Mauritius workshop with the Coral Communities team and Reef Conservation. After travelling with the community by boat to their no take zone, open questions were asked in French. Photograph: Andy Hughes
About
I'm an artist and experienced facilitator who runs participatory workshops using fine art, three-dimensional modelling, sustainable design, photography, map-making, and walking. I'm passionate about working with people outdoors in an informal setting to harness their skills and awaken their creativity.
Mauritius workshop with the Coral Communities team and Reef Conservation. After travelling with the community by boat to their no take zone, they were asked to make the shape of their Voluntary Marine Conservation Areas (VMCAs) and speak about where they sat in relationship to the shape. Photograph: Andy Hughes
My methods are visual and my work is often ethnographic in nature. I am practical, adaptable, and have worked in a variety of global environments. I love to travel and have recently visited Norway, Sweden and Finland as part of a new international Nordic North walking group that exchanges knowledge about heritage, and sustainable tourism, and also publishes action-based research.
I see a workshop as a participatory artwork where skills are exchanged, ideas explored, memories unearthed, and feelings expressed. The aim is to find out how people view landscape and cope with change. The resulting data – both physical and perceptual – is then mapped, recorded, and exhibited or published.
Through a formal training in the arts, grounded in fine art, I’ve developed strong drawing skills, which are key to how I develop, communicate, and illustrate ideas. I’m also trained in spatial design, sustainable design, and digital art and design. A growing interest is photography and video, with the focus on working with people to co-create images and film.
Mauritius workshop with the Coral Communities team and Reef Conservation. A walk led by Reef Conservation and the community to a mangrove nursery. Photograph: Andy Hughes.
Mission
By re-awakening or reinforcing a strong connection between people and their landscape through art-led activity, I hope to give people the tools and confidence to make their voice heard.
My aim is to facilitate community input into the future of their landscape to bring about a sustainable outcome that also benefits landowners and stakeholders.
I believe that collaborating on an equal footing with community, research institutes, and relevant organisational structures offers the best way of achieving change and influencing decisions at policy level.
A Mini Landscape created by a group of young people to say how they felt about being at the south end of The Reens, a woodland in Troon, Cornwall. Photograph: Andy Hughes
Misean
Is tríd an gceangal idir daoine agus a dtírdhreach a athbheochan nó a dhaingniú trí ghníomhaíocht faoi threoir na healaíne atá súil agam na huirlísí agus an mhuinín a thabhairt do dhaoine iad fein a chur in iúl.
Is é an aidhm atá agam anáil an phobail ar a bhfuil i ndán dá dtírdhreach a éascú ionas go mbeidh toradh marthanach ann a ghabhfas chun tairbhe d’uinéirí talún agus do pháirtithe leasmhara.
Creidimse gurb é an comhoibriú ar bhonn cothrom leis an bpobal, leis na hinstitiúidí taighde, agus leis na struchtúir riaracháin a bhaineas le hábhar an bealach is fearr le hathrú a ghnóthú agus le gabháil i gcion ar chinntí ar leibhéal polasaí.
Resting after a pilgrimage walk to a sacred place called Fenton Ia (after the saint) at The Reens in Troon, Cornwall. Saint Ia was said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Erc of Slane. Photograph Peter Dewhurst
Medras
Dre dhastifuna po krefhe kevren grev yntra tus ha’ga thirwedh dre wriansow ledys gans art, govenek a’m beus may hylliv ri dhe dus an toulys ha kyfyans rag gul dh’aga lev bos klewys.
Ow amkan yw esya ynworrans kemenethek y’n devedhek a’ga thirwedh rag askorra sewyans sostenadow hag yw les rag perghennow tir ha kevrenogyon.
My a grys y prof kesoberi war sel gehaval gans an gemeneth, fondyansow hwithrans ha drehevyansow kowethyansek perthynek, an gwella fordh a hedhes chanj ha delenwel erviransow orth nivel polisi.
MSc Digital Futures, University of Plymouth, final major project distinction & publication
BA Hons Design Studies First Class, Goldsmiths College University of London
Interdisciplinarity, co-creation and open source are core modes of working
Leverhulme Artist In Resident, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Published. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Eden Project Florilegium Society
Irish. Brought up in Cornwall, UK in a coastal community. Sea person. Dyslexic & proud.
Zanzibar workshop on Fundo Island with the Coral Communities team and Mwambao Coastal Community Network. The community talk about the map they have made together, interviewing each other about what they have described. Photograph Timur Jack-Kadioglu.
Sectors, clients, research & development
I’ve undertaken a wide variety of environmental and art-based projects and led practical workshops all over the UK, Europe, and in Africa. I’ve worked in the educational, charity, government and design sectors and also created websites and publications. Recent clients include: University of Plymouth, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Ffiona Fyfe Associates and Reef Conservation.
I was recently awarded an Agritech Cornwall Innovation Scheme to develop a prototype service for landowners, which I am in the process of testing.
The following keywords summarise my research: #visual methods #creative methods #fine-art #sensory ethnography #participatory mapping #new materialism #open data #open source #community-based knowledge #indigenous rights #co-production #perceptual data #natural heritage #cultural heritage #movement heritage
Zanzibar workshop on Fundo Island with the Coral Communities team and Mwambao Coastal Community Network. The community and facilitators reviewing objects mapped into a resilience grid on the sand. Photograph Timur Jack-Kadioglu.
Places matter. Place plays a central role in human experience. As the Canadian geographer Edward Relph has pointed out in his influential monograph, Place and Placelessness (1976), human beings have a deep need “for associations with significant places” – it is important to us to connect with place and “transcend placelessness” so that we can develop an environment for people that reflects and enhances the variety of human experience. (3) The sites chosen by Dominica Williamson reveal their phenomena through her and the project participants’ bodily experiences of these places, her #tagscape project allows our senses to connect with what is unseen beneath the visible landscape and captures experiences and meanings that are usually unnoticed in everyday life.
Dr Kayla Parker, excerpt from an essay about my work appearing in a zine called TAGSCAPE.
At Green Map System, we love working with Dom! She designed the Green Map Atlas in 2003, a bilingual book, CDRom and website to share impacts of 8 locally-led projects. For over 20 years, her mapmaking style stands out for its attention to detail, inclusion of community voices and regenerative perspective on historic places.
I have worked with Dominica on a number of projects involving a range of tasks and audiences. For Devon County Council's 'Right Place Right Tree Guidance' she produced superb illustrations which could be combined to create stylish infographics which were both clear and imaginative. For the 'Wales on Rails' heritage interpretation she did an outstanding job of sourcing great images of stations and sites including from online resources and contemporary photographers. Dominica is an absolute pleasure to work with. She listens carefully to understand the exact requirements, makes informed and thoughtful contributions to discussions, and produces excellent outputs. She also meets deadlines of both time and budget.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Dom on the Coral Communities project. She brought an energy and dynamism to the project that was inspiring to the rest of the team. Dom has a very natural and unassuming way of interacting with the people around her, including the project team and the communities we engaged with. She encouraged us all to try new things, express ourselves in different ways and demonstrated to us the value of doing so. We ended up with richer and much more varied project outputs than we would have had without her.