ATOM TOWN: LIFE AFTER TECHNOLOGY (2011) → A film by Gair Dunlop
Artist Gair Dunlop had unprecedented access to the Dounreay Atomic Research Establishment and to the UKAEA Archive at Harwell over two years, allowing him to explore the dream and the consequences of high science in a remote community.
The result is a twin-screen film installation, its subject is the dread, romance and fascination of one of the Atomic Ages’ boldest experiments: the fast reactor site at Dounreay, now to be screened in Edinburgh, Caithness and London
Gair said:-“Dounreay Atomic Research Establishment is a sprawling monument to solidity, optimism and analogue engineering. The intangible alchemies and sense of romantic science at its heart are trapped like amber in archive film and in its colossal structures.
The combination of the site as seen and interpreted then with its counterpart today enables us to re-imagine the idea of progress.”
This film has been made possible by a Creative Scotland investment and also by support from the Research Department at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.
Amanda Catto, Portfolio Manager for International, Cultural Export and Visual Arts, Creative Scotland, said;
‘Our investment has given Gair an opportunity to stretch his creative practice and allow him to work within a different setting. Gair is a talented artist with a national and international profile having previously been nominated for a BAFTA for his work with Dan Norton on ‘The Tomorrows Project’. This is a fascinating project and we look forward to seeing the results of his work when his exhibition opens at the end of May.’
The film will be shown on Saturday 28 May 2-8pm: nspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB
