A pair of researchers are confronted with strange phenomenon while attempting to 3D scan a sinking island off the coast of England in the midst of its evacuation.

Drawing on both speculative storytelling and documentary-inspired visual techniques, Preservation explores themes of environmental loss, digital memory, and the eerie gaps between what is recorded and what is truly preserved.

Shot on location on Isle of Portland and integrating 3D scans with live-action footage, the film is as much about texture and atmosphere as it is about narrative. The work engages with urgent ecological questions while using genre elements to create a layered, immersive experience that unsettles as much as it intrigues.

The film invites audiences to reflect on the fragility of our landscapes and the limits of our attempts to capture them, resonating with contemporary anxieties about climate change and technological mediation. We came about this idea while discussing the phenomenon of ‘ghosts’ caught by Google Street View; lost relatives and loved ones, accidentally captured and forever fossilised in a digital landscape, something experienced by Georgie personally. Wee also have many questions regarding different modes of seeing and sensing, especially as real-world practices of digital preservation through LiDAR technology become ever more common and at times contested. When we attempt to preserve, we do so in the light of our gaze, but what if what we’re trying to preserve is unruly? What if it gazes back at us?