“What is the project about?
The shift to marine renewable energies will transform the sustainability and resilience of coastal communities and adjacent seas. History tells us that previous energy transitions brought profound environmental and social change for coastal communities. TRANSECTS is investigating past experiences of these energy transitions to inform how we navigate the current energy transition to renewable energy. We will explore three marine energy sources:
- Whale oil (1800 to 1900s)
- Oil and gas (1960s to present)
- Renewable energy (early-2000s to present)
The TRANSECTS team will assess the raw energy sources and examine how nearby communities have been affected during transitions. We will investigate the fairness and equity of decisions made. The project aims to develop strategies with coastal communities for more resilient futures.
Arts, Heritage and Archaeology:
Working with Hull artist Lauren Saunders, we are using arts and humanities methods to explore how communities understand and interpret the changes caused by energy transitions, using creative, heritage, archaeology and place-based approaches.
Activities in The Humber 2026:
We will be hosting a number of events in and around Hull City Centre in autumn 2026. Please check back for details of events when they become available!
Do you have stories about these energy industries? What changes have you seen? What is the impact in your area? What have the challenges been? What has gone well, what less well? How can we learn from the past to help inform our shift to marine renewable energy now?
Working with embedded artist Lauren Saunders we will use creative activities to explore past and present experiences of marine energy transitions in The Humber region with a series of events.
Find out more about the project on our website: https://archaeologyorkney.com/transects/
Humber Embedded artist: Lauren Saunders
Lauren is a Hull-based interdisciplinary visual artist, researcher and producer, working dynamically across visual art, writing and community practice. Her work spans visual, participatory, and site-responsive approaches to storytelling, environment, heritage and lived experience, integrating drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, creative writing, performance, audio-visual, digital media and participation.
Taking a practice-based, participatory and action-research approach, she is interested in how creativity and ethical ‘more-than-human creative collaborations’ can support transformative modes of nature kinship and relationality within communities, motivating them towards place-based climate action, ecology and regenerative futures.
Lauren has over a decade of experience co-creating meaningful creative projects and extensive experience working in collaborative and community-facing contexts, particularly through coastal heritage and nature-based projects in Hull, where accessible audience interaction, responsiveness and emotional connection are central to meaningful engagement.
The TRANSECTS project activity is being run by a team from the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Archaeology Institute based at UHI Orkney. The TRANSECTS project is led by Herriot-Watt University (PI Prof Karen Alexander) in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, University of Hull, University of Strathclyde and Daryl Burdon Ltd.
The project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
The project will run from April 2024 – April 2028
Who we are:
This information sheet is for project activity being run by the team from the University of the UHI Archaeology Institute, UHI Orkney, with David Atkinson of the University of Hull.
UHI team: Dr Antonia Thomas (lead), Anne Bevan, Dr Jennifer Harland, Dan Lee with Prof David Atkinson (University of Hull).
Main UHI team contact: Dan Lee (Research Associate)
For more information on the project or to find out how to take part contact: Transects.Orkney@uhi.ac.uk
