Catalogue > At random

Gair Dunlop

Atom Town: life after technology

Doc. expérimental | | couleur et n&b | 22:7 | Royaume-Uni | 2011

A twin screen film installation, its subject is the dread, romance and fascination of one of the Atomic Ages? boldest experiments: the fast reactor site at Dounreay. A single screen version can also be made available. Dounreay Atomic Research Establishment is a sprawling monument to solidity, optimism and analogue engineering. The intangible alchemies and sense of romantic science at its heart are trapped like amber in archive film and in its colossal structures. Over the last two years, unprecedented access to the facility and to the UKAEA Archive at Harwell have allowed Gair Dunlop to explore the dream and the consequences of high science in a remote community. The combination of the site in archive film with its counterpart today enables us to re-imagine the idea of progress. This film has been supported by a Creative Scotland Artists Film and Video Award., and also by support from the Research Department at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.

Gair Dunlop makes artworks which investigate entropic Modernism: previous works have explored the New Town, the military airfield, the film archive and the idea of progress. He is interested in combining elements of site-specific practice with digital technologies. Sometimes collaborating with Dan Norton (Ablab), the works investigate and play with different eras of discovery and propaganda. Modernism is seen as something lived in and active, not pristine or idealised. Archive, contemporary, and absurdist visions of technology and progress are collided and explored. Forms vary, but have included online interactive works, digital film, site specific installations, photographic series and signage. He has a degree in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London, and an MSc in Electronic Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. He is currently an artist/researcher in Art and Media at DJCAD. Artists website: www.gairspace.org.uk Entropic Modern Blog: http://entropicmodern.blogspot.com/ Contact: gairmail@gmail.com An online eBook portfolio can be seen at http://bkltr.it/qLE25R