Dounreay Experimental Reactor Establishment, on the northern shore of Scotland, embodies many of the contradictions and lost possibilities of the Atomic Age.
Following initial introductions, and the award of a major grant from the now-departed Scottish Arts Council, I have been granted unprecedented access to the site, to former and current members of staff at all levels,and the nuclear visual archive at Harwell.
Filming is now well under way; the goal is to produce a multiscreen installation piece which links the past and present of the site, the district, and of our on/off relationship with the atom.
Thurso is an interesting place; its size and expansion during the site's heyday means that the idea of the modern associated with the plant is still key to its sense of self. (a housing estate built in the early 1960s is still known as "the Atomics").
Interviews with people featured in early documentaries on the town reveal unexpected resonances, as interviewees recognise themselves and others across a gap of fifty years.
Analogue engineering in the grand style, a sense of scientific adventure, an element of secrecy and a need to make the Dounreay project the catalyst for a rebirth of Caithness county all find their echoes in the archive and in the present.
Short sequences from the project as it develops will be posted soon.
Background
'You're always looking to get inside test sites', said an interested observer a couple of years ago.
This is true; whether the nature of the tests are scientific, cultural, architectural, utopian or plain strange, I want to find out how visual thinking helps us navigate the post-20th century.
Some environmentalists who cut their teeth on anti-nuclear campaigning are reconsidering their positions in the light of global warming. Nuclear power is being invoked by some as the “least worst” option; decisions made now about disposal will have a crucial effect on both the regional economy and on the potential for public acceptance of new nuclear power plans.
