Imagine a dirigible, an airship, powered by the Moon, and filled with air warmed by the ashes of people’s data. Moonflyer. We, the island few, the frustrated, and the often forgotten by centralised government, can make this happen, if you let us. You are an EU Agency, tasked with making a difficult decision for this island’s energy future. You will hear the argument and you will be asked to make a choice, you choose how this story will end. This part performance, part speculative fabulation, is inspired by the last four years of my ethnographic collaboration to build an integrated renewable energy system in the islands of Orkney, Scotland. Choose your own energy future adventure.
Laura Watts is an ethnographer of futures and Professor in Energy & Society at University of Edinburgh, whose research explores the effect of 'edge' landscapes on how the future is imagined and made, as well as methods for writing futures otherwise. As a Science & Technology Studies (STS) scholar she has collaborated on energy futures for the past decade in the Orkney islands, Scotland. Her latest book Energy at the End of the World: an Orkney Islands Saga (MIT Press) won the 4S Rachel Carson Prize, was Shortlisted for the Saltire Research Book of the Year, and Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize. In 2017 she won the International Cultural Innovation Prize with the Reconstrained Design Group for a community-built energy storage device designed from scrap parts. More on her research at www.sand14.com.