“This is where the coast opens, fanning like the primaries of a predator’s wing,” murmurs poet Owen Sheers, as the wind whispers in the ears and waves roll rhythmically on to the shore below. The tang of salt and seaweed in the air seems almost palpable – but that’s just an illusion, because this isn’t a day out on the headland; it’s the latest immersive digital experience.
This one has been dreamed up by the National Trust. Part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for what is now the Neptune Coastline Campaign – the trust’s ambitious mission to buy swaths of the British coastline to save it from development – One and All launches on 4 November at nationaltrust.org.uk/oneandall, alongside a physical installation at Somerset House in London. “We’ve got over 775 miles of coastline under the care of the National Trust,” says Tom Freshwater, the trust’s contemporary arts programme manager. “What we are looking to do now is very much about managed access to the coast, people’s enjoyment of it and the wildlife potential that it has.”
With its name a nod to poet John Betjeman’s paean to a Cornish bay ruined by human intervention, the exhibition draws together specially created work by Sheers, music producer Martyn Ware and the artist Tania Kovats, with footage from film-maker Ben Wigley helping to create an intense encounter with our ever-changing shores. The approach, says Freshwater, not only removes the conundrum of where best to locate such an exhibition, but also brings it to a wider audience. “So much of our life now, for many people, exists with a screen in your hand,” says Freshwater. “We wanted to go where people were to get our message across.”
Inspired by locations along the Gower coast in south Wales, Sheers’s evocative poetry captures his response to a collection of dramatic scenes, from the dark interior of Paviland cave to the rocky expanse of Worm’s Head. Accompanying his readings are names and places recited by local people, with stunning footage shot by Wigley against a rich soundtrack that he captured when he went on location with microphones in his ears. “I really wanted an immersive experience online that you lost yourself in,” says Wigley. “Binaural sound recording is a fantastic way of doing that.”
Taking a very different tack, Ware visited the post-industrial coastal locations of Seaham, Porthgain and Orford Ness with a bright blue beach hut in tow. Passersby could enter the empty hut and press a red button inside to record their recollections of the coast. “I wanted it to be really about the human stories, rather than about the technology or about my take on it,” says Ware.
The resulting collection of memories, conversations and musings is combined with other sounds and layered film by Wigley, resulting in a touching, nostalgic depiction of our shores. “One of the main reasons why I use film is because it feels to me the closest representation to memory,” Wigley says.
The online experience will also feature a digital artwork by Kovats, who has created a tidal map of the UK that evolves in real time. “We’ve stripped tidal information from all the measuring points around the UK and that’s being uploaded into the drawing so that it is in sync,” she explains. Although Kovats’s map is only online, a large bell – cast by her on a Cornish beach – will mark the tidal motions of the river at Somerset House. “The bell is going to be rung at high tide on the Thames,” says Kovats, revealing that it will be audible even outside.
The exhibition will run at Somerset House until 13 December. Housed in four rooms and featuring a pier-like boardwalk, the installation will project specially adapted versions of the work in huge archways. “I want visitors to have as complete an immersion as possible,” says Sheers. “I want them to step into that room and on to the cliffs of the Gower – but not just visually.”
Ware is hoping to create an immersive 3D soundscape. “The exhibition room has two rings of speakers, one at ceiling level and one at ground level, and within that cube of speakers we have the capability of moving all the different sounds around in three dimensions in any direction we wish,” he explains.
Ultimately, he hopes it will encourage visitors, both online and off, to delve into their own memories. “It will hopefully make them more aware of their sensory environment next time they go to the seaside – and help them appreciate it a little bit more.”
