Instruments of war inspiring art

Watch, Look, Listen involves interactive artistic, architectural objects and experiences, inspired by historic war-time instruments such as periscopes, parabolic mirrors, camera obscurers, anamorphic images and kaleidoscopes.

The display runs from 6 July to 5 September at Newhaven Fort which dates back to Napoleonic times although the current buildings were installed in the late 1800’s. It was armed in 1873 and upgraded during the two world wars but it never saw action.

The exhibition, by staff and students from the university’s School of Architecture and Design, is in partnership with Wave Leisure which is responsible for operating Newhaven Fort and other leisure Lewes District Council facilities.

The new partnership is exploring ways in which Newhaven Fort may become a new cultural venue for the South Coast whilst offering university students opportunities to apply their creativity.  

Nick Gant, Principal Lecturer and researcher at the university, said: “Watch, Look, Listen presents an installation of war-time instruments all of which have relationships to the fort or technologies of the time.

“Like the fort, they too use light and sound, revealing new views of the fort and some of its hidden secrets. They are also intended to enhance and add to the magic, mystery and experience of the Fort as an amazing space.

“The exhibition provides new inter-active, sensory experiences for visitors to the fort as well as providing an insight into how the fort might function as a new public space for engaging with art, design and architecture in the future.

“A total of 12 students from Interior Architecture and 3D Design and Craft courses at the university have been involved in helping create the project with members of staff and guest artist Joe Webb, who has collaborated on one of the pieces. Joe is an artist of international acclaim and has shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

“The site is also home to a new maker-space that is part of a network of spaces created by Community21, a social design agency that functions from within the university. It is hoped that this space will offer a space for the university, stakeholder organisations and public to interact and engage in making a future for the Fort and visions for the wider area of Newhaven. The ‘Place-Maker-Space’ as it is referred to builds on the first that was installed at the Preston Barracks site in Brighton in 2016 and has seen numerous events and workshops between communities and the university.”