Artist Plans To Explore Relationship With Nature By Living In An Egg

In one of the finer examples of literally living and breathing your work, meet The Exbury Egg; a temporary, energy efficient, self-sustaining work space for artist Stephen Turner that will float in the estuary of the River Beaulieu. Talk about every impassioned greenies’ dream, right? The Egg is a place to stay while doubling as a laboratory for studying the life of a tidal creek.

The Egg will rise and fall with the tide and be tethered a bit like a boat. Turner is interested in exploring an intense relationship with nature and so it only makes sense for him to completely immerse himself in it.

Turner upholds that this isn’t a big anti-technology-back-to-nature experiment. He still plans on using items like his cellphone, his laptop and digital camera, but in the planning of this project he has created these to be charged via solar power.

There’s also a huge educational component to this project, with schools being able to engage with the Egg project in topics from construction, science, art, ecology and engineering.

To quote Turner “Climate change is already creating new shorelines and habitats. Established salt marsh is being eroded by a combination of rising sea levels and falling landmass and the entire littoral environment is in a state of flux. The implications for wildlife and for the flora as well as for people are challenging. Raising awareness of the past and the unfolding present of a very special location will be the task, whist living in an ethical relationship with nature and treading as lightly as possible upon the land.’

The Egg was placed in the River in May and an Egg Cam is set to launch early July for those wanting to check up on how things are floating along.