Public art project - and the winner is....

As you may recall, we've been working together with the Transported project quite a bit over the past year. Who can forget the six-foot dancing canary that graced us last year? Now there is a public art project, designed to bring a piece of artwork onto the reserve. The other week the short-listed designed were revealed at a special event in the visitor centre. If you missed it, here they are:

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This was the winning design. A ripple of steel, reflecting the landscape (and the visitors) in strange and unusual ways. On one side there will be strips of cedar to represent reeds, and allow glimpses through. The other will be etched with bird designs, created by local schoolchildren.

Here are the runners-up:

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This design was for a 'camera obscura' hide. Visitors could both use it to look at the landscape and also as a regular wildlife-watching hide

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The idea with this pair of designs was to use boats (to reflect the maritime heritage of Boston) covered in pearlised scales (to represent the lost treasure of King John) as shelters for visitors.

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This design would have been a floating wooden 'nest' in the reedbed, allowing visitors access into that part of the reserve.

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This was a whole suite of designs, using metal poles to represent reeds, some of which might even have been musical! Some of the 'reeds' had additional bird models perched on them, and they would have been placed in strategic locations around the reserve.

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This trio of designs was to make viewing the landscape more interactive for visitors. The first was to represent 'air', the standing viewer could look at the landscape through the frame, or push down on a lever to move the frame and allow the seated person to look at the sky through it. The second design was for 'earth', turning a handle pumped water out of a reservoir and allowed the viewing area to sink into the ground. And the third part is 'water', turning a handle made an arm move up and down, creating ripples in the water surface.

So, what do you think? The models are on tour now around the local area, why not go and see them for yourself? More details can be found at the Transported website www.transportedart.com.