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Press release

For immediate release 15th of September 2015

NetPark - the World’s First Digital Art Park – launched on 6October 2015

Metal will be launching the world’s first digital art park in Chalkwell Park, Southend on Sea, on Tuesday 6th of October 2015.

Creating an exciting new visitor attraction for South Essex,NetPark is a collection of specially commissioned digital artworks situated in Chalkwell Park, Southend-on-Sea. Each work responds to the landscape, people and history of the park.

The inaugural ten artworks have been curated by Simon Poulter and are engaging and playful. Each takes you on a different journey around the park, providing a variety of experiences of the environment that are in turn surprising, funny, informative and thought-provoking. Designed for a variety of audiences, the range of works ensures that there is something to enchant all ages and allows for a shared experience or individual contemplation.

All the works are GPS located and can be experienced through a smart device, either iPad, iPhone or Android.

NetPark has, at its heart, a new research and education centre, Metal Art School, with a fully equipped digital studio. Launched at the same time as NetPark,this exciting facility will enable more artistic research and development and will provide an education programme for local young people and adults. Metal’s ambition is to commissionfutureartworks, adding to the NetPark collection that will enhance the usual day out in the park, and attract new visitors to the park and to Southend.

The first artworks, unveiled on October the 6th, were commissioned following an open competitionwith over 90 artists applying from 7 different countries. The winning five include:

  • Eight new, site specific tracks by critically acclaimed international electronic music duo, Matmos, well known for their visually stunning music gigs, live performances, use of electronic media and collaborations with the likes of Bjork. Hailing from Baltimore, USA, the duo created this piece whilst in residence at Metal in June. October 6th will see the premier of these new tracks.
  • Oneironaut Apromenade work that places you in the position of a traveller orlucid dreamer, created by artist, Joel Cahen.
  • Spoken word poetry tours, including a love story of a couple growing up in and around Chalkwell Park by Mark Grist and MC Mixy.
  • Running To Flight, a mindful story by artist Rosie Poebrightthat explores your physical and emotional responses to the landscape of the park.
  • Talking Trees a playful augmented reality project by artist Jamie Gledhill that tells the social history of the park through the perspective of the trees.

Metal have also worked with five Southend primary schools on a NetPark education programme. With our software partners, Calvium, we have developed a new Story Building App which enables children to develop, write and code locative narratives, written for the Park and placing them within GPS co-ordinates for visitors to enjoy. Each school has working with a writer and illustrator to produce a site-specific story. These include:

The Disappearing Spellwrittenby pupils from Chalkwell Hall Junior School, working with writer, Lucy Sheerman and illustrator, Maggie Li.

Witch Quest writtenby pupils fromSt Georges School, working with writer, VahniCapildeo and illustrator, MaddyVian.

Scentopiawrittenby pupils fromThorpe Greenways Junior School, working with writer Syd Moore and illustrator, Karl Lawson.

Cake Work written by pupils from Milton Hall Junior School, working with writer, Jeremy Hardingham and illustrator, Zoe Barker.

Hello, Friend Monster written by pupils from Westborough School, working with writer, VahniCapildeo and illustrator, Claire Softley.

Colette Bailey, artistic director of Metal, said, ‘This is an incredibly exciting project for Metal. NetPark will bring together a wide range of artistic responses into an ongoing collection of site specific, digital artworks – a 21st century sculpture park that leaves the natural environment in tact and unchanged – with all the works presented in a digital layer. It is brilliant that Southend have embraced the idea to become the pioneers of this new concept. The creative team that we have worked with has been amazing – with University of Brighton, software developers, Calvium and Malcolm Garrett, the designer of Buzzcocks fame, all contributing to what is a great project”

There will be a reception in Chalkwell Park on October 6th. This will commence at4pm – 7pm with tours of the artwork within the Park and speeches at 5.30pm and will be followed by a PECHA KUCHA presentation from7pm – 9pm with NetPark future artists.

More details visit

For further press information, please contact Syd Moore on 07957 584910 or

EDITOR'S NOTES

NetPark

NetPark is the first digital art park in the world. Developed by arts organisation, Metal, it is a new visitor attraction for Southend and presents a collection of specially commissioned, site specific, digital artworks and stories for Chalkwell Park in Southend-on-Sea.

The works are engaging and playful. Each takes you on a different journey around the park, providing a variety of experiences of the park environment that are in turn surprising, funny, informative and thought-provoking. Designed for a variety of audiences, the range of works ensures that there is something to enchant all ages and allows for a shared experience or individual contemplation.

All the works are experienced through a smart device, either iPad, iPhone or Android.

The inaugural collection has five artworks created by artists following an open call selection process, and five site-specific stories created by Southend school pupils working with writers and illustrators.

The project also includes an onsite digital studio at Metal Art School equipped with both hardware and software, enabling ongoing R&D by artists and a range of digital creative learning within the curriculum.

Partners include, R&D Digital Art Fund, ROH Bridge, Southend Borough Council, University of Brighton and software developers, Calvium.

/ A new digital park logo to indicate public green space with open wi-fi wasdeveloped as part of the NetPark project.
It has been designed by Malcolm Garrett of Images&Co, a British designer with a worldwide reputation in culture and identity, known for his work in the music industry in the 80's with bands such asDuran Duran and Simple Minds. More recently he's the first interactive specialist to be appointed as a Royal Designer

Visitors to NetPark will be able to access the initial ten works via smart media (mobiles and tablets) from September. For those without access to smart media, there is a facility to loan equipment, free of charge, from Metal who are based on site.

The project has been enabled through the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts - Nesta, Arts & Humanities Research Council and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Partnership funds have come from ROH Bridge for the education work with schools and Southend Borough Council ICT Digital Strategy Group for new signage for the park. The Research and Education Centre within the park, complete with a fully equipped digital studio, is funded by Arts Council England Small Capital Grant Scheme.

About Metal

Metal was founded in 2002 and has been active in Liverpool since 2004, the South Essex region since 2007 and Peterborough since 2012. Each of our spaces: Edge Hill Station in Liverpool, Chalkwell Hall in Southend and Chauffeurs Cottage in Peterborough were renovated to create centres of activity for artists, creatives and community. From these bases, Metal have worked with artists and local agencies to provide the catalyst that is helping to transform the potential for thriving creative and cultural industries in these three places over the last ten years.

Metal also works directly with artists from overseas and across the UK helping them to research and realise ambitious projects and ideas that take place in a wide variety of contexts within the region. These ideas often respond in a specific way to place and are innovative in content. We take a developmental approach to local creativity and talent – training, mentoring and supporting the growth of knowledge and capacity in the sector, encouraging cross-sector and cross-disciplinary conversations and sharing of knowledge.

Metal also creates its own projects – large in scale, high in impact and involving a wide number of participants and audience from all walks of life.Each year Metal works with around 1200 artists from across the world, 18,000 active participants, over 60,000 live audiences and more than 100,000 online audiences.

About the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts

The Digital R&D fund for the Arts is a £7 million fund to support collaboration betweenorganisations with arts projects,technology providers, andresearchers. It is a partnership between Arts Council England ( Arts and Humanities Research Council ( and Nesta (

We want to see projects that use digital technology to enhance audience reach and/or develop new business models for the arts sector. With a dedicated researcher or research team as part of the three-way collaboration, learning from the project can be captured and disseminated to the wider arts sector.

Every project needs to identify a particular question or problem that can be tested. Importantly this question needs to generate knowledge for other arts organisations that they can apply to their own digital strategies.