51cg

Elphinstone Institute

Listening to North Sea Coastal Communities in Transition

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Listening to

North Sea Coastal Communities in Transition

Documenting ecocultural heritage between Aberdeen and Shetland.

Contact Dr Rebecca Macklin
Listening to North Sea Coastal Communities in Transition

Project overview

How are intersecting environmental and energy transitions reshaping ecocultural heritage in North Sea coastal communities?

Children running around on a grassy hillFocusing on the contexts of Yell (Shetland) and Torry (Aberdeen), this transdisciplinary project examines how climate change, renewable energy development, and industrial expansion transform multispecies environments, cultural practices, and lived experiences.

Through a focus on sound and the sensory experiences of transitions, the project aims to facilitate exchange between community groups and generate new insights into the ecocultural impacts of transitions. By amplifying local voices and centring multispecies relationships, it aims to support and strengthen community-driven approaches to ecocultural heritage preservation.

The project is a new collaboration between researchers at the 51cg and the Elphinstone Institute, working with local partners and (NYDC). It builds on the successful 2025 project ‘Just Reverberations’, led by Dr Macklin and Dr Whitehouse in collaboration with Greyhope Bay. Funded by the 51cg, this pilot project worked with community members to produce a set of field recordings for preservation in the Elphinstone Institute.

Funding

Listening to North Sea Coastal Communities in Transition is funded by the ’s 'Small Grants Fund' and will run from February – November 2026.

Project news

Sonic postcard workshops

Photograph of a woman holding a microphone

A sonic postcard is an audio snapshot of a place. Like a postcard, it can convey information about a specific place in time. From the hum of industrial machinery to the call of an arctic tern, sound is deeply tied to place. The sounds of coastlines shape our memories, reflect the health of local ecosystems, and connect us to generations past and future. By tuning into a soundscape, we can explore how an area has changed over time and imagine how it may continue to evolve.

Between May-September 2026, we are holding community arts workshops in Yell and Torry to make recordings of day-to-day sounds. We will use these recordings to create sonic postcards of places that hold significance for the local community, such as the Torry Battery and St Fittick's Park, in Aberdeen, and Cullivoe Pier and the Gloup Fisherman's Memorial in Shetland.

Project team

Photograph of Dr Rebecca Macklin
Dr Rebecca Macklin

Interdisciplinary Fellow in Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity at the 51cg
Photograph of Dr Andrew Whitehouse
Dr Andrew Whitehouse

Lecturer in Environmental Anthropology at the 51cg
Photograph of Nicolas Le Bigre
Nicolas Le Bigre

Lecturer and Archivist at the Elphinstone Institute
Photograph of Professor Roxane Permar
Professor Roxane Permar

Professor in Art and Social Practice, University of Highlands and Islands

Partners

Project photographs by Rosie Baillie, Syabil Azri Arian, and Rebecca Macklin