Please click on the link below to download a Word document containing useful information about the Coast Digital project on Mersea Island from Sat 16th - Sun 17th August 2003. (Including Timetable, Travel, Accomodation and info on How to Take Part)

<Click here for Coast Digital Word Doc (52k)>
(Right click on this link and select 'Save Target As' to save it locally to your computer)

The internationally renowned Japanese digital artist Masaki Fujihata is back on Mersea Island to continue making a major new artwork with the help of residents and members of the public interested in participating. If you enjoy the outdoors and walking, join Fujihata and his Rangers on Mersea Island for a different kind of walk with a futuristic twist!

Fujihata was instantly drawn to the unique seascape, ambiance and people of Mersea Island. In response to this remarkable island, Fujihata has developed Mersea Circle, an artwork that tracks people flow around the island using GPS devices (Global Positioning System) and video camera. Just as the tides and weather shape Mersea Island’s identity, so too does the movement of residents and visitors. Fujihata, a group of Rangers - Essex based artists and filmmakers and the public will travel the coastline by foot.

The data collected over the weekend will be used by Fujihata to create a virtual three-dimensional installation of the journeys, to be shown at firstsite from 29 November 2003 – 7 February 2004 The animated, interactive artwork created will interpret the scale, speed and direction of human movement around Mersea Island, offering residents and visitors an alternative map of the island and an opportunity to rediscover this unique part of the Essex coastline.

• Saturday 16th – Sunday 17th August 2003
• Free event
• Open to residents of Mersea Island and members of the public interested in partaking on the walks.
• The walks vary from 2 ½ – 4hrs
• Evening presentations by Masaki and David Nicholls, Warden of Ray Island.

To take part you must sign up for a time slot in advance phone firstsite on 01206 577067 or Future Physical on 0207 357 0823 or email coastdigital@futurephysical.org.

If you would like to make a weekend of it, contact Future Physical for details on travel (train and car parking) and accommodation (camping, caravans/B & B)

Mersea Circle is part of Fujihata’s commission for Coast Digital - the first phase of Coast; an ambitious visual arts project taking part in Essex and international project within Future Physical, a cultural programme exploring the boundaries between the virtual and the physical in East England. A further eight leading artists have been commissioned to create new artworks that explore, document and celebrate the often overlooked Essex coastline, promoting this unique coastal area. Over the next twelve months a series of temporary and permanent art interventions will be developed at positions along the coast between Harwich and Rochford.

Coast Digital the first phase of the Coast project is commissioned and produced by Future Physical (shinkansen/Arts Council of England East), shinkansen and firstsite for COAST, an Essex County Council Initiative.

COAST is an Essex County Council initiative - Essex Visual & Media Arts with Commissions East, firstsite and FuturePhysical (shinkansen/East England Arts) in association with Rochford, Maldon andTendring Councils and with Clacton County High School, Colbayns High School and Bishops Park College.