Partners: Jaywick Martello Tower, Lea Valley Park, SCAN/ArtSway/Fawley Power Station Date: Summer 2007 – Autumn 2008
***DOWNLOAD desktop wall paper which automatically updates images live from Jaywick Martello Tower http://www.windscale.net/ ***
Rob Smith’s online project uses anemometers measuring wind speed linked to a web camera. The wind speed (using the Beaufort Scale) affects the way in which the image from the webcam is viewed. Rob is an emergent artist whose sculptural background and increasing interest in the application of new technology to arts is reflected in this project – he is particularly interested in the role that the environment/space and context can play on the production and distribution of art work. Windscale chooses deliberately sites that are fragile in their cultural context and exposes them online; Jaywick Martello Tower, on the Essex coast and in the middle of a priority regeneration area; Lea Valley, part of which is in the heart of the soon to be developed Olympic site; and Fawley Power Station which lies on the edges of the New Forest National Park. This project will link three of the four Distributed South regions together through a networked artwork.
Rob Smith is based in Chipping Ongar and studied at Kingston and Royal Academy Schools. He has exhibited in various galleries in London, US and recently showed at Kettles Yard, Cambridge. He is one of the Eastern region’s artists participating in the Escalator scheme run by ACEE.