I organised a 2017 collaboration with the Folkestone Triennial which brought together conversations on architecture, public contemporary art and urban ‘placemaking’.

The multi-disciplinary range of speakers, performers and creative masterclass leads, drew on their own individual approaches and fields of operation to generate a wider conversation on the creative use of interstitial spaces, inspired by the notion of a ‘situated practice’ (and the simultaneous launch of The Bartlett’s new situated practice MA). Discussions considered the multi-layered and complex situations artists and the arts find themselves in during processes of urban change.

Held across three months, the trio of symposia were situated in three ‘edge’ locations brought together by the High Speed 1 rail link as a launchpad for exchange: the first event at UCL’s Bloomsbury campus considered the area’s historic and newly developed gateway sites for knowledge and transport (‘gateway’—September); the second event held at the Here East ‘maker space’ considered the transformation of Stratford from edge location to emerging destination (‘periphery’—October); and the ambitious culture-led regeneration of Folkestone, a seaside town on the littoral edge of England, was the focus of the final event (‘border’—November).

Keynote speakers were drawn from the world of practice, including the acclaimed artists Jeremy Deller, Jill Magid and Do ho Suh, and architect Friedrich Ludewig, director of ACME Studio who are proposing a new integrated project on Folkestone’s seafront.

Yet the depth of knowledge ran much deeper, with interventions from lauded multi-disciplinary collectives Assemble, MUF and the Decorators, arts organisations Stroom Den Haag, space, and Edinburgh Art Festival, curators and critics Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell, JJ Charlesworth, and Diane Dever, alongside a range of critical thinkers, architects, poets, and historians.

To programme this ambitious series—convened by Kieren Reed (Slade School of Fine Art), James O’Leary (Bartlett School of Architecture) and Lewis Biggs (Folkestone Triennial)—day tickets were sold at a range from £5—£15, with discounts for those joining us at all three events.

With over 600 attendants, feedback collated from the series was incredibly positive—with an average score of 8.4 out of 10.

Each event was preceded by a film screening that broadened out the themes emerging from each symposium, organised with the Open City Documentary Festival and students from The Bartlett’s Film + Place + Architecture Doctoral Network. A sold-out screening at Bloomsbury’s Horse Hospital of essay film Finisterre, alongside Rosa Barba’s Disseminate and Hold, and William Raban’s About Now MMX, led into a screening of Foreign Parts and artist films at Here East, and an intimate evening at the Waiting Room on Folkestone’s Harbour Arm for a showing of Marc Isaacs’ Calais: The Last Border.

I commisioned the cohesive design identity for edge from Matthew Chrislip, who successfully brought together the complex programming elements of the series.

Find out more: situated-practice.net/edge-conference