REEF – an artists dream to stream from beneath Ringstead Bay.

REEF is an art project by Simon Faithfull who wanted to test the ability to film from the sea bed. What Simon intends to do is to sink a replica sculpture  of an old fishing boat with 5 cameras on board and film the boat under water for a year. The 5 cameras will stream the whole thing to their website and gallery’s in France and Brighton. The sculpture will be sunk in the designated area Wreck to Reef have permissions to use, the site is roughly a mile off Ringstead. This art project is being deployed in Ringstead bay and likely to go live starting the week of the 4/08/14. To keep  yourself informed and view the live sinking sign up on their website http://reef.launchrock.com/. The project hopes that it will create an artificial REEF to encourage marine life.

Plan of action

The boat will be towed out into the designated area about a mile off Ringstead, Simon will then scuttle the ship, set it alight then jump over board and swim to a near by boat. This will all be filmed live from the top of White Noath, on a safety boat near by and on the boat itself. Once the boat sinks the cameras on board will carry on the filming, the cameras are attached to a buoy above the REEF which powers the cameras by solar. The buoy then streams the video to Ringstead where it is uploaded by visitringsteads internet! the video will be uploaded to a server which will then handle the streaming.

How to view the live stream

The boat

The boat its self is entirely made up of concrete and I Believe is called the Brioney Victoria. The hull was procured second hand then the rest of the boat was built by Simon to replicate an old fishing vessel. Once deployed it is hoped divers will visit the boat and see the marine life grow. You can view a drawing of the boat Simon has done here.

On the day

On the day the boat is sunk you should be able to watch it from the shore in Ringstead, but a pair of binoculars would be useful! There might be a good view from the top of White Nothe too, I am not so sure if you will see it from further afield, but if you are in Weymouth or Portland keep a look out. You can go out on a boat and view it but there will be safety perimeter around the site.

Partnership

REEF has been made possible by a complex range of partnerships and collaborations and we would like to thank all of our funders and partners.

Fabrica
Photoworks
Brighton Photo Biennial
Arts Council England
Interreg IVA Channel Programme
Musee des Beaux Arts, Calais
FRAC Basse Normandie, Caen
Wreck to Reef 
Quest Underwater Services
0 Three
Ringstead Caravans
Field Broadcast
Art AV

Dorset County Council
Weber Industries

REEF forms part of Time and Place (TAP), a three-year cross-border collaboration project led by Fabrica with partners in France and the UK. TAP has been selected within the framework of the Interreg IVA France (Channel) – England cross-border European co-operation programme, part financed by the ERDF.