Creating Spaces of Engagement
miriamandtom is a design collective led by designers and creative entrepreneurs, Miriam Sleeman and Tom Sloan. Bringing together their respective backgrounds in architectural studies and industrial design, Sleeman and Sloan work with developers, planners and public programmers to engage communities, users and stakeholders in the process of civic change. The result is that emergent projects – often in highly sensitive urban contexts – are celebrated and supported by the communities which use them. The work includes immersive light installations and captivating hoardings to cladding systems and temporary structures. While the projects vary in scope, they are unified by the idea that light (whether sourced or reflected), can be sculpted like a primary material. miriamandtom’s approach is also characterised by a process-driven philosophy that offers creative solutions to the cultural and social aspects of urban projects – generating both spatial as well as conceptual opportunities for social cohesion and civic engagement.
Miriam Sleeman is a British designer whose experience and interest in design and making span from the architectural down to the object. Since graduating in 2006 from the Bartlett School of Architecture (University College London), Miriam has designed and project managed a wide variety of site specific and bespoke interactive public artworks and design objects for clients that include councils, public and private bodies, schools and hospitals. These include the London Borough of Hammersmith and City, Hull City Council, Westfield, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Science Museum, London. Prior to launching the Cross Kings Ltd. Miriam was a designer at Jason Bruges Studio from 2005 to 2010. Her creations often serve functions such as way finding guides, gateways, public lighting, event-spaces, educational pieces, public furniture and notice boards, as well as being stand alone features. Miriam likes to work in an interactive way; in close consultation with the client, key stakeholders and members of the community, arts consultants and other project designers. Alongside her professional career, Miriam has been a design tutor and external examiner at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Central St Martins College of Art and Design and Westminster University. Miriam has also recently completed her first children’s picture story book.
Tom Sloan is an Australian-born and trained industrial designer with built-work ranging from public artworks, interactive design, furniture, products, interiors to lighting. He began at Lab Architecture Studio in Melbourne, where he developed the furniture and interactive components for Federation Square: Australia’s largest cultural and civic development (completed 2002). Since 2003 he works independently and in collaboration with various practices. In 2005 he moved to Europe and became involved in exploring the inter-disciplinary relationship between art and the built-environment. As senior designer at London’s Jason Bruges Studio (2006-2009) he designed and delivered bespoke artworks and interactive design objects for varied clients (Veuve Cliquot, Established & Sons, BBC1,Nike, O2), property developers and architecture firms. Recent works include a new commission for Siemens for the 2012 London Olympics; an ongoing collaboration with the Dusseldorf-based artist-collective, Lonelyfingers (2013-); a public artwork for Argent, developer of London’s Kings Cross (2014) and the winning submission for a new hospital artwork in Bergen, Norway. Sloan’s works are presented in solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Vancouver’s 221A Artist Run Centre (2013) and the Budapest Design Week (2011, 2012, 2013). In parallel to his design practice, in 2010 Sloan co-founded Blood Mountain Foundation, where he is responsible for curation, production and developing new research-and-production based projects.