Musical messages – Creating a bespoke climate story for the Outer Hebrides

Abstract

Exposed to westerly and south-westerly Atlantic weather systems, the Outer Hebrides (off the west coast of Scotland) are a series of islands where the inhabitants are already well versed in coping with severe weather. Headed by the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership (OHCCP) Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), a range of adaptation planning documents are in production. Driven by a desire to engage with local communities, the CCWG alongside the Làn Thìde Climate Beacon, Adaptation Scotland and the Met Office created a project to explore the development of a storyline to communicate climate change information to the Outer Hebrides community. Collaborating with a local artist, Tuil is Geil (Gaelic for “Flood and Wind”) was created through a combination of sonified climate data, local voices and field recordings of local weather. Three themed pieces were created and these pieces (alongside a science presentation on projections of climate change for the Outer Hebrides) formed the centre of public engagement sessions when members of the public were able to share their thoughts about vulnerabilities and adaptation needs on the islands. As a project team we learned a number of important lessons around the process for creating a bespoke storyline for a community which included: i) The need to set appropriate boundaries and manage expectations, ii) The importance of local partner organisations and networks, iii) The need to bridge between science and art, and iv) The need to collaborate with the local community. We strongly believe that this approach has major community impact and it is the intention to support similar storyline projects in other regions of Scotland.