Coast Digital

New digital artwork celebrating
Mersea Island.

Masaki Fujihata > Mersea Island

The Site
Mersea Island is located about fifteen miles south of Colchester. It has a circumference of 9 miles and cannot be reached from the mainland at high tide when the access bridge is submerged. An area of outstanding natural beauty, the largely rural island is at the estuary of the River Colne, providing home to a diversity of wildlife and the base for the local oyster fishing industry. Very much an island in its own right, the island has a close community and distinctive atmosphere.

Artist’s Project
Internationally renowned Japanese artist, Masaki Fujihata created a new digital artwork inspired by Mersea Island. Approximately fifteen miles south of Colchester the island is cut-off from the main land at high tide when the ancient causeway, The Strood, is submerged.

Known for its outstanding natural beauty, resident seal and wading bird populations the largely rural island is washed by the mouth of the River Colne and the North Sea. The largest settlement, the town of West Mersea, is historically the home of the Colchester Native oyster and the seabed and coastline is still riddled with the oyster beds for which Mersea Island remains famous. Resistant to plans to raise the level of The Strood in order to reduce flooding the population of the island has a close community and distinctive atmosphere.

In response to the island's remarkable shoreline, environment and people, the artist developed 'Mersea Circle'. Using video cameras and GPS devices (Global Positioning System), 'Mersea Circle' tracked people flow around the island, creating an alternative map based on human exploration, rather than physical features and true distance. Over the weekend 16/17th August 2003, over 100 people were invited to join the artist on walks around the island. Using sophisticated technology, the
data collected was transformed into a new virtual, three-dimensional installation. The animated, interactive artwork created aimed to interpret the scale, speed and direction of human movement around Mersea Island, offering residents and visitors an alternative island map and an opportunity to rediscover this unique seascape.

Artist’s Background
A professor at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music since 1999, Masaki Fujihata is a pioneer in the field of Interactive Art. Since the early nineties he has been developing a series of 'Field-Works' using GPS and digital video, including 'Field-Works@ Lake Shinji' (2002) and 'Field Works @ Alsace', both collective memory projects working with communities.

www.field-works.net/Matsue04