Arctic cool. Icehotel and the branding of nature

Responsible organisation

2009 (English)In: Cold Matters. Cultural perceptions of snow, ice and cold / [ed] Hansso, Heidi; Norberg, Catherine, Umeå: Umeå Univ. and the Royal Skyttean Society , 2009, , p. 223-244Chapter in book (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

The Icehotel Company in Jukkasjärvi has succeeded in refining snow, ice, and coldness by turning Nature and the natural landscape into a commercial concept. During the 1990s, the icehotel has gradually become a cool stage for other companies who use the environment as a marketing tool for events, product placements, and advertisements. The frozen water from the Torne River was converted into an arty technology for packaging newness. The Arctic became a cool thing. It was an aesthetic as well as an emotional appropriation of the ice-material in a new and trendy context. The author of this article uses the notion of “Arctic Cool” to describe this creative and reflexive attitude towards the ice-material. Furthermore, the Icehotel Company largely capitalises on the notional of authenticity. The believed intrinsic genuineness of the glacial water is the common denominator for the business. The imaginary world of ice corresponds to a geographically stratified symbolism where the regional symbols can also be transmitted to a national level. One could speak about a “culturalisation” of the natural landscape where the elements of nature do not essentially stand for themselves, but are ascribed values within the scope of their materiality.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

Umeå: Umeå Univ. and the Royal Skyttean Society , 2009. , p. 223-244

Keywords [en]

Absolut Icebar, branding, experience economy, Icehotel, Jukkasjärvi, Lapland, Swden, visual cultural studies

Identifiers

URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-1552ISBN: 978-91-88466-70-9 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-1552DiVA, id: diva2:569690

Note

Source: Polardok by Swedish Polar Research Secretariat

Available from: 2012-11-15 Created: 2012-11-15 Last updated: 2012-11-15

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