An immersive experience to help small coastal settlements adjust to likely futures in the most positive way
With a global lack of leadership on environmental issues, many people feel they are not ready for what the future may bring and are seeking means to come together to face approaching uncertainties. They might feel that the big issues of our time are not their business, but want to influence what happens round them.
This Coastal Town Reimagined is a 2-hour Live Action Role Play (LARP) workshop devised by Ruth Catlow and Ann Light to help address this gap between the global and the things we can (and would be prepared to) do in coastal towns we care about: to encourage people in a neighbourhood to find each other and devise ways of managing issues that stem from their varied social and ecological interests and concerns.
LARPs are events designed to spark imagination and action through collaboration. Role play, improvisation and critical thinking collide, enabling people to explore the “What ifs” about any situation, from the probable to the very unusual, and “rehearse” the outcomes they would like to see.
To learn more watch this short film by Hydar Dewachi, 2024. (10 minutes)
Initial success has led to a broader ambition: to take the techniques devised and offer them for other contexts, as well as transforming early imaginings into both real-world and fictional visions of thriving eco-social communities in Felixstowe.
These events are devised as part of an ongoing art-action-research loop that builds on years of collaboration between Ann Light and Ruth Catlow, and creative practice and research inspired by communities of experimental artists and designers working with eco-social change. These are some of the papers that study and theorise how and why this experience works.
We gathered feedback as part of developing the LARP, but also encouraged people to take time at the end of each session to reflect on what was learnt and what townsfolk might do (or do differently) in considering their futures and that of those around them and other living things. We give a few of the many comments we received:
It’s important to use our imaginations to create the futures we want
“It just reminds us that we have to bring our creative imaginations to the future that we want. – It’s playful, it’s going to make a lot of people think, it’s going to surprise a lot of people” – Adrian
This experience made it more fun and less worrying to exploring the future
“It brings up serious issues while you are allowed to have a bit of fun with them. But also in a way allowing you to disassociate so your prime self doesn’t have to worry about them, because it’s this future self” – Mark
It’s important to respect ideas and feelings of young people in this town
“It’s great to involve younger people who don’t always get involved in these conversations because we feel a bit disenfranchised, and we feel a little bit pushed out by the older generation sometimes. In Felixstowe, it seems to be an older population…we are trying to get a place for younger people to be collectively together and work with you guys so we can make something we are ALL proud of. It’s just great to have a platform to be able to share ideas and feelings about Felixstowe and have them listened to and respected by everybody.” – Courtney
At heart, this is a live action role-play (LARP) exercise giving the chance for people to leap into the future of their area, speak as different generations and work successfully on issues that concern them. By setting the action in the future, participants reflect on how some of the challenges they predict can be tackled and even solved. Themes emerge through groups of townsfolk meeting together in conversation. This experience has been developed to raise difficult issues supportively and in such a way that people feel stronger and more connected, rather than anxious or powerless. It was devised as “hyperlocal eco-social” place-making: that is to say, people living in the same neighbourhood are understood to share some social and ecological concerns related to their environment and need something around which to gather and move from individual worry to co-created action.
It is also designed to help people recognise how local systems are interdependent, relying on the plants, animals, institutions and places that make up the area, just as the major global systems, such as weather, climate and geography, work together to affect what happens. This understanding is part of supporting readiness, because changes in these relationships are part of what we are all experiencing and have to deal with.
This Coastal Town was created by Ruth Catlow and director of arts organisation Furtherfield, which has been establishing itself in Felixstowe, a town of about 24,000 people, and Ann Light, an academic at the University of Sussex wanting to learn how creative participatory and immersive practices can support people in a locality to be ready for the increasingly uncertain futures ahead. Devised in 3 stages, Ann and Ruth first invited Felixstowe residents and visitors to chat about the futures they wanted in May 2024. In July 2024 they shared what they discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together they created an immersive future fiction that formed the basis of This Coastal Town, a public “time-travelling” event to work on the future together. This LARP was first held in Felixstowe in September 2024, then further developed with local youth empowerment consultants Courtney Hessey and Lauren Bruen, for a second Felixstowe iteration in Spring 2025. Ann and Ruth worked on a version that could travel, and events were also held in May 2025, in partnership with First Light Festival’s Battery of Ideas in Lowestoft and Hospitable Environments in Newhaven. These events have supported preparation for the creation of the playbook.
This Coastal Town is made possible by partnership with The University of Sussex, and is part of Reimagine This Coastal Town supported by Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant no AH/Y003330/1.
Meet at Hamilton MAS
Bent Hill Felixstowe IP11 7DG
11:30am – 12:30pm Sunday, 17 August
Book your free place here.
The Interspecies Meditation is a guided ritual designed help people develop empathy with non-human life forms through imaginative role-play and deep listening. It provides participants with a fun experience of possible new relations. Originally created as part of The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025, a collaborative fiction project about interspecies democracy, this meditation has since traveled the world, evolving with each new place it visits.
Now arriving on the lively coast of Felixstowe, this event offers a moment of reflection, connection, and playful transformation.
Whether you’re an artist, activist, beach-walker, or just curious, this event offers a powerful, imaginative way to reconnect with your surroundings—and with the lives that share it.
Presented by Hamilton MAS, this event is part of a larger interactive exhibition, From the City to the Coast tracing Furtherfield’s journey from London’s Finsbury Park to Felixstowe’s coast—celebrating art, community, and ecological futures.
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This exhibition is part of Reimagine This Coastal Town, a Furtherfield project realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
🔗Learn more about the exhibition
Contact info@furtherfield.org
Image: The Interspecies Meditation, film still from the Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park 2023, by Tracy Kiryango
Hamilton MAS, Bent Hill, Felixstowe, IP11 7DG
OPENING PARTY: Friday 1 August, 6–8pm
Join us for a warm and welcoming celebration at Hamilton MAS with refreshments, conversations, and a chance to get hands-on with ideas for the town’s future.
EXHIBITION OPEN DAILY: 2–17 August, 11am–4pm and by appointment
EVENTS
This summer, Furtherfield invites Felixstowe communities, supporters, and friends, old and new, to From the City to the Coast, a playful and interactive exhibition that celebrates a new chapter for this radical arts group.
After nearly 30 years in Haringey, North London, Furtherfield, an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, has relocated to Felixstowe. Now rooted in Felixstowe, Furtherfield is working with community partners and people across the town to co-create adventurous, imaginative responses to the environmental and social challenges of our time.
From the City to the Coast tells the story of that move, and of a growing network of local people – young adults, artists, and community partners – coming together to Reimagine This Coastal Town. The exhibition showcases visionary work from this process, including:
The Interspecies Festival, Part of The Treaty of Finsbury Park by Furtherfield (2020-25)
AFTER 30 YEARS IN LONDON FURTHERFIELD IS STARTING A NEW CHAPTER IN FELIXSTOWE
This exhibition marks the start of the next phase of the project: an 18 month-long creative programme culminating in a Live Action Role Play (LARP) where art, community, and ecology meet. This will take place in September 2026, co-designed with young adults and regional artists.
LARPing is a powerful form of immersive storytelling where participants play characters and explore shared alternate realities through play. It’s a proven way to gain insights into the more-than-human world, to test ideas, and spark new ways of thinking, feeling and relating to each other – especially in times of uncertainty.
It’s up to us to imagine, together, the possible futures of the places we love.
Everyone is welcome. Come and get involved.
Contact info@furtherfield.org
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT
Funded by Arts Council England, the Suffolk Culture Fund, and Sussex University, and developed in collaboration with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and local communities, Reimagine This Coastal Town explores how places like Felixstowe can creatively respond to environmental change, while building inclusive spaces for connection, care, and imagination.
In September 2024, people of all ages—residents, workers, visitors, holidaymakers, and passionate fans of Felixstowe in East Suffolk—came together to time-travel into the future of this coastal town with their friends and neighbours.
This small-scale event to explore community needs and aspirations was a key step in shaping Furtherfield’s future in the town, as we plan our relocation from London to Felistowe. Film-maker Hydar Dwatchi created a film about the event.
It’s important to use our imaginations to create the futures we want
“It just reminds us that we have to bring our creative imaginations to the future that we want. – It’s playful, it’s going to make a lot of people think, it’s going to surprise a lot of people” – Adrian
This experience made it more fun and less worrying to exploring the future
“It brings up serious issues while you are allowed to have a bit of fun with them. But also in a way allowing you to disassociate so your prime self doesn’t have to worry about them, because it’s this future self” – Mark
It’s important to respect ideas and feelings of young people in this town
“It’s great to involve younger people who don’t always get involved in these conversations because we feel a bit disenfranchised, and we feel a little bit pushed out by the older generation sometimes. In Felixstowe, it seems to be an older population…we are trying to get a place for younger people to be collectively together and work with you guys so we can make something we are ALL proud of. It’s just great to have a platform to be able to share ideas and feelings about Felixstowe and have them listened to and respected by everybody.” – Courtney
🚢The port was founded in 1875. Looking back 150 years, we can see the changes it made in this town.
During this event we asked ourselves how, in 50 years, we will we look back on this time with all the changes we know are coming, including new developments and shifts in climate?
🌞Felixstowe is a place that radiates healthful living and wellbeing. The land and sea support livelihoods, leisure and blooming biodiversity. The port, the largest in England, provides crucial national infrastructure and contributes to a healthy local economy. In the summer holidaymakers flock here.
🌬️But things are always changing here and in the wider world. In May, Furtherfield invited local residents to chat about the futures we want. In July, we shared what we discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together we created an immersive future fiction that formed the basis of a public event to work on the future together!
⏰We created a timeline of Felixstowe since the port was founded in 1875 and added events of historic or personal significance.
✨Then we chose our time-travelling characters. Starting as a young person, or an elder we decided what our character cares about?
We travelled all the way to 2075, the year the Multispecies Port of Felixstowe opens.
This event was co-devised by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield), Mimi Doncaster, Ann Light (University of Sussex), Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Hamilton MAS for hosting the co-creation workshop and to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work. Thanks to Courtney Hessey for guidance on youth empowerment
In an 18 month project Reimagine This Coastal Town in Felixstowe over Summer 2025 and 2026 we are going to host a programme of events, workshops, and an exhibition, culminating in an eco-social Live Action Role Play (LARP), co-produced by 18+ young adults and eight creative practitioners from the region.
A proven way of generating visionary new worlds, we aim to inspire community-led environmental and social transformation in Felixstowe, enabling residents to collectively reimagine its future in the context of eco-social change, with a particular focus on youth empowerment and reaching marginalised communities in the town.
This project will be realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
Part of The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is an immersive fiction that looks at what it would be like if other species were to rise up and demand equal rights with humans. For 5 years human park-lovers have taken part in this fiction by playing for and as another species (so, like, NOT as a human ok?!).
From October 2024, you can scan the hoardings that wrap Furtherfield Gallery in Finsbury Park to watch highlights from the 2023 Interspecies Festival. You can also access the the magical Finsbury Park Sentience Dial app to make a pledge that advances interspecies justice and blooming biodiversity!
Now you can be among the first to pledge your support for a cooperation agreement between ALL living species in Finsbury Park.
Biodiversity is crucial in reducing the harmful effects of climate change, and city parks have a huge part to play. But it’s not all about us humans! Think like a dog, bee or even grass and help change the way we all see and participate in our local urban green spaces forever! It’s time to spark new ways of being, feeling and acting together!
Will you…
⏳ Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September 2024
🏡 Furtherfield Gallery, at the McKenzie Pavilion, Finsbury Park, London N4
🐕🌳Exhibition and Treaty Signing activities 11 – 4pm
🎟️🐿️ Multi-species Meditation sessions – DAILY at 11am, 2pm and 3pm.
Join us for fun with family and friends in Finsbury Park to connect with park life in fantastical new ways.
🎟️🐿️ Book your free place for a Multi-species Meditation session led by Scirius the cockney squirrel, played by Human artist Max Dovey. Use your imagination to transform into another species with a totally different sense of what is important. Sessions daily at 11am, 2pm and 3pm.
🌳Use the magical new Finsbury Park Sentience Dial app to tune into all flora and fauna! Scan the park and meet up to 7 local park species representatives, then make your pledge for bountiful biodiversity!
⇨ Watch Tracy Kiryango’s short docu-fiction film The Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park 2023 celebrating the cultures and talents of ALL Finsbury Park’s species, and using camera, lighting and post-production effects to convey multi-species-perspectives of the festival events.
⇨ Join the Multisensory Mystery Tour to see, hear and smell the old forest through the sensory superpowers of squirrels, trees, and dogs…
⇨ Hear the squeaks, squawks, howls and honks of the Multispecies Choir and their “songs” of lament, celebration and protest…
⇨ Sample delicacies from Pass-The-Poop-Parcel, the multi-species gastronomy game…
Help shape the first-ever interspecies treaty of cooperation for bountiful biodiversity!
Don’t worry! From October 2024, you can scan the hoardings that wrap Furtherfield Gallery in Finsbury Park to watch highlights from the 2023 Interspecies Festival. You can also access the the magical Finsbury Park Sentience Dial app to make a pledge that advances interspecies justice and blooming biodiversity!
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 depicts the story of the dawning of interspecies democracy. It’s a new era of equal rights for all living beings, where all species come together to organise and shape the environments and cultures they inhabit – in Finsbury Park, and urban green spaces across the UK, the world, and beyond!
Based around a set of live action role play games – or LARPs – the Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is played from more-than-human perspectives to encourage the blooming of a bountiful biodiversity and interspecies political action.
Like many urban parks, Finsbury Park is fraught with environmental issues from noxious gases and traffic noises to governance struggles and financial sustainability. The pledges are based on research collaborations and prioritised with participants. Find out more about the story so far, the research, and the importance of biodiversity in urban green space by visiting our FAQs.
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is a major collaborative project led by Furtherfield, exploring new ways to build empathy pathways to non-human lifeforms through play.
It represents a major undertaking to do long-term work exploring how an arts organisation based in the heart of an urban green space can support a deeper understanding of that green space and ALL its inhabitants. Beginning in 2020 and spanning a minimum of 5 years, the work was originally developed in collaboration with The New Design Congress. The first 3 years are being supported by CreaTures (Creative Practices for Transformational Futures). CreaTures project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.
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Welcome to This Coastal Town Reimagined: 200 Years Of Change!
For adults of all ages. If you are a resident, worker, regular visitor, or if you just love Felixstowe, this is for you! Join us for a fun morning or afternoon with your friends and neighbours, time-travelling into the future of this coastal town.
FREE – but booking is essential as places are limited
A chance to explore 200 years of change in Felixstowe!
🚢The port was founded in 1875. Looking back 150 years, we can see the changes it made in this town. In 50 years, how will we look back on this time with all the changes we know are coming, including new developments and shifts in climate?
🌞Felixstowe is a place that radiates healthful living and wellbeing. The land and sea support livelihoods, leisure and blooming biodiversity. The port, the largest in England, provides crucial national infrastructure and contributes to a healthy local economy. In the summer holidaymakers flock here.
🌬️But things are always changing here and in the wider world. In May, we invited local residents to chat about the futures we want. In July, we shared what we discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together we created an immersive future fiction. That is the basis of the event we are inviting you to here. Come and work on the future together! ⏳
⏰We start with a timeline of Felixstowe since the port was founded in 1875 and an invitation to add events of historic or personal significance.
Then we choose our time-travelling characters. Will you start as a young person, or an elder? What does your character care about? ✨
We will travel all the way to 2075, the year the Multispecies Port of Felixstowe opens.
This event is hosted by The Alex Brasserie, with views of the sea and a cafe bar where you can buy any refreshments around the event. Please tell us about any access needs you may have.
Participants need no prior knowledge or experience to join this event. However, if you are unsure about sustainable futures and are someone who likes to come prepared, we think these links offer a good starting point: What is climate change? A really simple guide, from the BBC, and Sustainable Development Goals from the UN.
Ruth Catlow is co-founder and director of Furtherfield and an artist and organiser interested in how different creative processes can unleash community imaginations to open up new more mutualistic futures in places.
Prof Ann Light is a researcher studying to what extent people can be transformed by encounters with the arts.
Please note that the event is being included in a research project on the effect of immersive experiences. A researcher will be there to observe the event. Although the researcher will not be observing individuals, there is an opportunity on the day for you to decide if you wish to be part of the research or not. If you would like to know more about the research project before the event, please email Professor Ann Light at the University of Sussex (ann.light@sussex.ac.uk) and she will send you an information sheet.
This event has been co-devised by Ruth Catlow, Mimi Doncaster, Ann Light, Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Hamilton MAS for hosting the co-creation workshop and to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work.
🙋Please contact Ruth by email ruth.catlow@furtherfield.org if you have any questions, or come early to talk to us.
“In The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025, we are catapulted several years into the future where all the species of the park have risen up to demand equal rights with humans. After much unrest, it has been agreed that a treaty will be drawn up, designating these rights, but first humans must learn to better relate to and understand non-humans so they can cooperate better together. Thankfully there has been a new invention – The Sentience Dial – which allows humans to tune into all the flora and fauna of Finsbury Park.”
WHAT’S ON NOW: THE TREATY SIGNING
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is a collaborative project that depicts the story of the dawning of interspecies democracy. It’s a new era of equal rights for all living beings, where all species come together to organise and shape the environments and cultures they inhabit, in Finsbury Park (and urban green spaces across the UK, the world, and beyond!) Like many urban parks, Finsbury Park is fraught with environmental issues from noxious gasses and traffic noises to governance struggles and financial sustainability. If colonial systems of dominance and control over living beings continue we all face an apocalypse.
Based around a set of LARPs – or live action role play games – the Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is played from more-than-human perspectives to encourage the blooming of a bountiful biodiversity and interspecies political action. Think like a dog, bee or even grass and help change the way we all see and participate in our local urban green spaces forever.
There are 3 parts to the story.
Part 1. 2022. The Interspecies Assemblies – these are games where everyone gets to plan the Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park 2023 – an event which will celebrate the drawing up of the treaty itself.
Part 2. 2023. The Vote – once artists have had a chance to gather everyone’s input they’ll present 3 proposals for the Interspecies Festival and everyone will be invited to choose the one they want to participate in.
Part 3. 2023. The Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park – all the species of Finsbury Park will be invited to join the festival in Summer 2023.
The Interspecies Festival will be a gathering for all species to showcase their cultures, their interests and talents. Like a World’s Fair or an Olympic Games, it will be a place of discovery, marvels and broadened horizons. But it can only be planned if you help all the species of the park present their ideas.
By planning the Interspecies Festival together, human people from the locality and around the world will build empathy pathways to other beings. They will learn about what matters to them and their habitats. They will explore what it would mean to acknowledge the equal rights of more-than-human beings to the same range of freedoms they expect for themselves. They will draft the Treaty and they will decide how to connect even more deeply with all the species of the park through a festival for all. From September 2022 scannable hoardings will wrap the Furtherfield Gallery in Finsbury Park with an exhibition featuring stories about the new knowledge and relationships formed by assembly members for the benefit of biodiversity locally and world wide.
In the PUBLIC game of ‘Interspecies Assemblies’, human players will be partnered with a mentor representing one of 7 species based in Finsbury Park. These include a tree, a bee, a goose, grass, a squirrel, a stag beetle and a dog. Players will be tuned into the mentor’s needs and experiences1 and will then represent them at a series of online assemblies being held to choose the events and the location in the park for the first ever Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park.
PLAY THE INTERSPECIES ASSEMBLIES GAMES ONLINE.
RECEIVE UPDATES ON THIS PROJECT.
In Spring 2022 The Interspecies Artists Forum will be commissioned to design a set of festival activities for 3 biodiversity habitats based on everything learned and proposed through the Assemblies. For example, the dogs might lead on the Sniffathon followed by Barkeoke, Name that Honk for the Geese, and the Squirrels present the Antique Nut Show. Different activities for different habitats will then be presented as immersive scenes for mobile phones for a public vote.
There will be a PUBLIC vote to decide which biodiversity habitat in the park will host the festival, based on the interspecies activities designed for it. We already know that the bees are abuzz for the wildflower meadows, the stag beetles dig the ancient forest, while the squirrels squeak for the new forests. But the winning habitat will need to appeal to all the species. From April 2022 scannable hoarding will wrap the Furtherfield Gallery in Finsbury Park. Everyone – human or otherwise – is invited to attend, scan, and explore activities in the proposed habitats and decide where the Interspecies Festival should be held to best serve the bountiful biodiversity of the park.
The final Interspecies Festival activities will take place in the chosen habitat to be further developed and enjoyed by the park’s public in the summer. These will take place alongside the presentation of the draft Treaty for discussion by all the human and more-than-human people of the park.
Read the concept paper here.
RECEIVE UPDATES ON THIS PROJECT.
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 is a major new project exploring new ways to build empathy pathways to non-human lifeforms through play.
It represents a major undertaking to do long-term work exploring how an arts organisation based in the heart of an urban green space can support a deeper understanding of that green space and ALL its inhabitants. Beginning in 2020 and spanning a minimum of 5 years, the work was originally developed in a collaboration between Furtherfield and The New Design Congress. The first 3 years are being supported by CreaTures Creative Practices for Transformational Futures. CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.
Artistic Direction by Ruth Catlow
Concept by Cade Diem and Ruth Catlow
Visual design by Cade Diem
Illustrations by Sajan Rai
LARP Design and Hosting by Ruth Catlow, Bea Xu and Max Dovey
LARP Player Assistance by Yejide Cordner
LARP Player Support by Lekey Leideker and Tanya Boyarkina
Writing by Ruth Catlow and Dr Charlotte Frost
Music by Matt Catlow
Digital Mask animation by PopulAR
Research by CreaTures, stewarded by Dr Lara Houston and Dr Ann Light
Production support for prototype LARPs by Tanya Boyarkina
Outreach for prototype LARPs by Pita Arreola
Thanks to our first players: Shawn, Carien, Anne, Tom and Ricard.
Special thanks to Ricard, Finsbury Park Ranger for introducing us to all the different lives of the park
Thanks to all online Interspecies Assemblies players – you know who you are – 🐶 WOOF!
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