Lyth Arts Centre (LAC) is partnering with the University of Manchester on Mimesis in Action: Nuclear Decommissioning as Conceptual Playground for Societal and Ecological Future-Making, a research project led by Dr Petra Tjitske Kalshoven and funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.
The project explores how communities imagine and plan for ecological and societal futures in places connected to nuclear decommissioning. Caithness, home to the Dounreay nuclear site, is one of four case-study regions across the UK and Europe.
The University of Manchester’s Mimesis in Action project is particularly interested in how people imagine potential futures; both human and more-than-human. Through ethnographic fieldwork, local workshops, and exhibitions, the research explores the stories that animate places like Caithness and how these narratives reflect the hopes, fears, and assumptions that shape how communities plan for and care for future living environments connected to nuclear sites.
We’re looking for a Caithness-based artist to create new work that will respond to the research and how local landscapes, stories and ecologies shape our ideas of time, preservation and regeneration.
The commission will form part of a wider public programme including workshops, an exhibition and a symposium at Lyth Arts Centre in March 2026.
For more information, you can download the full call out here
How to Apply
Please send:
Please send applications to info@lytharts.org.uk by midnight on Sunday 7 December 2025
Please use the subject line: Mimesis in Action Artist Call – Your Name
We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. If you would prefer to apply in another format (e.g. audio or video), or have any access requirements please get in touch at info@lytharts.org.uk
Further Information
More on the research project: www.mimesis-in-action.org
More on Lyth Arts Centre: www.lytharts.org.uk
