Digital Communities
Honorary Mention

Atomfa (and other stories)

Atomfa (and other stories) is a longterm, ongoing, iterative, interactive, and landscape based documentary that frames images, memory, and questions from the final days of a rural nuclear power station. From local mythologies and the promise of the atomic age to the space age. From the past, the present, and long into the future. Atomic power came to the mountains of rural north Wales over sixty years ago. Now the people of Trawsfynydd are dismantling the nuclear power station built and run by parents and grandparents, a job that won’t be completed in our lifetime. With unique access to archive material from the power station itself, the project is built on a co-creative process, in collaboration with the diverse communities that live around and work within the power station, to create new and future archives for the site. 

Atomfa (and other stories) is a longterm, ongoing, iterative, interactive, and landscape based documentary that frames images, memory, and questions from the final days of a rural nuclear power station. From local mythologies and the promise of the atomic age to the space age. From the past, the present, and long into the future. Atomic power came to the mountains of rural north Wales over sixty years ago. Now the people of Trawsfynydd are dismantling the nuclear power station built and run by parents and grandparents, a job that won’t be completed in our lifetime. With unique access to archive material from the power station itself, the project is built on a co-creative process, in collaboration with the diverse communities that live around and work within the power station, to create new and future archives for the site. 

joannamwright.com/home/index.php/portfolio-item/atomfa-and-other-stories

Collaborators & thanks to: Ysgol Bro Hedd Wyn, Naomi Jones, Trawsfynydd Site Stakeholders Group, Gwynedd Archives: Meirionnydd Record Office, Alex Ashcroft, Ed Edwards, Margaret Matheson, Isgoed Williams, Rory Trappe and all present and former staff and neighbours of Trawsfynydd power station who have contributed stories, images, ideas, and support. 

With support from: CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri, Ffilm Cymru Wales / BFI Horizons Fund, Arts Council Wales, iFLAB, MIT Open Documentary Lab & Co-Creation Studio, British Council Film, Arts Territory Exchange.  

Joanna Wright (GB) is a Welsh artist who works with photography, film, archives, and digital platforms, often working on long term collaborations with communities, collections, and scientists on projects that re-examine established narratives. Her work has been supported by The Space, Arts Council Wales, the British Film Institute, and Ffilm Cymru Wales and exhibited in Wales and internationally, including at Ceredigion Museum, Oriel Davies, the British Film Institute, Channel 4, BBC, The British Council, The Institute of Contemporary Art London, Seattle Film Festival, True/False Documentary Festival, and at the United Nations. She is a fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, USA and honorary senior research fellow at Bangor University, Wales. 

Joanna Wright (GB) is a Welsh artist who works with photography, film, archives, and digital platforms, often working on long term collaborations with communities, collections, and scientists on projects that re-examine established narratives. Her work has been supported by The Space, Arts Council Wales, the British Film Institute, and Ffilm Cymru Wales and exhibited in Wales and internationally, including at Ceredigion Museum, Oriel Davies, the British Film Institute, Channel 4, BBC, The British Council, The Institute of Contemporary Art London, Seattle Film Festival, True/False Documentary Festival, and at the United Nations. She is a fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, USA and honorary senior research fellow at Bangor University, Wales.