A new show from The Bicycle Ballet Company, created in 2016/7, will be developed in 2018 to further explore the history of women & cycling & fashion & its relevance today.
In particular, we are interested in extending the potential for engaging with local communities, working with a wide range of people, community groups & organisations, to explore the ideas behind the show & to create arts & heritage activities with & for local communities.
Find out more about the show & future ideas in this short presentation, made to delegates of Xtrax Shorts, at the Out There Festival in Great Yarmouth September 2017. Click HERE to watch
Ever look out to sea & wonder what its like under the waves? The Living Coast Undersea Experience offers people a glimpse into the underwater world of Beachy Head West Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ).
The Undersea Experience is an interactive, virtual reality, that lets you move around & follow your curiosity, to explore one of the world’s only chalk reefs; right off the UK’s south coast.
The MCZ, between Brighton Marina to Beachy Head, is home to this unique marine environment with a multitude of life: from rare Short Snouted Seahorses & marathon swimming European Eels, to Moon Jellyfish, Undulate Rays, Native Oysters, Blue Mussels & much more.
The Living Coast Undersea Experience was created in 2018 by internationally acclaimed digital artist, Simon Wilkinson & Karen Poley, Artistic & Creative Director of KP Projects, in a partnership including The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere Region, Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority (IFCA) & Sussex Wildlife Trust. More about how the idea evolved HERE
TLC Undersea Experience aims to:
Open up one of the UK’s most unique marine environments to everyone
Raise awareness of BHW MCZ, home to one of the world’s only chalk reefs, with unique species of plant & animal life, which only a fraction of people know about
Be a powerful kinaesthetic & educational experience to help people understand the environment & the things we can all do to help conserve it
We achieved all these & more, touring across the region & beyond into community venues & creating a 360 film version to visit outdoor events & festivals to reach much larger numbers, as well as developing an education programme for schools.
Touring
Between 2018 & 2025, TLC Undersea Experience has toured into local communities, visiting community venues, events & festivals; arts & conservation centres; museums & schools, visiting 65 venues over 89 days, offering nearly 7,000 people a powerful & accessible, educational & transformative engagement with the local marine conservation zone. Venues & dates here
Reach, Engagement & Impact
Approximately 60% of the interactive VR users completed evaluation forms, giving evidence of reach, engagement & impact, including:
Demonstrating the widest reach to all ages and backgrounds
96% learned, for the first time, the extent of the diversity of local marine life off the local coast & 59% learned about the Marine Conservation Zone designation
68% made suggestions of what changes they might make at the beach, after experiencing the VR, or actions they might take to protect the environment
You can explore the impact of the 2024-2025 tour of the Ouse Valley at THIS LINK
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Watch this short film to find out what people say:
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Want to know more?
Check out these two talks by experts on our local marine environment & the archaeology of the chalk cliffs: Sarah Ward, Living Seas Officer, Sussex Wildlife Trust & Lara Band, Discovery Programme Officer from CITiZAN
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How you can help…
Click the image to find out more…
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Beta testing at Brighton Digital Festival 2018 at The Old Market
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Have a closer look this is short of the prototype experience, created in 2018:
An interactive, outdoor exhibition conceived as a way of creating a significant ‘guerilla’ art activity during Brighton Festival 2017, to raise awareness of the cuts & re-organisations to the NHS, & is part of KP’s ongoing exploration of presenting digital storytelling in unexpected outdoor locations.
Created in In collaboration with Ray Gibson (Raysto Images), Dr Sarah Anderson, Sussex Defend the NHS & internationally acclaimed photographer & artist JR & the Inside Out project.
Subjects were activists & passers by, plucked off the streets or from a pub round the corner, who told their stories & concerns about the NHS whilst be photographed & recorded.
The photos were blown up & printed as part of internationally acclaimed photographer & artist, JR’s Inside Out project.
Images, film or audio were edited together under the auspices of virtual reality app, Aurasma, to make posters come to live. Click on the instructions to the left, or see a couple of the films below.
An outdoor game for all ages, families & bubbles, which plays out across a town, city, park, street or other location, to find tiny, ‘pebbleface’ artworks drawn by artist Raysto.
Players follow visual clues posted online over one or two days. After finding the general location, players must match the shapes, textures & patterns in the landscape to find the pebblefaces.
The pebblefaces are inspired by the shapes, shades & textures of the stones’ geological formations. The faces are ‘cute & tactile, with surprisingly vivid expressions,’ (The Independent, May 2007)
Lots of potential to develop routes, locations, birthdays, special occasions, team building etc, & possibilities for workshops.
Check out…
The Great Pebble Dash on Facebook, on Instagram & #thegreatpebbledash
Loved by dashers of all ages & even in the dark!!
You can read more about Raysto in this lovely BLOG the silly hats are just one theme!!
Originally commissioned by the University of Brighton for the fourth international Visual Methods Conference, Sept 2015.
A further development of the successful, outdoor show, Strictly Cycling. Combining an entertaining performance with a strong, light-hearted, road safety message to ‘light up’ and be seen on bikes after dark.
The yellow cycling capes will glow like belisha beacons, lit from underneath, with either LED wire or strings of small LED bulbs, powered by battery. Reflective materials will be worked into helmets, goggles, socks & fingers to give extra impact and brightness, and lights or reflectors added to wheels.
The choreography & improvisational structures will be further developed to create new interactions, movements, sculptural and other set pieces to enable performers to accommodate the lights & technology.
KP Projects has become a Community Interest Company in 2015 to create, deliver and tour, performance, visual, community and educational projects – arts and non-arts – around the concepts of healthy lifestyles; environmental issues and awareness of local environments; walking, cycling and transport.
A new show from The Bicycle Ballet Company, created in 2016/7, will be developed in 2018 to further explore the history of women & cycling & fashion & its relevance today.
