Image Credit Denis Colebourne
Alternative Uses: Socially Useful Sonic Instruments !
Instruments, stages, performance, sound
2026
Part of:
Attack Decay Sustain Release: Experiments in Sound
with Abbas Zahedi, Nnena Kalu & Rebecca Kressley and more
Attack Decay Sustain Release was a live, evolving exhibition at Stanley Picker Gallery exploring sound, time and collective making. Throughout the exhibition, three artists: Sophie Huckfield, Abbas Zahedi and Nnena Kalu with Action Space & Rebecca Kressley, each took over the gallery for three weeks,.Developing sound-based experiments, performances and events, to explore how sound is employed within, and influences upon, their individual artistic practices; whether as a primary medium in itself, as a by-product of creative production, or as a soundtrack to the act of making.
Audiences and participants were invited to visit during the listed residency days, when the artists were working on site, and visit on the days between to hear, see and experience the works in their various stages of development as they accumulated in the spaces, both physically and sonically, layered over their alternate weeks in residence and culminated in a combined finale to conclude the programme.
Rehearsing and playing on the augmented loom as Lady Ludd, Sophie Huckfield collaborated with Art and Design Foundation Students at the University of Kingston, inviting students to develop their own musical instruments in response to the Lucas Plan: a radical proposal developed by engineers and workers at Lucas Aerospace, who designed 150 ‘socially useful products’, from wind turbines to medical equipment, as an alternative to mass redundancies. Expanding on what ‘useful” is, students developed their own “socially useful sonic instruments”, meeting each week in the gallery to build upon their sounds and have ‘band practice/rehearsal’ style sessions in the gallery, forming the band ‘Alternative Uses’ with Lady Ludd
The 3D Design Foundation cohort worked with Sophie to design and build four stages for the instruments to be played on throughout the exhibition based around the four phrases of Attack Decay Sustain Release (ADSR) which denote the four phases of a sound envelope. Students worked in four different groups based on each word to develop their stages, which were played and performed on throughout the exhibition and performances.
The exhibition culminated in a live performance of the instruments as Alternative Uses in the Gallery, with future recordings and releases forthcoming.
Alternative Uses are:
Amelia Smith playing on the Water hammer
Chaewon Kim playing on Warm Energy
Felix Nielsen playing on Blooming Booming Balloon Bassoon
Immy Carlier playing on Tap Rattler
Jasmine Tilney playing on Rain Chime
Ruby Sims playing on Labour Loop
Zoe Popova playing on Unlock in Right
Sophie Huckfield playing on the Augmented Loom
ADSR Stages: 3D Foundation 2026.
Adele Ryan, Bella Graas, Benji Van Heerden, Brooke Mcdonald, Caitlin Tam, Charlotte Saunders, Coco Brigden, Daniela Kvedaras Rivas, Darcy Hall-Barr, Delilah Corrado, Dionne Idiesca, Iris Brewin, Izzy Simon, Janae Barnett, Kai Foulerton, Kiko Clerkin Monzon, Lena Haque Bousquet, Leona Manchipp, Levi Oliver, Libby Hawkes, Lila Mushtaq Thurnhill, Lily D’Souza, Luc Tran, Luke Welham, Maddie Hodgson, Mia Leonard, Miguel Valencia Rivera, Misty Jones, Oliver Davy, Olivia Ganpatsingh, Rhys Griffiths, Scarlett Armitage, Sehara Jayasinghe, Siena Baker, Syd Dell Garrett, Theo Green, Theo Wilson, Tilly Wotherspoon, Violet Walter, Vittoria Jordao, Zennor Storey
Staff 3D: Ellie Perry, Reign Charbit, Esme MacGregor, Symran Shah, Max Greenhalgh,
Special Thanks to:
Stanley Picker Gallery Team:
David Falkner, Madeleine Collie, Faith McKie, Jamie Young, Tat, Natalie Kay . All the front of house staff, volunteers, technicians, cleaners.
Art & Design Foundation Kingston University:
Rebecca Davis, Natalie Wyle, Is Bealey, Ellie Perry.
Documentation and Photography:
Denis Colebourne
Kingston Music Department:
Leah Kardos, Fran Williams, Ebby Acquah, Rob Plummer
