnic Neopagan Identity Discourse

Sebastian van der Linden (University of Greifswald)

Imaging Forests from Space – a Bird View Perspective on Forest Landscapes