It will soon be time to wind up the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’, to return the keys and say cheerio to the University of Stirling. Our year as Artists in Residence has been an incredibly enriching experience, stretching our art practice in directions we could never have anticipated. We were given the rare opportunity of time to develop a new body of work; an accumulation of playful gestures, temporary interventions and installations, all made in response to the multi-layered neighbourhood of the University Campus.
We are incredibly grateful to the Art Collection team, Sarah, Emma, Fiona and Mark, for their constant support and encouragement throughout the year. Their openness and willingness to explore even the most unlikely of our proposals has been for us one of the hallmarks of this residency.
Over the past few months the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ has cleaned commemorative plaques on benches, turned the Link Bridge into a temporary gallery, drawn attention to a Pathfoot staircase and introduced a whimsical element to a security booth…
‘An act of cleaning as a gentle attentiveness’ April 2025
A bench is always a welcome sight on campus. They are places to sit alone or with others, to rest, to think, to reflect and admire the view. Many of the benches bear a commemorative plaque, a celebration of a life, a personal story of someone loved and remembered. They are a public statement of a private grief. Over the years, the plaques on these memorial benches have weathered, making it difficult to read some of the names and inscriptions. On a bright April day, the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ walked the campus, carrying a bucket of soapy water, and carefully washed off the dirt and tarnish that had accumulated on these plaques. ‘An act of cleaning as a gentle attentiveness’ was an expression of care, a slow and a quiet work of remembering.
‘The gallery of everyday things’ April 2025
The internal architecture of the Link Bridge, with its one hundred and eleven black-framed, glazed panels, inspired the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ to make a second intervention in this space. On the deep sills running either side of the bridge, we created a temporary art gallery.
Gathering one hundred and eleven objects from our home and our studio, removing them from their original context, we re-presented them on upturned jam jars, as ‘The gallery of everyday things’. Through familiarity, ubiquity or availability, these everyday things are often overlooked, their form, pattern, design, engineering and intrinsic beauty unappreciated. By exhibiting them on their glass plinths, we were inviting those walking past, to pause and take notice of these everyday things.
We stood at each end of the gallery, greeting folk with words of welcome, holding the space for conversations of curiosity, recognition and nostalgia, all rooted in the shared experience of everyday things.
‘Taking Notice’ May 2025
As part of the Art Collection Open Day, we created a temporary, site-specific, concrete poem on a staircase in the main corridor of the Pathfoot Building. Intended to be read in the direction of travel, the letters, handwritten in chalk on the risers of the stairs, formed the words ‘taking notice’.
Kneeling on the stairs, shaping each of the letterforms, concentrating on the density of the chalk marks and the positioning of the letters in relation to each other, was a slow, quiet, repetitive process, a durational intervention over several hours. Throughout the day, the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ were taking notice of folk taking notice of ‘Taking Notice’.
‘Institute of Comings and Goings’ June 2025
Since September 2024, the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ noticed and were intrigued by the redundant security booth at the main entrance/exit of the campus. Over the following months, as we drove past it, walked past it and peered through the windows, the concept slowly emerged for a temporary intervention, the ‘Institute of Comings and Goings’.
Altering the appearance of the booth, we wrote ‘HELLO + CHEERIO’ on the windows, the letterforms shaped using electrical tape. The traffic cones, normally used to restrict access, were then repositioned to the roof of the structure. This playful gesture drew smiles from drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. By gently subverting the expected function of the security booth, the ‘Institute of Comings and Goings’ explored and engaged around the practice of welcome on campus.
For the duration of the intervention, we greeted folk walking onto campus with a friendly ‘Hello’ and those leaving, we waved off with a ‘Cheerio’. This often resulted in conversations about their comings and goings.
As we documented these comings and goings, the typewriter added its distinctive percussive note to the soundscape around the booth. At a threshold of comings and goings, the ‘Institute of Comings and Goings’ took notice of the comings and goings of those coming and going.
Throughout the duration of the residency, the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ offered a series of creative acts as a catalyst for conversation and co-creation, nurturing the practice of taking notice as a form of care for people and place. It has been such a pleasure to work alongside so many staff, students and visitors, a heartfelt thanks to you all…
Gardner & Gardner announce that the ‘Faculty of Taking Notice’ is now closed.
