Innes Thomson’s ANCESTOR came from an unexpected 2021, where she ended up back in her home village in Scotland for the year.

The concept for her project is, in essence, for an optimistic future.

Inspired by the Pict tribe that lived on the hill behind her village, and being able to still see the ruins of their hill fort on her running route, had her think a lot about how they would have lived with the landscape.

This prompted research into the hypothetical scenario that instead of the industrial revolution, we followed an approach of the ancient knowledge of our ancestors – working with nature and not against it.

As the Picts had no known written language, our only knowledge of them comes via archaeology, second-hand accounts from external sources at the time, and oral storytelling. This lead Innes to consider the importance that communication holds to keep tradition and knowledge alive.

From this stemmed many avenues but notably, the shared sense of melancholy amongst Scottish people around the loss of the “old ways” and culture, the importance of community and collaboration, symbiosis between humans and the land, and human essence.