No Before or After; Notes on a Film, 16mm and 4K digital video, 2026
No Before or After: Notes on a Film examines ideas around extraction, preservation, and memory through the lens of a journey to the Arctic World Archive’s World Memory Bank which, despite the thawing permafrost, professes to protect world memory for 500-1000 years storing data on black and white 35mm film deep under the ice in a former coal mine on Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.
Made using a combination of 16mm and digitally shot material, the film follows the filmmaker’s thoughts on a journey to the Arctic World Archive, reflecting on the changing nature of landscape and memory storage and preservation.
Asking questions about our relationship to historical and future memory tracing a journey from the filmmaker's great grandmother’s work as an archaeologist to her filmmaking practice she reflects on the reading of landscape, the material cultural artefact, its longevity over digital data storage and its archiving and energy implications to ask what future archaeologists might discover.
What is remembered, what is forgotten?
Part of the project, Responses to Shifting Landscapes, a day of talks and discussion at St George’s Theatre in July 2025 brought together a group of artists, writers, researchers and filmmakers whose work responds to ideas around shifting landscapes and the impact of our increasing need for energy. This was followed by an exhibition of the work in progress with originalprojects in Great Yarmouth.
Living on the East coast of the UK and being aware of this shifting landscape, the idea was to connect this coastline with the far North, particularly the archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic circle to ask questions about the interconnection of the fastest melting place on the planet with changes being experienced closer to home and how a creative response can contribute to the conversation.
In partnership with Original Projects https://originalprojects.co.uk/ @orig_proj
Design: Possible Worlds https://possibleworlds.space/ @possible.worlds
An Arts Council England funded project @acegrams
Exhibition: No Before or After; Notes on a Film, Emily Richardson: 5th-27th July 2025. PrimeYarc, Market Gates Shopping Centre, Great Yarmouth
Launch event following Responses to Shifting Landscapes, a day of talks at St George’s Theatre. Friday 4th July 2025 3.30 -6.30pm