SOUNDINGS and SURROUNDINGS, Orkney 2025

The SOUNDINGS and SURROUNDINGS Group Residency took place in September 2025. It was designed around the relationships of ‘Air, Sea and Soil’, encompassing the remarkable natural environment of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Residents were welcomed to the remarkable, ancient Birsay area where the bespoke programme was centred.

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Please note that you can
APPLY NOW for 2026 Group Residency SOUNDINGS and SURROUNDINGS, Orkney Islands, Scotland
Sat 27 June – Sat 04 July 2026
/ 7 nights, 8 days
Application deadline Sun 01 March 2026
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The aim of the one week residency was to develop approaches to place that are experimental, inventive in their form, and that respond to place by paying attention to the intersections and collisions between art, culture, materiality, technologies and place. Together we investigated lost futures, intersectional histories, ecological and personal landscapes, experimental identities, ruin memory, trauma mapping, site recording, material and immaterial realms, deep time, marginalised communities and hidden lives.

The bespoke itinerary focussed on expanded approaches to discussion, presentation, making and sharing. Outdoor sessions introduced residents to the stunning natural landscape and world-class archaeology of Neolithic Orkney’s World Heritage Sites. Utilising individual practices, residents from diverse cultures and creative disciplines focussed on and shared a range of ways of responding to place through immersive, connected experience in site, land and weather.

Our fantastic residents were Lilia Bakanova (RUS), Pamela Lee Brenner (AUS), Saadia Hussain (PAK), Alyse Johnston (CAN), Sergei Kofman (CAN), Iris Mackenzie (ESP), Kelsey Moffitt (USA), Anne Riggs (AUS), Dan West (AUS) and Caro Wilson (CAN).

SOUNDINGS and SURROUNDINGS was lead by Tracy Mackenna, Artist and Curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal and Erasmus Mackenna, Stage Director, Lighting Designer and Sound Designer. Outstanding contributions to the programme in the form of presentations and site visits were given by Dr Amy Beeston (Sound Artist and Audio Researcher), Prof Mark Edmonds (Archaeologist) and Mark Jenkins (Filmmaker, Film Editor).