LATERAL NORTH is a research and design collective based in Glasgow, Scotland run by Graham Hogg and Tom Smith. Here they tell us a bit more about how they got together and the kind of work they do.

LATERAL NORTH looks to investigate Scotland’s new place and identity within an economically emerging northern region; exploring the relationship between people, culture, places, industries and economies.

With a shift in approach and traditional ideology, LATERAL NORTH engages in cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary design and research. This collaboration allows discovery, investigation and testing of previously over-looked opportunities and engage people in long-term, strategic, holistic visioning.

Our integrated design approach involves extended engagement alongside creative professionals and attempts to deliver a competent design resolution for projects ranging from historic site conservation and community trust developments to exhibition and graphic design.

LATERAL NORTH began life at Strathclyde University. Finishing our architectural education we decided that rather than go the traditional route of working for a practice we wanted to try to start up our own practice and build on the work we had undertaken through our fifth year at university – imagining a future Scotland that orientates itself north.

Our first major project was to produce An Atlas of Productivity which followed on from our New Northern Frontiers project at university. We have since produced and sold 500 copies of this and are currently working on a softback copy of the atlas. The atlas gained us a lot of new followers and allowed us to showcase the visioning work that we could do having undertaken well over 50 presentations in the last two years.

It was at this juncture that we began to work alongside communities throughout Scotland with most, at first, being found within rural and remote locations. Our current projects though include a community master plan and visioning exercise with the Stirlingshire community of Fintry, designing a past / present / future publication for Rutherglen and Cambuslang based Bike Town which details future visions for getting everyone cycling, a wayfinding project for Dumfries with the Stove Network and many other similar community orientated projects.

Our practice is constantly looking to work with different individuals, organisations and communities on a series of different projects and challenge what it is that architects do. Our multidisciplinary approach has led us into recent discussions with universities about 3D interfaces and how our work can be viewed in virtual landscapes, designing exhibitions on Scotland’s relationship with the Nordics and finding out about food security and a sustainable food network within Scotland (and its relationship to architecture), for example.

This exploratory approach means that there is no day that is the same – our work constantly changes with our network of collaborators increasing each day. It’s exciting, different and interesting, and useful to us as we continue to learn new skills, techniques and technologies.

One of the most exciting projects that we are currently developing though is our Possible Scotland project which is a collaboration between ourselves, Glasgow based author Sue Reid Sexton and Helmsdale based cultural and heritage centre Timespan. For part of the time we share an office with Dualchas Architects in Glasgow Green (see image above) while the rest of the time is spent working mobile from our Possible Scotland travelling workshop (images below). The project is in its early days and we are intending to travel throughout Scotland over the course of the summer hosting workshops on everything from creative writing to architectural solutions to design opportunities. We are actively seeking organisations and communities to contact us about coming to visit them and host a workshop finding out what possibilities they have in their back garden, street, community, town and country.

We hope to continue undertaking exciting projects throughout Scotland and also further afield as we take a keen interest in developments within the Nordic and (in particular) Arctic region.
Our practice wouldn’t be here though without a plethora of individuals who have supported us through starting up our collective over the last year and a half. In particular though we want to just take this opportunity here to thank Alex Hobday, Catriona Macdonald, David Hasson, Ewan Imrie, Lizzie Smith and Ulrike Enslein who have been a huge support in our start up.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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What:
How to work together is a shared programme of contemporary art commissioning and research organised and presented by Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire. Together, over three years, they are producing a series of artists’ commissions, exhibitions, events and an online think tank. They are combining our knowledge and resources to discover what they can do together that they could not have done alone.

All three galleries are committed to supporting emerging or overlooked artists with time and resources to produce and present ambitious new work.

Why we like it:
How to work together also runs a Think tank which is an ongoing online library of new research that will build over the three years. Ultimately, the collaboration, knowledge and resource sharing in this visual arts model will provide an even better platform for artists and audiences.

Upcoming events:
31 August | Studio Votaire
Bonnie Camplin, Work is the Transfer of Energy from one System to Another.

5 September | The Showroom
An Introduction to the re-branding of Morning Star with Chris Evans, Massimiliano Mollona, Dexter Sinister and Marina Vishmidt.

26 September | Chisendale Gallery
Céline Condorelli and sociologist Avery Gordon discuss research on friendship, runaways and in-differents.

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In the summer that just ended I exhibited at Generator Projects as part of their Summer Programme. I will be writing here about the work and process behind the show. I firstly want to thank Generator Projects for being so supportive and offering me my first solo show.

My stay at Generator Projects was a week residency with an open studio night where I exhibited a series of plywood “Maquettes”. These “Maquettes” framed, hosted, collected or created objects (e.g. a piece of PVA tube or small craft paper rolls), as well as, a suspended acrylic tube with iridescent paper and a circle photograph of a soap bubble. Previous works like Icespace, Collection of cut outs, Spectacular studies and (Show) and the universe raised the main questions I explored in these works.  I will write mainly of Maquettes to be brief.

I refer to them as Maquettes, because structurally (and this is deliberate), they resemble them but in no moment is this their official title. They are like proposals, yet also the “final” (shown) work. The objects inside them are made mainly out of recycled or cheap materials, partly out of an interest to explore the ‘readymade’, but also to keep expenses low and create work that holds hands with my living finance. I consciously work-with-and-state-this, for I feel there is this Great Force that is adored by venues and drives creatives to make each time larger and more ambitious works which are, inevitably, more expensive too. The art world each time with more confidence justifies such expenses and I am weary of its impersonal swelling. All the above, none-the-less is also sometimes sexy and challenging.

My materials are specific leftovers or art materials that caught my attention because they reminded me of something grand. Through main dissection cuts, the Maquettes’ insides are directly exposed and through smaller cuts, windows, cropped views of the hosted objects are created. These windows were made to highlight the specific feature in the object that originally raised my attention. It is here, that the themes of my research (the sublime, spectacular landscapes, celestial bodies, immersive fields, science fiction…) can be most directly noticed. Unlike with Icespace (shown in my degree show), which also created an “image” (wrinkled cellophane that looked like ice) though it’s single aperture; Maquettes are also open, so a notion of the magical is reduced and with it too much imposition from my behalf.

Like with proposals, these works carry temporality and changing facets. In no moment were they registered as final or limited.  I wanted to embrace through them an in-process mentality. They aim to hold no specific future projection or represent fully realistic constructions. What I like of maquettes or blueprints, in general, is their capacity to appear like grandeur before becoming grand and permanent (superior, intimidating, inaccessible).  The latter being something that bores me. They felt like minimalized romance. Where I explored imagery that felt iconic, rich, figurative and atmospheric (the subjects of my research) whilst at the same time presenting and working with banality, simplicity and reduction (my concerns behind the production of art works).

In my proposal to Generator Projects, I insisted that for me it was very important to not only arrive with work, set it up, show it and leave; but to arrive with work, discuss it and present something we had all contributed towards. I wanted to exhibit something I had no possible way of previously envisaging. This truly happened! I care about the influence of curation and I was happy to see that the exhibition resulted out of its genuine questioning, doubting, and not from pretend or recycled caring.

All the Maquettes required specific lighting to lift the hosted objects to that realm where they became part of a constructed mini environment. Leading up to the open studio night, private view, after trying various mechanisms that felt all wrong; we all had a small moment of panic. We knew that the awkwardness of our proposed solutions (ultra complicated ideas) compromised the simplicity of the Maquettes. Still, Generator Project’s members were so kind and calm, that I felt no pressure to make rush decisions. I went to bed and woke up thinking: “If I truly want this show to be the result of my work in dialogue and alignment with the space, I should work with what I have. I am not going to build any extra lighting, that’s crazy and expensive; I am going to place the plinths with their works where they get their exact lighting. All this, using only the lights already installed in the space.” We moved all the work over and over again until each one was placed precisely. Chasing reflections and avoiding clumsy shadows we came up with an unpredictable layout. The lights determined the show’s curation, taking a weight off our shoulders, and saving the work from rigid placing. Some were tightly close to each other, some isolated, space was ‘wasted’ by leaving empty gaps, and a show I know I could now never reproduce came about.

In the following days, I spent my time documenting the work under the same mentality with which it had been installed. Aligning the camera frame with the angles of the works and the room, cropping the works again and again like the windows did, and approaching the works and the space with similar movements I saw visitors had. I left Dundee with an archive of images that like non-conventional documentation is now a separate work in its own manner. I see them as material that allowed me to have no-finalisation of the works and as the main body of a new project, a publication. I will be working on it with graphic designer Tomas Carlile and Generator Project’s Members.

Where to find out more:
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