Art, Research & Adventure

A permanent, building-wide installation for the The Edge at the University of Bath. Designed with Neasden Control Centre as Smith and Lewarne. The Edge is an arts and creativity hub informed by the history, context and research of the university. It encourages collaborations between the arts and research, providing a place where artists, audiences, researchers and academics can find new perspectives and fertile ground to showcase new thinking and ideas. The Edge commissioned Smith & Lewarne because they wanted to represent these collaborations visually.

The project started with a phase of in-depth research of some of the oldest books in the archives assisted by the archivists in the university library. The images, along with scans from long-superseded textbooks dealing with the university's core subjects, were put through various analogue and digital processes to create the visuals used across the installation. Two unique books played a key role in the visual development of the installation: the initial manual for the university's branding and signage and the visioning document produced by the architects during the first phase of building the campus.