Talk at Birkbeck College

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

football pitch 2

Oban

football pitch 1

Saunton Sands, Devon

Stall construction

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

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

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

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