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A Different Kind of Future with Heart n Soul

,
Past
  • Free
  • Discussion
  • Auto-captioned
  • British Sign Language (online)
  • Relaxed
Photograph looking vertically down onto a wooden tabletop. In the centre of the image is a tablet device displaying a group photograph of 6 individuals pictured in a gallery setting. Three individuals are standing and two are seated, one in a wheelchair. The sixth person is superimposed on top of the image, her head appearing from a hand drawn rocket, which extends outside of the screen. Surrounding the tablet device are two artworks. Top left is a painting with a brightly coloured yellow, orange and red graduated background with a collections of blue brush strokes on top. Top right is an artwork on a black background made up of bright neon blue streaks of light with pink and green flecks. To the right of the device is a colourful newspaper cover bearing the title 'Inclusive Futures'. Below the device is a collection of colourful hand drawn playing cards including the queen of diamonds showing a wheelchair.  Dotted around the table are hints of house plants and a tea mug.
A Different Kind of Future by Heart n Soul at The Hub, Photo: Kathleen Arundell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Watch a recording of an evening of conversation, art and music, reimagining the world we live in from the perspective of people with learning disabilities and autistic people: what would the world look like if it was designed by them? 

The artworks co-produced with the commissioned artists ask: who makes decisions about how the world is designed? How can design processes be more inclusive and collaborative? 

You will be guided through four online artworks through prerecorded video tours, each led by the co-designers. The co-designers talk about how they made these creative artworks collaboratively.

This event was streamed on Wellcome Collection's YouTube channel.

The event has British Sign Language interpretation. The interpreters are on screen throughout the event.    

This event celebrated the launch of ‘A Different Kind of Futureonline exhibition, in collaboration with Heart n Soul at The Hub, the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the commissioned artists. It was the finale of the Inclusive Futures project, part of Heart n Soul at The Hub’s two-year residency at Wellcome Collection. Installations created during the residency included ‘Wall of Change’ and ‘Inclusive Futures’.

Dates

,
Past

Need to know

Auto-captioned

There will be automatically generated subtitles for this event.

British Sign Language (online)

This event is British Sign Language interpreted. An interpreter will be embedded in the event livestream or visible on screen for online viewers.

Relaxed

This is a relaxed event, which means that if you need to, you are welcome to move around and make noise at any time.

For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 0 2 0. 7 6 1 1. 2 2 2 2

Our event terms and conditions

About your contributors

Jess Mabel Jones

Host

Jess Mabel Jones is a multidisciplinary artist and producer who makes work that is good fun, good looking and that strives to incite change. Growing from a place of joy, inclusivity and playful improvisation, her work is eclectic, visually dynamic and a little bit rowdy. Jess is neurodivergent.

Ariel Botto

Host

Ariel Botto is an artist from Heart n Soul. Creator of the famous ‘Panda Emoji’ t-shirts, his art reflects his interests in popular culture, nostalgia, businesses, logos, design and how they change and evolve over time. He has hosted many events before, including Heart n Soul’s Squidz Club, ‘Our Own Thing’ for the London Symphony Orchestra and the launch of a Google Arts and Culture exhibition. He also enjoys making parody songs and doing voice acting.

Aysen

Speaker

Aysen is a visual artist. She describes what she does as “beautiful colours”. Aysen’s work has been exhibited at Tate Britain and the Never Bored exhibitions. She creates live visual responses for events and has collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra, Cafe Oto and most recently with one of her favourite bands, Electric Fire.

Castro

Speaker

Castro is a Heart n Soul DJ and has a regular show on Soho Radio. He likes listening to all sorts of music. He likes the technical side of DJing too, like making speaker boxes and repairing amplifiers. He also likes making electronic projects. His next project is making a lamp out of speaker switches. 

Robyn Steward

Speaker

Robyn is an artist, musician, author, researcher, autism trainer and broadcaster. She plays the trumpet and has a residency at Cafe Oto, where she hosts Robyn’s Rocket, an immersive night of improvised music. She is also an honorary research associate at UCL (University College London), has written three books and is the host of the BBC podcast ‘1800 Seconds on Autism’. She is a Core Team member at Heart n Soul at The Hub and an associate artist at Heart n Soul.

Thomas

Speaker

Thomas is an artist, poet and sculptor. He likes going out in nature and the countryside, and spending time with friends. He loves theatre, drama and dance. He finds these ways of expressing yourself visually are important when it’s hard to tell someone and thinks it can have a bigger impact on people too.

Rajah

Speaker

Rajah is a DJ for Heart n Soul and likes music. He likes thinking about transport and how it can be made better for disabled people.

Dr Chris McGinley

Speaker

Dr Chris McGinley is an award-winning designer, researcher and writer, and Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), based at the Royal College of Art. He leads the Age and Diversity research space at the HHCD, which has pioneered innovative approaches combining empathy and design ethnography to inform research-driven people-centred outputs, including ground-breaking work in neurodiversity and design. Chris has published extensively in the area of inclusive design, and regularly delivers lectures, keynotes, workshops and education within academia, industry, government, third-sector and public settings.

Dr William Renel

Speaker

Will Renel is a practice-based researcher working between the fields of critical disability studies and inclusive design. Having completed his doctorate in Communication Design at the Royal College of Art, Will is currently the Director of Research at Touretteshero and a post-doctoral research associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.

Ben Connors

Speaker

Ben Connors is an artist whose work explores themes of collaboration, identity, representation and communication. He makes drawings, murals, workshops and comics. He works a lot on intergenerational projects, community projects and has a lot of experience collaborating with people with learning disabilities. He also loves poetry and music and makes some of his work in response to words and sound.  

Alice Helps

Speaker

Alice Helps designs and makes installation artworks and multi-space sets for immersive experiences, performances, exhibitions and bespoke events. Her designs often feature detailed narrative props, light and sculpture to create interactive worlds that heighten sensory experience. Alice is currently completing her research PhD into touch and experience in scenography at the University of Roehampton, London, for which she has been awarded a Techne AHRC scholarship. 

Felix Peckitt

Speaker

FelixPeckitt is a poet, techie and ticcer who enjoys using technology to explore how audiences interact. He was commissioned as an Unlimited Emerging Artist in 2018 for his interactive sound art piece ‘The Goldilocks Mixer’. When he is not making art, Felix works for the NHS, using patient data to tell the story of how healthcare is delivered, and how it could be better.

Rob Young

Speaker

Rob Young is an award-winning writer and artist. He trained in design, spent 13 years in photography and 20 years writing for the UK’s biggest film, TV and theatre companies. He is a Faculty Associate at NHS Research & Development North West.