The first public workshop for the TRANSECTS project was held in Stromness, Orkney, last week.
Sixteen Orkney-based arts and heritage practitioners, along with seven members of the project team, were invited to explore creative practice and energy transitions and what this means for Orkney past and present.
A team from the UHI Archaeology Institute led the workshop, which forms part of the UKRI-funded TRANSECTS project, running until 2028. Together with partner universities, the project is exploring marine energy transitions of whale oil, oil and gas and renewables, what benefits these have brought and whether this has been fair and just.
The workshop was a chance to start the process of working with creative practitioners to develop creative methods to explore these topics in new ways. After talks about energy transitions in Orkney, the group had small-table discussions and creative activities, including collage.
The UHI team, Dr Antonia Thomas, Dan Lee, Anne Bevan and Dr Jen Harland, with Prof David Atkinson of the University of Hull, are using heritage and creative approaches to enable coastal communities to express their experiences of energy transitions and supporting ways to better plan for the future.
This will include gathering key energy transition stories from islanders. Additional public workshops will be held in the three case study areas: East Coast Scotland, The Humber Estuary and Orkney, over the coming months.
Dr Antonia Thomas said: “This was, in fact, the first public workshop for the whole TRANSECTS project and we are really pleased to hold this in Orkney and get things started. It’s a long project and this begins the important process of working with artists locally to help us explore the important issues around the energy transitions that coastal communities face”.
If you are interested in the project, or have an energy story to tell, please contact the UHI project team.
