Thinking Place
A Creative Exploration of Coastal Erosion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.32394Keywords:
art, Orkney, Sanday, coastal erosion, climate change, sustainabilityAbstract
Wilder Being was a participatory art and archaeology project that aimed to set an understanding of coastal erosion of archaeological heritage within wider contexts of climate change and sustainability. Sub-titled Creation and destruction in the littoral zone, Wilder Being took place at an archaeological site on the shores of the island of Sanday in Orkney. Our place-based event explored, using art and archaeology techniques and narrative, this site of coastal erosion as a creative resource. The interdisciplinary collaboration highlighted the connectivity between arts, humanities and sciences as it highlighted the blurring of lines between land and sea, culture and nature. In this paper we reflect on the context and outcomes of Wilder Being project, how it has contributed to the dialogue around participatory and relational approaches to archaeology, and how we might re-think sites threatened by coastal erosion sites as sites for creative dialogue.
References
Bevan, A. and J. Downes. 2017. “Wilder Being: Destruction and Creation in the Littoral Zone.” In Relate North: Culture, Community and Communication, edited by T. Jokela and G. Coutts. Rovaniemi, Finland: Lapland University Press. Available online: https://verkkokauppa.juvenes.fi/tuote/24385/relate-north-culture-community-and-communication
Brown, G. M. 1994. Beside the Ocean of Time. London: John Murray.
Dockrill, S. J. and J. M. Bond. 2014. “The Prehistoric Village of Old Scatness: A Research Study in Longevity, Ecodynamics, and Interactions.” In Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic: A Collaborative Model of Humans and Nature Through Space and Time, edited by R. Harrison and R. A. Maher, 35–54. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
Fowler, C. 2013. The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Bronze Age Mortuary Practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199656370.001.0001
Fréger, C. 2012. Wilder Mann: The Image of the Savage. Heaton Moor, UK: Dewi Lewis.
Gibson, J. 2008. Rising Tides: The Loss of Coastal Heritage in Orkney. Lerwick: Shetland Times.
Gibson, J. 2014. “Shaped by the Sea: The Endangered Archaeology of Orkney’s Maritime Communities.” In Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic: A Collaborative Model of Humans and Nature Through Space and Time, edited by R. Harrison and R. A. Maher, 21–34. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
Helguera, P. 2011. Education for Socially Engaged Art. New York: Jorge Pinto Books.
Hodder, I. 2012. Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118241912
Hunter, J. R. 2007. Investigations in Sanday, Orkney Volume 1: Excavations at Pool, Sanday - A Multi-period Settlement from Neolithic to Late Norse Times. Kirkwall, UK: Orcadian.
____. and S. J. Dockrill. 1982. “Some Norse sites on Sanday.” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 112: 570–576.
Ingold, T. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London and New York: Routledge.
Irvine, R. D. G. 2014. “Deep Time: An Anthropological Problem.” Social Anthropology 22 (2): 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12067
MOLA. 2014. “CITiZAN: Costal and Intertidal Archaeological Network.” Available online: http://www.mola.org.uk/citizan-coastal-and-intertidal-zone-archaeological-network
Orkneyjar. n.d. “The Nuckelavee – Devil o’ the Sea.” Available online: http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/nuckle.htm
SCAPE. 2016. “Shorewatch.” Available online: http://www.scapetrust.org/html/shorewatch.html
Shanks, M. 2007. “Symmetrical Archaeology.” World Archaeology 39 (4): 589–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240701679676
Thomas, A. 2014. “Creating Contexts: Between Archaeological Site and Art Gallery.” In Art and Archaeology: Collaborations, Conversations, Criticisms, edited by A. Cochrane and I. A. Russell, 141–155. New York: Springer-Kluwer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8990-0_11
