Roisin Agnew

Emerald Extractivism

My research seeks to investigate how different modes of extraction operate in the Irish terrain, where mining prospecting, the proliferation of data centres, and the endangerment of boglands intersect with histories of colonial, state, and capitalist violence that haunt the Irish landscape to this day.

The Irish terrain is foundational in the creation of mythologies of national identity and imperial brutality, and it remains a site of sectarian and economic contention. As the prospect of a United Ireland gains feasibility and as the depletion of its natural resources intensifies, a reconceptualisation of Irish land imaginaries is necessary in order to speculate on its (lost) futures and reconcile with its pasts. The research looks at the Irish terrain as a site of extractivism via the medium of landscape film, which itself uses land as a sensory plane from which to extrapolate meaning.