Stories in Wave and Stone
Orkney, an archipelago north of mainland Scotland, has long been a powerful place of connection between future and past. Its seas are recognised as among the richest potential sources of marine power in the world, and test sites have been created in recent years for prototype wave and tidal energy devices. But the islands are also home to other economic and cultural activities, from farming and fishing to North Sea oil and tourism, and the environment has for millennia provided substance for livelihoods, and material for narratives of all kinds. The sea-bed has now been leased for commercial generation of marine energy, and the contemporary relevance of many of these long-standing stories, and the ways of life they describe, is now also being tested. As it tries to understand and engage with these new demands and opportunities, Orkney has become one of the first communities in the world to have to find common ground between its existing stories, and these future narratives.
Billia Croo (from Old Norse krókr, a yard or enclosure) is a shoreline on the Atlantic coast of mainland Orkney, and test site for the European Marine Energy Centre, a world focus for renewable energy. Ten years ago it was a good beach to gather driftwood; a quiet, beautiful place, and layered with its own history. Now the power of those waves is being harvested for electricity, and its narrow road rumbles and bulges with traffic. Still, like the land and sea around, it remains many different places for the people who live, work or visit there, and also as a natural ecology. In important ways, it is a microcosm where narratives of past and future come together.
This session features performances and presentations by diverse Orkney researchers who live and work around Billia Croo, from archaeologists and anthropologists to storytellers and photographers. Each has a story to tell of this place, of its waves and stones. We hope to reflect the many versions of this remarkable seascape, to explore how past and future stories can be reformed at the new edge of an old land.
We look forward to sharing these stories with you.
Contact: Laura Watts lauw_AT_itu.dk