Image: Courtesy of Phoebe McBride
‘Living with Energy Transition’ starts from the dispute around a proposed energy transition zone (ETZ) to be located on the semi-industrial periphery of Aberdeen, Europe’s self-declared oil and gas capital. The ETZ will include a significant part of St. Fittick’s Park, which constitutes an important local biodiversity and green space for the neighbouring community of Torry.
Through a series of artist-led soundwalks we explore the impact of successive and overlapping energy regimes on this area, and the different more-than-human relationalities that crisscross it. We ask how industrial and other changes in the area are sensed and known, and the sonic distress that comes with the recent ETZ development. The project builds on qualitative research and ongoing collaboration with Friends of St.Fittick’s Park, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The project forefronts the role that arts practice can play in the unfolding energy transition, inviting different ways of knowing, being, and retraining our senses to explore how the impacts of overlapping energy systems are felt and lived.
– LIVING WITH ENERGY TRANSITION, November 2023 presentation