sans façon

Limelight on ice

2012-01-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last night we installed Limelight on the ice rink in Down Town Calgary, a nicely straight forward install and as soon as the light was on the show started! The official first night is tonight but we couldn't resist snapping some of the action, so here's a couple of pictures before we left. With a low of minus 12 predicted for tonight, it's a fairly nice night ahead.

Limelight in Calgary

2012-01-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

Limelight will be in Olympic Plaza this week end as Part of High Performance Rodeo, if you feel like coming and dancing (or running, singing, skating, playing, ... ) in the spotlight or just watch the reactions, do come and join us!

Strip appeal

2012-01-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

Just before we left for the festive season, we went up to Edmonton to be part of the jury for Strip appeal (http://www.strip-appeal.com/).
Strip Appeal is an ideas design competition, and traveling exhibit, intended to stimulate and showcase creative design proposals for the adaptive reuse of small-scale strip-malls.
The jury was really interesting with some great discussions on the short listed entries. You can have a look at them on http://www.strip-appeal.com/, with a public vote active until Jan 9. The winners of the jury vote and the public vote will be announced on Jan. 16.

New Year

2012-01-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all!

After a short spell over the festive period in the UK and in France, we're now back in Calgary.

The preparations for Watershed+ continue and some actions will be visible soon, watch this space!

In the pipeline for the beginning of this year is Limelight in Calgary for High Performance Rodeo where for the first time the lights will be on the ice!

Also in Spring we are excited to take part in Show Time, Choreography in Contemporary Art, where we'll develop an installation for the exhibition. The show will be at the Gl Holtegaard in Denmark. Show Time is curated by Liberty Paterson.

High Performance Rodeo

2011-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

As High Performance Rodeo launched its 25th edition, we're proud to be part of this year's line up with Limelight: Saturday night. Commissioned by Calgary's Public Art Program, Limelight will be part of the High Performance Rodeo events in January and, for the first time, it will be on ice!

Liberty Kent Public Art Award

2011-11-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

A belated news, last month we were delighted to have been shorlisted for the Liberty Kent Public Art Award for Iconic Site in Margate.
And 2 weeks ago we got the news that we were runners up! A very nice surprise indeed.
The winner for 2011 is Adam Chodzko for Ghost and the other runner is A K Dolven for Out of Tune, a very company to be in.

Fogo Island

2011-10-05T13:47:00.001-07:00

Browsing the Fall edition of Canadian art, we just came across a very nice description of the project we undertook in Fogo Island 2 years ago:

"...Later, Gunnarsdottir gives me a present from the Arts Corporation: a publication the foundation produced, a booklet of an artist project called 4 dimensional mapping that she curated in August 2009.
The project included artists from France, Scotland and Switzerland, [rather anonymous, basically us and Erika Irmler] and involved local residents. It documented an investigation of the material culture of Fogo Island, and contained locals' verbatim descriptions of geographical markers and the sea, recipes of traditional dishes like Jiggs' dinner, drawings of local architecture and other cultural points of interest, photographical portraits of residents, and copies of postcards sent to Glasgow detailing aspects of the island life. In its careful documentation of the culture, the 4 dimensional mapping project was not so different from the careful documentation undertaken by the original Fogo Process."

Rock Haven, Fogo Island’s Newfoundland art-residency experiment
by Lisa Moore

Nuit Blanche

2011-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

We just came back from Toronto where Limelight was presented at the fifth edition of the Nuit Blanche. After an installation in the pouring rain on Friday, the weather held for the event on Saturday and the crowd was amazing, the spotlight was constantly surrounded and the passers-by queued to go in, a real pleasure to watch, smilling all night.
Here are a couple of pictures and descriptions of the night gathered from the net before we upload our own pictures:

From Blogto.com top 10 Nuit Blanche 2011 Toronto exhibits:

It was really nothing more than two spotlights shining down into the middle of the street at Yonge and Grosvenor, but its beauty was its simplicity. Essentially, the street corner was turned into a stage, and random people become the performers as they stepped into the light and did...well, whatever the hell they wanted. A large crowd was consistently on hand as they were treated to impromptu acts of performance art, acrobatics, and a 300+ pound man running through the light with his shirt off, screaming at the top of his lungs. B.S. Photo by Tom Ryaboi

Some of Limelight's action in this youtube clip by backformore06 starting from 2.18 untill 5.00:

from Chromewaves

ALBERTA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

2011-09-19T17:04:00.001-07:00

This coming Thursday we shall be talking about our work and our plans for the next 18 months in Calgary with Watershed+ at ACAD.

PECHA KUCHA CALGARY - WEDNESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

2011-09-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

Next week we will be taking part in Calgary's Pecha Kucha 9 organised by Calgary Arts Development. The night kicks off with pre-show entertainment on River Walk. The main event starts at 7pm at the Golden Age Club on 610 8th Ave. SE. Seats can be reserved by visiting CalgaryCulture.com.

It would be great to see you there!

The move

2011-09-02T01:50:00.001-07:00

That's it, the studio and our personal belongings are all packed and waiting for Mr Fed Ex to come and ship it all to Calgary.
Once we're settle there we'll start posting more, especially about the Watershed+ project that is taking us there for 18 months.
More soon

Frankfurt

2011-08-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Just back from installing Limelight: Saturday night in Frankfurt for Playing the City, an event organised by the Schirn Kunsthalle.

From their website:
Playing the City—take three. From August 11 to August 25, 2011, more than fifteen international artists will occupy the inner city of Frankfurt with their actions, performances, and installations. Art will take to the street again. Playing the City 3 will focus on public space as a venue for artistic activities involving the city and its inhabitants in a variety of ways again. Each day will see new participatory projects by such artists as Tania Bruguera, Minerva Cuevas, Jacob Dahlgren, Tim Etchells, Christian Jankowski, San Keller, Kommando Agnes Richter, Levent Kunt, Eileen Perrier, Il-Chin Atem Choi, Sans façon, and Upper Bleistein. Political manifestations, demonstrations, or markets and stands specially organized by artists will help carry on the discussion on the collective, free and designable space, its limits, and not least its inhabitants' involvement.

In parallel to the activities unfolding in the city, the project team will do its work in public in headquarters set up in the Schirn—feeding the website, answering questions about the exhibition, and organizing and documenting all activities. Playing the City 3 can also be followed on the Internet as a digital extension of public space:

DIRECTOR: Max Hollein. CURATOR: Matthias Ulrich (Schirn). ASSISTANT: Clara Wörsdörfer.

The electricians really enjoyed Tristan's colour choices for the installation day.

Pecha Kucha - tomorrow night

2011-07-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

We will be taking part in Glasgow's Pecha Kucha 5 at the Tramway, kick off is at 7pm, I think its ticketed, we are looking forward to it - hope to see you there.

Shamelessly cut from a website:
Another set of talks in the Japanese Pecha Kucha format, which, for the uninitiated, allows creative speakers to show 20 slides for a strict 20 seconds each, keeping things pacy and exciting. This month's event is jointly curated by Trigger producer Suzy Glass and freelance designer Katy West.

University of Oxford

2011-05-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

Last week we took part in a seminar at the University of Oxford, Creative ecologies: conditioning inventiveness.
The other people invited were eminent geographers, archeologists, political theorist, musicologist, philosopher and anthropologist, an amazing combination of knowledge.
To put it simply, we were looking at creativity in its wider sense, basing the discussions on some of the objects from the awe inspiring Pitt Rivers Museum which hosted us for 3 days. The objects used, which we were allowed to manipulate,
included a tupilak,
a mandrake root,
a desiccated heart encased in a heart-shaped lead container and a Micronesian Nautical chart.pictures from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

From the introducing paper by Charlotte Bates, Joe Gerlach, Thomas Jellis, Wendy Morrison, and Sefryn Penrose, the seminar aimed to engage "with objects which are in some ways unfamiliar to us, which will stimulate us to engage and to talk in ways unusual in an academic meeting. As we have stressed above, the idea of mutual making of people and objects is key to many current approaches to the material world. Academics tend to write and talk about this mutuality, rather than engage with it. There is risk as well as potential in such engagement, but we are hoping not just to consider creativity from a distance, but also to set up some of the conditions in which creativity occurs."
As part of our engagement for the seminar we devised a workshop session looking at the importance of individual recollection of objects and their personal meanings.

We felt very privileged to be able to spend a week discussing and exploring such notions in the company of fascinating people and with the access to such unusual objects.

Marseille

2011-05-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Marseille to meet some people (amongst others Vanessa Santullo one half of the great culture blog Marseille face b) and, after talking about it for many years, we finally started to discover this exciting city.

Along the way we were advised to check the Bonne Mère (the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde) to see the ex-votos.
There were indeed some fascinating ex-votos paintings but the most amazing sight was the of dozens of models of boats of different periods, and a few planes, hanging from the ceiling, placed there in gratitude to the Saints. Boats floating in church.

We look forward to returning to Marseille soon.

Charmouth bridge opening

2011-04-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Charmouth, for the opening of the footbridge we designed with the Dorset County Council engineers.
In this beautiful location on the World Heritage Site of the Jurassic coast and the South West Coastal Path the intention was from the beginning not to create a bridge that would become a focal point but to create a place that would enhance the experience of crossing the river and become a viewing point for this landscape. The result is in keeping with the scale of the previous bridge but bows towards the sea and widens in its centre, creating an overhanging balcony over the river, almost a public space in the middle of the bridge.

It has been a really productive collaboration with the design team from day one, and yesterday was a great pleasure to see so many people enjoying the bridge.

Margate

2011-04-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

We've just finished installing Iconic site, now placed on the historic Fort Road Hotel in Margate.
To coincide with the opening of the Turner Contemporary, Iconic Site was commissioned to question the future of the Fort Road Hotel, now laying derelict, one of the last building in the area that JMW Turner would have recognised if he were to visit Margate today.

and a small video of the switch on.

Commissioned by Margate Arts, Creativity, Heritage

Limelight Gaborone

2011-04-09T05:15:00.000-07:00

A wonderful first night for Limelight in Botswana - for more images please see
www.limelightontour.blogspot.com

Limelight back on tour

2011-04-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Gaborone, Botswana, Thursday morning at the invitation of the Maitisong festival and the British Council. Limelight will be installed tomorrow at Riverwalk from 7pm. We are very much looking forward to exploring the city and meeting some of its residents over the next six days.
Photo taken during an interview at Duma FM this afternoon.

Charmouth Bridge getting closer

2011-03-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

We just received a picture from the engineers of the main framework of the bridge being put in place today. it's getting tantalisingly close to completion.

Charmouth bridge on site

2011-03-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Construction work on the new Charmouth footbridge we designed with engineers from Dorset County Council has begun. Below are images of the first elements - piles are in place, and work on the abutments is underway. The steel frame should be delivered to site in the next couple of weeks and if all goes to plan it should be open for the easter holidays.
The old bridge (the one which needs replacing) is still in place and usable so you can get a good look at how things are progressing with the new one.

view of pile taken from the old bridge

the two piles neatly alined next to the old bridge

heavy foundation works for the abutments on which the bridge frame will sit

Wild life on tour

2011-03-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

After its first four nights at Cumbernauld Theatre, Wild Life has now begun its tour around Scotland, Mull Theatre tonight at the Tron in Glasgow this weekend amongst other dates.
Actors Lesley Hart and David Ireland do an outstanding job, it's worth seeing just to watch them at work.

Reviews have been good so far.

Here are a few pictures from the final dress rehearsal (thanks to Jonny Rogerson (Assistant Director) for the images:
Nick Millar -Production Manager - putting the final tweaks to the projection

Tristan, producing freehand Graffiti for a (genuine) part of the set.

Final notes on set with actors Lesley Hart (Daisy) and David Ireland (Dave)

The set complete but absent of the actors

chatting with Director Nick Bone

Wildlife

2011-02-25T03:02:00.000-08:00

Last day of preparation for the new theatre production with Magnetic North on a new play by Pamela Carter, Wildlife opens tonight. Another productive collaboration with the theatre director Nick Bone.

Site visit

2011-02-23T03:32:00.000-08:00

Margate, January 2011

Ad hoc sledging

2010-12-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

Snow in Glasgow, ingenious people making sledges out of anything in Queen's Park. The best one was a fridge door with an added cushion, went like a rocket.

Biennale Internationale Design

2010-11-26T08:41:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 29th we will be presenting our practice at a "Study day Conference" in the International Design Biennale in Saint Etienne, France.

Pluri-multi : multidisciplinary and multicultural in the design of public spaces
Organised by: Master Espace public : design, architecture, practices (master in paternship between the Art and Design School of Saint-Étienne, the Architecture School of Saint-Étienne and the Human and Social Sciences department of Jean Monnet University).

Limelight blog

2010-11-19T04:24:00.000-08:00

We've finally made a separate blog for Limelight:Saturday night to make it easier to follow and not to overload this one.
Here it is: limelightontour.blogspot.com

Kansas City Art Institute

2010-11-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

On our last day in Kansas City for Limelight: Saturday night we did a presentation of our practice at the Kansas City Art Institute, a very good turn up and again some nice discussions afterwards.

Limelight in Kansas City

2010-11-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight Limelight will be in Kansas city, MO, on W 20th st between Main St and W Baltimore Ave,. We're looking forward to see the performances.
Thanks for El dorado Architects for inviting us again to this part of the world

Kansas City lecture

2010-11-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Later on this week, we will be giving a lecture at the University of Kansas School of Architecture as part of 2010 Fall Lecture Series, amongst very nice company.

Friday November 5th : 11.30
Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium

The Canadian Water Innovation Lab 2010

2010-10-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

Last friday we took part in the Canadian Water Innovation Lab 2010 with a presentation on the role and place of art in the consideration of infrastructures in the city, focussing on water infrastructures and sustainability through our Watershed+ project.

The presentation was very well received and the following discussion session, where we were the "resource guests", was very interesting, with questions and issues raised by people from a whole range of backgrounds. A very good day, thanks for all the questions and the discussion and for inviting us.

Limelight Arlington

2010-10-11T07:27:00.001-07:00

Finally here are the first pictures from the installation and the first night of Limelight in Arlington.

Limelight London

2010-10-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Limelight on Kings road last night.

Limelight London

2010-09-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

Next week we're taking Limelight to London.
It will take place at the junction of Kings Road and Royal Avenue, SW3.

The installation will be there from monday evening until thursday and run from around 7.30 pm until 12 midnight each night. We'll be filming and documenting on the monday and tuesday.

Hope to see you in the Limelight.

Walden on tour

2010-09-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

Walden is on tour again this year, we saw one of the performance in Glasgow on Wednesday before its journey through Scotland and Wales over the coming month.
You can find the dates here.

Limelight Inverness

2010-09-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

spotlight, Inverness, Art, limelight, spot, light

Limelight Newcastle

2010-09-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Limelight in Newcastle last week end, great location on the quay side and great reactions.
This week end Limelight is in Inverness, pictures soon.

Glasgow Saturday night in the Limelight

2010-08-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

Limelight Saturday night started!
here are some pictures of the installation in Glasgow, next week end, Newcastle.

Limelight: Saturday night in Glasgow

2010-08-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Come and be in the limelight this Friday and Saturday night!

We are bringing back Limelight to Glasgow as part of Limelight: Saturday night, a tour of the piece in 10 different cities internationally in 2010, 2011.

Limelight: Saturday night has been chosen to form part of a series of works commissioned to mark the launch of ARTISPHERE, a new cultural centre in Arlington,Virginia. Over the next 18 months we will take Limelight: Saturday night to visit ten cities, to install and record a selection of Saturday nights from streets around the world.

The edited film of the first 5 cities will be premiered on 10.10.10 at the ARTISPHERE and then intermittently on the main video wall in the cultural centre throughout 2010/11, with the additional five hours added throughout 2011.

Looking forward to see you there, singing, dancing, … or just watching.

Limelight: Saturday night will be in Glasgow form Friday 27th August as soon as the street lights come on and again on Saturday night in Candleriggs.

The next cities for 2010 are:
Newcastle, September 3rd and 4th
Inverness, September 10th and 11th
Bruxelles, October 2nd
London, October 4th 5th and 6th
Arlington, VA, October 8th, 9th and 10th

4 dimensional mapping

2010-08-06T06:39:00.001-07:00

The publication from our experimental workshop on Fogo Island last year has arrived.
The work was developed with Erika Irmler (who also designed the publication) and was part of the Production Program of the Fogo Island Arts Corporation.

Here is a wee preview:

Walking along the curb

2010-07-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, early for a meeting, we spent 20 minutes spotting out people walking along the curb instead of in the "designated" walking area.
An unconscious behaviour left over from childhood or a more comfortable surface to walk on, or a combination of both?

Newcastle University Campus

Placement

2010-07-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

This month we have the pleasure of working with Alix Fournier.
Alix is a french architecture student who will take part in the different projects we're developing in July, mostly the Promenade in Bristol and the development of Limelight: saturday night for Artisphere, Arlington, VA.

with the neighbour's cat during a regular visit

Wild life

2010-06-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

In January 1800, a strange creature was trapped by hunters in the woods near Aveyron in southern France. On closer examination, the creature turned out to be a boy, about 12 years old and naked apart from the tattered remains of a shirt. His body was covered in scars, with one large and particularly vicious looking one on his neck which seemed to indicate an attempt to cut his throat. The boy was in a shocking condition and seemed to be both deaf and mute. At first the authorities were perplexed about what to do with him, but then people began to wonder if this was an opportunity to discover more about ourselves. If this boy had grown up wild, might it be possible to study him and discover whether it is nature or nurture that makes us human?

Another exciting collaboration starting with Theatre Director Nick Bone on this new play by Pamela Carter.
Wild life will be produced in February 2011 and will tour throughout Scotland.

Home/Away - art in social spaces

2010-05-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

This week we received our copies of Home/Away - Art in social spaces. This book gathers together a series of projects produced as part of Idensitat 4 in the towns and villages surrounding Barcelona. In addition to the documentation of the production and realisation of these projects, this book includes a series of dialogues from artists, educators, cultural managers and experts. Our project, Histories i llocs forms part of this series.

Hidden spaces No.9

2010-05-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Glasgow

Studio Neighbours

2010-05-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

As well as the very talented Mouse and Bean, environmentally and ethically aware textile designers, our other studio neighbour is Maeko jewellery, also very talented, who just launched their new website: maeko.co.uk

Hidden spaces No.8

2010-05-07T04:45:00.001-07:00

Glasgow, Stovenhaven

Experimenting with Geography

2010-05-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

Today, we presented at the week-long Experimenting with Geography Workshop: See-hear-make-do, held at the University of Edinburgh, and this afternoon we shall be leading a practical workshop on site-specific audio work.

The week is dedicated to developing a diverse range of craft skills associated with audio, visual and site-specific methodologies. For further information on the wider Experimenting with Geography project click here.

The project is managed by Dr Michael Gallagher, Research Fellow at the university's Institute of Geography and runs until the end of July 2010.

Hidden spaces No.7

2010-05-06T02:55:00.001-07:00

North Shields, Fish Quay

Hidden spaces No.6

2010-05-05T02:33:00.001-07:00

Glasgow

Hidden spaces No.5

2010-05-04T10:15:00.001-07:00

Aberdeen & Glasgow

Hidden spaces No.4

2010-04-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

Loch Carron, Lake District

Hidden spaces No.3

2010-04-29T08:28:00.001-07:00

Glasgow

Hidden spaces No.2

2010-04-27T08:21:00.001-07:00

Glasgow

Hidden spaces No.1

2010-04-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Glasgow

Hidden Spaces Series for Central Station

2010-04-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

This is Central Station have asked us to contribute to their Hidden Spaces discussion.
During April we will be uploading a series of studies of hidden spaces, to view our first entry click here

Odd sympathies is now live

2010-04-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

This week the Odd Sympathies website has gone live.
On the site you can listen to sections of the work, download the score and map to follow the walk on site and find out more about the piece we created in collaboration with composer John Metcalf.

The site was designed by Remote Location

Change of Address

2010-03-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

We have now moved premises and our new address is:

334 Albert Drive
Ground Floor
Glasgow
G41 5HH

Tel:+44 (0) 141 429 0432

We are settling in nicely to the space and have been welcomed by our
ground floor neighbours, textile designers Mouse and Bean.

New studio

2010-03-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

We've finally moved into our new studio, still surrounded by boxes but getting there.

Watershed+ visit

2010-03-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

A week of meetings and presentations in Calgary for the last discussions and input on the Watershed+ project before its delivery later next month.

Beach Huts, Colours & Locks

2010-02-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

Beach hut locks wrapped to protect them from the sea spray.
Westward Ho!, Devon

Barriers

2010-02-15T06:11:00.000-08:00

Glasgow & Aberdeen

OLD DOORS

2010-02-11T06:53:00.001-08:00

Newcastle, Llandovery

CCTV

2010-02-08T05:55:00.001-08:00

Manchester, Glasgow

Talk at Birkbeck College

2010-02-04T02:48:00.000-08:00

Last week we gave a talk to students on the MA Arts & Policy Management course at Birkbeck College, University of London.

football pitch 2

2010-01-21T06:40:00.000-08:00

Oban

football pitch 1

2010-01-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

Saunton Sands, Devon

Stall construction

2010-01-21T04:22:00.001-08:00

Table plank, trestles, fabric held with spring clamps (used as hooks for front and side display), pre-made square timber frame held onto the table with adjustable C clamps

Second pre-made vertical timber frame fixed, horizontal supports (more items on display carried from the van at the same time as horizontal supports)

Secondary horizontal supports for front display and reinforcement, adjustable C clamps

Side grill for side display slotted in horizontal supports,

Additional side grid for wider display, balanced display on top layer

Secondary table display: T shape planks resting on C clamps, inverted plastic cup and front display grids

Back table display resting on lateral secondary table display, additional items on display

Stall ready

Observed in Washington DC last year

Broadcast No.1

2010-01-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

For 2010 we will be issuing quarterly Sans façon Broadcasts to keep you up-to-date with our practice activities. We've had a good year and wanted to dedicate our first broadcast to those who helped to make it so.

Sans façon's highlights of 2009:

The year started with the Art & Architecture Journal featuring a piece we’d written on the exchange between artists and public art commissioners. We made our first visit of the year to Calgary to develop work on Laycock Park in conjunction with Westhoff Engineers and The City of Calgary. The Fly Eric Symposia 2 (held at Storey Gallery, Lancaster) invited us to present our work as part of a discussion on valuing artists’ skills.

We travelled to the US to team up with El Dorado architects (Kansas City, MO) to develop a proposal for the New Cultural Centre in Arlington, VA, where we met Robert Gay (of Thought Barn), both of whom we hope to work with in the coming year. We even had time to give a talk at the La Esquina Gallery for the Charlotte Street Foundation & the American Institute of Architects.

Two became three in the summer, when we were joined in the studio by Kerry Spring, hired to assist with and develop our growing practice. Our second collaboration with Magnetic North’s artistic Director, Nicholas Bone, culminated in a UK tour of Walden with Ewan Donald returning to the role of Henry David Thoreau. Kay Burns (our mentee on the Laycock Park project) performed her Iris Taylor Walk and its related website was launched. At the second annual Art & Urban Design Conference, we presented our approach to working in this field and for Par+rs discussed the collaborative process in an article entitled “Collaboration as a place you don’t expect”.

August found us on a 3 week residency on Fogo Island (Newfoundland, Canada) commissioned by the Shorefast Foundation, where we worked alongside photographer Erika Irmler on the 4 Dimensional Mapping Project. Our hand drawn postcard series from Fogo became a daily email highlight for those who subscribed to them.

In autumn, we sat on the selection panel for Cube Open 2009, and Dorset County Council commissioned us to design a footbridge in Charmouth in collaboration with their engineers. In November the design team workshop held at our studio developed the Visual Language Project into Watershed+. Team members, Yan Olivares (Yes Architectes, Saint Etienne), Matt Baker (Artist), Dr. Eric Laurier (Geography Department, Edinburgh University), Emlyn Firth (A Visual Agency), Heather Saunders (Public Art Program project manager for The City of Calgary) and Bert Van Duin (Water Engineer, Calgary) were in attendance and contributed to a really successful and exciting week.

As 2009 drew to a close, Històries i llocs was presented in Barcelona hosted by our commissioners Idensitat. Details were worked on for the bridge in Charmouth, Suzanne Dimmock (formerly of Lancaster County Council) received Morecambe House arts programme proposal documents we devised/designed, Manchester Design Lab invited us to talk to MA students, work with RMJM’s Edinburgh office on a project in Whitehaven was gearing up and Silverlink extended Iconic site’s stay in Newcastle into 2010 .

If you would like to receive the first broadcast in full, or subscribe to the future issues then please email: kerry@sansfacon.co.uk

Happy New Year from us all at Sans façon

Charles & Tristan return from Calgary

2009-12-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

Charles and Tristan returned to the studio this week after a successful trip to Calgary where they presented the research developed during the Watershed+ (formerly known as the Visual Language Project) design team workshop held last month at the Sans façon studio. The presentations received an overwhelming positive response, and further development work will continue into the new year.

Whilst there, design work continued with their collaborative partners on the Vanishing Pond for Laycock Park.

ID BARRI Presents Històries i llocs

2009-12-02T05:09:00.000-08:00

In 2007, Indensitat commissioned us to develop a piece of work in the renowned Spanish wine producing region, Priorat. The result was Històries i llocs: 'sites and stories'. Engagement with the local community yielded a range of personal anecdotes illustrating something of social landscape of the area. Sections of these stories were printed as labels and attached to bottles produced from local grapes.

The wine has matured and is now ready drink. ID BARRI will present the project and wine tasting at 8.30pm, Friday 4 December, The Chapel, Carrer Hospital, 56 08001 Barcelona.

IDENSITAT is an art project developed with the will of providing mechanisms for the articulation of creative projects in the field of public space and related to the territory. The goal is to stimulate creative practices which experiment with new ways of social engagement and participation, connected to already existing practices and dynamics in the territory. For further information please go to www.idensitat.org

Bridge workshop

2009-11-13T03:03:00.000-08:00

As part of our work for the pedestrian bridge in Charmouth (being designed in collaboration with the engineers from DEC) we conducted a bridge building workshop with children from the local primary school. After a short introduction to bridges and to the existing footbridge, the year 6 children designed and built their own bridges with drinking straws and tape. The designs were very varied and impressive, ranging from the very strong to the amazingly minimal and beautiful.

Glasgow and Edinburgh workshop

2009-11-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Last week was 4 days of workshop in the studio with our team for the "formerly known as the Visual Language" Project, 3 days in Glasgow and 1 day at the Geography department in Edinburgh (thanks to Eric for organising it). Quite an intense series of discussions and huge leaps forward.
It is so exciting and fascinating to follow the discussions between 3 artists, an architect, a geographer, a graphic designer and a project manager, all working in the same direction and building up the project together.

Cube Open 09

2009-10-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

The overall winner for 2009 is Simon le Ruez (here also), who will be exhibiting recent sculpture and neon works that are concerned with the urban built environment in their evocation of abandoned piers, bunkers, balconies, buildings and colonies. Le Ruez will be resident at CUBE during the 2010 CUBEOpen exhibition.

Highlights include site-specific drawing by artist Yuko Saito, playful painterly interventions in the city and gallery by Liverpool-based artist Brendan Lyons, cast sculptures by Ludovic Boden, sketchbook drawings by Alexandra Blum taken from the Dalston Construction series and a swimming pool.

Central station

2009-10-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of months we took part in the first steps of the new experimental online community for creative people, central station.
"Central Station is a space where artists, film-makers and designers can talk about their process, showcase their work, share tools and tip, access resources."
Emlyn, who works with us on the Visual Language Project, is one of the brains behind the project.

Kerry has been a gem looking after the whole process.

Iris Taylor Watershed walk, Laycock Park

2009-09-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

This Sunday (20th September) will be the open house for Laycock Park (Calgary) and the launch of Iris Taylor's Watershed walk, an art work by Kay Burns created in collaboration with ourselves through UEP's Public Art Program Mentorship scheme.
If you are in town, it would be lovely to see you.
more details here

Still from one of the episode of Iris' downloadable guided walk

Artist panel

2009-09-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

Next thursday we will be part of an artist panel discussing “What impact can/does public art have on a community?”.
Come around if you are in the area. The panel is scheduled for 5:30pm on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at the City of Calgary Water Centre (25th Avenue and Spiller Road S.E.).

The discussion is organised by The City of Calgary Public Art Program.

Fogo Island, continued 2

2009-09-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

Fishing stage with a corner made of 2 stones, Tilting

Flake (timber walkway used as access and for drying salted fish), Tilting

Bluberry crisp, made by Joy, Joe Batt's Arm

Vegetable garden, Tilting

Store door, Tilting

Porpoise tails, Barr'd Islands

Tilting

Joe Batt's Arm

Barr'd Islands

CUBEOpen 09

2009-09-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Next month we'll be part of the selection panel for the Cube Open 09.

"This is an opportunity for artists and architects to explore exciting relationships with their contemporary surroundings. Selected entrants are exhibited in the gallery and three prize winners will be chosen. The overall winner is offered a residency placement at CUBE."

Fogo Island, continued

2009-08-30T08:15:00.001-07:00

Fishing stage in Deep Bay
Caribous
Door handle on Aidan's stage, Joe Batt's Arm
Inside Aidan's stage, listing the previous years caribou hunts, Joe Batt's Arm
Salted cod drying on the flakes, Joe Batt's Arm

Walden on tour

2009-08-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

The new performances of Walden had great responses from the press (nice review in the list) and from the audience.
It finishes on Saturday in the Edinburgh Fringe, then will be touring in September and October (dates here).

The set in The Dovecot in Edinburgh, pictures by Nick Bone

Fogo island project

2009-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

We are documenting some of our ongoing project / research in Fogo Island in another blog: http://fogomaps.blogspot.com/

fishing stages

2009-08-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

The fishing stages in Fogo Island were built as a place to prepare the fish, gut it, then salt it. Most of them are still in used today. The bridge, or flakes, were also used to dry the salted cod.
Beautiful small structures, with a very light hold onto the rocks.

punts half models

2009-08-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

The local boat building practice for the traditional rowing fishing boat, the punt, is being revived through the punt race. Some of the boat builders use "half models" of different scales and of different constructions to measure up the boats. One of the type of half model has layers held together with pegs, the other has slots in the hull in which inserted cards work as sections to scale up.

Iceberg ice

2009-08-19T07:14:00.001-07:00

picture by Erika Irmler

In one of our visit we were offered "iceberg ice" as a drink, literally a bit of ice carved out of iceberg bits that pass by in spring and kept in the freezer.

Fogo island

2009-08-18T18:10:00.001-07:00

We're just starting three weeks in Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada, for an art project with the Shorefast Foundation, and we'll be posting pictures as the weeks develop.

Samantha Voong

2009-07-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

Samantha is a student on the Masters in Graphic Arts Course at the University of the West of England, and will be spending this week with us in the studio, working on her own projects and quizzing us about ours.

Walden on tour

2009-07-28T02:04:00.000-07:00

The rehearsals for the new tour of Walden began yesterday at the Scottish Opera.
It will be performed in Glasgow at the G12 between the 13th and 15th August, then will go to the Edinburgh Fringe at the the Dovecot from the 17th untill the 29th August. It will tour throughout the UK until October.

For more information for booking, dates and venues, see Magnetic North website.

Demand Co-ordinator

2009-07-22T03:01:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to welcome Kerry Spring as the new D.C. for Sans façon. Kerry will be splitting her time between our Glasgow studio and her London base.

Public art online

2009-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Public art online has just launched its ongoing review of Laycock Park project and Visual Language project as part of their case studies.

El dorado collaboration

2009-07-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

We're recently back from a week developing a proposal for an art commission with El dorado Architects. Some very interesting discussions came up on the different approaches to a brief from architecture practice or art practice.
Proposal due in next week.

painted signs

2009-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Kansas City, Washington DC, Washington DC

that which burns

2009-06-15T07:29:00.001-07:00

Existing road sign in the Highlands, near Loch Tulla.

A Place for Creativity?

2009-06-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

We're heading to Manchester for our presentation tomorrow at the 2nd annual art & urban design conference in Salford, A Place for Creativity? Unlocking the original in urban design and development. We will be presenting our practice as an example of the artist role in the public realm.

The conference is organised by Rudi, the Resource for Urban Design Information, and Places Matters! the architecture centre in Manchester; in partnership with the Art and Architecture Journal.

Collaboration As A Place You Don't Expect

2009-06-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

Our article on collaborations for the Public Art Resource+Research Scotland (PAR+RS) is now online.
You can see it here

Històries i llocs

2009-06-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday 6th june the project Històries i Llocs will be presented at the El Masroig winery in Priorat.

The project, initiated 2 years ago, looked at the importance of seemingly superficial individual stories in the understanding and definition of a territory. These stories put together build an image of a social landscape without nostalgia nor official branding.
A selection of 30 stories will be printed individually on 5000 specially produced wine labels -the region's being intrinsically linked to wine production and becoming increasingly famous for its Montsant and Priorat wines. The stories will be disseminated with the bottles.

The project was commissioned by Idensitat and Priorat Centre d’Art with the collaboration of the D.O. Montsant, the El Masroig and the Aibar wineries.

Fly Eric

2009-05-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

Next Saturday we'll take part of one of the Fly Eric Symposia in Storey Gallery on "Changing perceptions of what artists can do".

Previous Fly Eric Symposium in Art Gene with architects Charlie Mackeith and Madeleine Adams of Research Design, David Coterrell and Katherine Clarke of Muf Architects . Image courtesy of Barry Hobson 2009. From here

Fly Eric is a developmental network of artist focused organisations in the North West of England, led by Art Gene (Barrow-in-Furness), Castlefield Gallery (Manchester) and Storey Gallery (Lancaster).

From a visit to Florence

2009-05-14T02:58:00.000-07:00

Market seller reading his paper

Moped parking reservation

Monoculars

Market seller in front of his carefully stacked crates

A door in a facade, carefully made to blend in ('stone' blocks carved from wood)

multi-functional design

2009-05-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

Barrier holder

Skater's ramp

Warning for wet concrete

Drunken demonstration 1

Drunken demonstration 2

Gutter pipe holder and receptacle

Lighting display. Drunken demonstration 3

Fence fixing

Drunken demonstration 4

London, Glasgow, Bristol, Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow, Dun Laoghaire, Glasgow, Glasgow

Inspiring cities

2009-05-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to have Odd sympathies featured on Inspiring cities website. You can have a look at the article here.
Thanks to Kerry Spring for her review.

"Inspiring Cities is about international and interdisciplinary best practice in urban development. It is about the exchange of ideas and changing the way people think about the city."