The Ministry of Mythology is a specialist research facility situated in the now defunct Valhalla Oil Field located in Norwegian Waters at the centre of the North Sea. Funded by the Norwegian Government, The Ministry of Mythology aims to preserve the cultural identity of the North Sea Area as the landscape is irreversibly changed by impending sea level rise. To preserve the shared cultural identity, the Ministry of Mythology will identify, document, preserve and re-create the mythological stories of the area’s past. These myths are at risk of being lost as their original location is reclaimed by the rising sea.
Within the Ministry of Mythology the entire mythology of the North Sea is researched using a combination of historical data and artificial intelligence to predict where new myths will occur, allowing the Ministry to preserve the myth before it’s at risk.
Once identified, these myths are extensively documented with the aim to digitally preserve the entire context of the myth. The data is stored internally in the Ministry of Mythology’s data centre and is presented to the general public via the Ministry of Mythology’s website. The myth locations themselves are physically marked with a Myth Marker, allowing the location itself to be remembered. These markers include acoustic elements creating a siren call for the myth and transmit a WiFi signal allowing visitors to connect to the Ministry of Mythology’s Website to learn further about the Myth.
The final part of the Ministry of Mythology is the re-creation of myths. Within the Ministry, the re-creation chamber allows for all the data collected previously to be synthesized into an experiential event that can then be exhibited through art galleries in the North Sea Area.
