“Our Petrochemical Lives: Encounters with art, archive, and climate change” was the latest event in a burgeoning collaboration between the Centre for Energy Ethics (CEE) and the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) at the University of Dundee. Led by Gair Dunlop in collaboration with Sean Field, and coordinated by Paul Conlan, this encounter featured award-winning filmmakers Miranda Pennell and Emily Munro who discussed their films Living Proof and The Host.
Living Proof features archive footage from the National Library of Scotland and evocatively portrays a country shaped by demands for energy and economic growth. The Host draws on Pennell’s memory of living in Iran with her family and material from BP’s visual archive documenting the company’s origins in Iran.
Spanning two days, on Wednesday 21 February the filmmakers discussed their films with an audience of students and staff at the University of Dundee’s D’Arcy Thomson lecture theatre. On Thursday 22 February, they were joined by CEE researchers and members of DJCAD for a knowledge exchange engagement aimed at forging new creative collaborations and advancing the interdisciplinary and cross-institutional partnership between the CEE and DJCAD.
