works in progress
energy fields
my current project, Energy Fields brings the elemental and industrial forces of Chile’s Atacama Desert into view. In this intensely dry, solar-charged landscape, lithium and copper extraction intersect with the expanding infrastructures of renewable energy. Developed during a seven-week residency, the work uses frottage, cyanotype chemistry and field observation to register the desert’s surfaces, atmosphere and energies. Sunlight becomes both subject and material, exposing the visible and invisible systems that shape place and human experience.
Research in the Atacama has brought these concerns into sharper focus, connecting renewable-energy technologies to particular landscapes, materials and environmental pressures. This is an urgent moment as the transition to renewable energy is accelerating, yet its material and ecological consequences remain largely unseen. Lithium, copper, solar irradiance and extraction are not abstract subjects; they are inseparable from places, communities and fragile ecosystems.
ThroughEnergy Fields, I seek to create work that makes visible the interdependence of ecological systems, material extraction and human experience. The project offers audiences a reflective space in which to consider the hidden forces that shape contemporary life, and to engage more critically with the environmental responsibilities embedded in the transition to renewable energy.
The methods I use embody the project’s concerns: frottage registers direct contact with surface and place, while cyanotype fixes sunlight within the work, making energy, materiality and environmental force integral to both its process and meaning.
I will be disseminating this research at LAND2 Field Station: Place updated exhibition and symposium in the School of Design, University of Leeds in Nov/ Dec 2026. I will also deliver a talk and creative engagement workshop at Energy Transitions: Northeast Scotland and Alberta Visualised through a Humanistic-Artistic Lens, a two-day transdisciplinary event at the Northeast Scotland and Alberta Visualised through a Humanistic-Artistic Lens, Aberdeen University (19-20 Feb 2027) .