Mimesis interacts with art practice
Working with artists and art practitioners in research locales can be another form of ethnographic engagement yielding insights that enrich processes of inquiry. Artistic outputs and artworks can shed new light on research puzzles and invite audiences to reframe taken-for-granted perspectives on societal, technological, or ecological themes. For Mimesis in Action, exhibitions and artist-led events will be organized in March 2026 in La Hague and in Caithness.
In Caithness, our team has partnered with Lyth Arts Centre to commission an artist interested in taking up themes from our research on landscape experiences and imaginations of Caithnessian futures to create a series of artworks for display at the Centre. We were lucky to find local artist Jack Dunnett intrigued to take on the project. Below, Jack elaborates in words and images on his approach. To find out how his pieces look when the finishing touches have been applied, make sure to visit his exhibition, soon to be launched at Lyth Arts Centre.
Forward Thinking Through the Past - by Jack Dunnett
Over the past few weeks of the residency, my work has been slowly taking shape through conversations, archives, and a lot of looking backwards in order to think about what might come next for Caithness.
The paintings I’m making aren’t directly about Dounreay, but the closure and decommissioning of the site sits quietly underneath everything I’m thinking about. I’m interested in what this area might become in the future, and how its past continues to shape those possibilities.
A big part of the residency has been research. I spent time in the nuclear archives, where I was helped enormously by Jamie, who guided me through documents, photographs, and records connected to Dounreay. I looked at material relating to atomic housing, read minutes from meetings, and spent time with written opinions and sociological studies that captured how people felt about the site at different points in its history. What struck me was how much those attitudes shifted over time, and how closely identity, work, and place became tied together here.
Alongside the archival research, conversations have been just as important. I recently met with the poet and playwright George Gunn, whose perspective on growing up in Caithness during the establishment of Dounreay, and later during its decommissioning, added a huge amount of depth to my understanding. Hearing firsthand what it felt like to live through those changes was invaluable. Having read his play Atomic City, it was especially interesting to talk with him about the experiences and histories that fed into that work, and how those stories continue to resonate now.
I also spent time with artist Joanne B. Kaar, whose practice involves using seaweed to make prints. She shared an in-depth knowledge of specific local histories, including the ways plants have been used in the area, alongside a rich mix of anecdotal and statistical information. This was invaluable in helping to fuel my research and expand how I’m thinking about material, land, and history. She also offered practical advice around printmaking processes, which has been useful in thinking through material approaches alongside the conceptual side of the work.
I’ve also been speaking with people who worked at Dounreay in the past, as well as those who are still working there today. These conversations have ranged from memories of what the land and community were like before the site existed, to thoughts on what the future of this area could look like once its presence has fully receded.
All of this research is feeding into the paintings I’m developing during the residency. Rather than illustrating a specific narrative, I’ve been using these histories, voices, and impressions to think through time, land, and possibility here; how a place carries its past, and how that past might quietly inform what comes next.
I’m now at the stage of bringing the work together, making final decisions and finishing touches as the pieces begin to settle into their final form
