XANADU
is a field station dedicated to the strange and the speculative. We believe every place deserves its own legends. From UFO sightings to whispered folklore, we use design, storytelling, and artefact making to help people reconnect with their land, past, and each other. These stories aren't owned by anyone. They grow, shift, and belong to those who tell them.
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xanaducollective.xyz@gmail.com
xanaducollective.xyz@gmail.com
We seek to resist the flattening forces of mass culture, instead inviting awe, curiosity, and communal imagination. Building tools and experiences that give a voice to the unseen. Whether you hear a voice in the wind, see a light over a hill, glimpse a figure beyond the hedgerow, or inherit a story too strange to be forgotten, we believe these encounters deserve a place in the world. We’re here to believe in the telling.
Burtoo Two, Aldershot - Ongoing
In the early hours of 12 August 1983, Alfred Burtoo was night fishing with his dog Tiny beside the Basingstoke Canal at North Town, Aldershot, when he claimed to see a brilliant light descend nearby. Shortly afterwards, two small humanoid figures approached him along the towpath. Burtoo described them as around four feet tall, dressed in light green coveralls and helmets with dark visors obscuring their faces. He said they led him to a landed craft and took him aboard, where he was examined beneath an amber light before being released, apparently because he was considered too old and infirm for their purposes.
More than forty years later, Xanadu Collective has created two life size sculptures of the mysterious visitors described by Burtoo. Taking around a year to make, the Burtoo Two are now beginning their own journey back into the landscape of the original story.
More than forty years later, Xanadu Collective has created two life size sculptures of the mysterious visitors described by Burtoo. Taking around a year to make, the Burtoo Two are now beginning their own journey back into the landscape of the original story.
In February 2026, Burtoo's encounter was raised at a Rushmoor Borough Council meeting, bringing this extraordinary piece of Aldershot folklore into official local discussion and helping to open conversations about giving the story a more permanent presence in the place where it began.
Working with local partners, the Burtoo Two are now in the process of being integrated into the Basingstoke Canal and wider Aldershot area, where the sculptures are to be permanently housed and form part of a developing Alfred Burtoo folklore trail, allowing people to encounter the story in the landscape itself. The first glimpse has already appeared, with Aldershot Town Centre sharing the Burtoo Two outside Princes Hall.
There is much more to come as the project develops. We'll keep you updated as the Burtoo Two find their way home.
Aldershot Town Centre — “Have you seen the Burtoo Two?”
Working with local partners, the Burtoo Two are now in the process of being integrated into the Basingstoke Canal and wider Aldershot area, where the sculptures are to be permanently housed and form part of a developing Alfred Burtoo folklore trail, allowing people to encounter the story in the landscape itself. The first glimpse has already appeared, with Aldershot Town Centre sharing the Burtoo Two outside Princes Hall.
There is much more to come as the project develops. We'll keep you updated as the Burtoo Two find their way home.
Aldershot Town Centre — “Have you seen the Burtoo Two?”
The Sandown Clown of the Isle of Wight - 2024 to 2025
Inspired by recorded sightings of the Sandown Clown, David Jones took on a mission to build a true-to-size, 7-foot replica of the creature and return it to the town of Sandown. Upon arrival, he discovered a community already fascinated by the legend. Sam—the sculpture—was warmly welcomed, making appearances everywhere from promenade social encounters to the local airport. Ultimately, Sam found a home at Boojum & Snark, where artists Teresa Grimaldi and Tracy Mikich have involved Sam in investigations and community activities.
The story itself has continued to evolve too, attracting new coverage and investigations from OnTheWight, Marek Larwood and others. In December 2025 the Cease to Exist Podcast published Sam the Sandown Clown: We Found Fay and Here's the Proof, documenting their search for and identification of Fay, the young girl at the centre of the original encounter.
The story itself has continued to evolve too, attracting new coverage and investigations from OnTheWight, Marek Larwood and others. In December 2025 the Cease to Exist Podcast published Sam the Sandown Clown: We Found Fay and Here's the Proof, documenting their search for and identification of Fay, the young girl at the centre of the original encounter.
What began for us as an attempt to give physical form to one extraordinary story has become an object returned to the place that imagined it, becoming part of the community and the continuing investigation around it. The clown goes on.
Explore links to our collaborators and see what happened to the sculpture:
Boojum & Snark — Windowless Hut
Boojum & Snark — Projects and Sandown Rocks
OnTheWight — All Colours Sam / Sandown Clown archive
OnTheWight — BBC Sounds and Cease to Exist investigate All Colours Sam
Cease to Exist — Sam the Sandown Clown: We Found Fay and Here's the Proof
Marek Larwood — Latest Sandown Clown film
Explore links to our collaborators and see what happened to the sculpture:
Boojum & Snark — Windowless Hut
Boojum & Snark — Projects and Sandown Rocks
OnTheWight — All Colours Sam / Sandown Clown archive
OnTheWight — BBC Sounds and Cease to Exist investigate All Colours Sam
Cease to Exist — Sam the Sandown Clown: We Found Fay and Here's the Proof
Marek Larwood — Latest Sandown Clown film
“I WANT TO BELIEVE” (2024-2025)
A brief for Goldsmiths University of London, MA Expanded Practice by David Jones, Charlie Manthorp and Natalia Dovhalionok
IWTB explores the potential of belief whether in ceremony, ritual, the supernatural, or extraterrestrial
IWTB explores the potential of belief whether in ceremony, ritual, the supernatural, or extraterrestrial
A mockumentary film by David Jones, film begins as a design investigation into UFO sightings, abduction accounts,
and the tools built to study them, but gradually slips into something
stranger…
Watch Film
Watch Film
Xanadu is run by Artist David Jones and Designer Natalia Dovhalionok. Together, we shape a research collective dedicated to cultivating modern folklore, documenting UFO culture, and weaving new collective imaginaries through gatherings, rituals, exhibitions, storytelling, publishing, and experimental forms
of education.
of education.
Whether you're a seeker or sceptic, a cryptid or a cartographer, a mythmaker, artist, scientist, or dreamer; this is your space.
We welcome your
stories at:
xanaducollective.xyz@gmail.com
©2026