Ambience Factory will be performing in Wolverhampton Art Gallery for disORDER live festival on the 6th July. Book here
Ambience Factory will be performing at Virtual Futures Near-Future Fictions on the theme of ‘Lasting Labours.’
14th May 2019
6:30-9pm
Ace Hotel, Shoreditch
More info Here
"The Metallization of a Dream": The physics workshop and Eduardo Paolozzi
Book Here
Join myself and Workshop Manager Stephen Brookes for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Physics Workshop. Investigating and responding directly to Eduardo Paolozzi’s methodologies, ideas, materials and processes, the tour will explore machines, production and technology. Paolozzi would often work with engineers to produce his monumental sculptures, collaging a range of kitsch cultural references with technologies and machines to mediate upon the complex relationship of popular taste and technology. Huckfield explores similar ideas as she employs traditional and experimental modes of production such as traditional craft, performance, sculpture and writing to materialise the emotional, bodily and ancestral relationship we have to labour, tools, machines and technologies.
The tour will start at 12.45. The meeting point is the entrance to Physics West, Chancellor's Court (R8 on the campus map). Please arrive at 12.35 to ensure that the event can start promptly.
Myself and artist Lucy Hutchinson are happy to announce that we will collaborating as artists in residence at London College of Fashion, with a culminating show for London Design Week at gallery Arcade East in September.
Science is Fiction is Truth is a collaboration between artist Lucy Hutchinson and artist and engineer Sophie Huckfield. They will use the residency to develop their ongoing interests in the future of healthcare in relation to social and political issues such as funding, accessibility, gender and ownership. During the residency they will develop these ideas through story building workshops with students at UAL and members of the public which will take place alongside talks and conversations with medical and social scientists. Using fiction as a method to speculate and react against the ‘Black Box’ approach of scientific research they will speculate not only on future scientific advancements but also the potential socio-political implications of research. Proceeding the workshops the artists will develop the outcomes into artworks, questioning how they could appear physically, socially and economically. 'In a world ruled by fictions of every kind' (JG Ballard) they aim to explore how fiction can be used to not only speculate but to empower and actively shape reality
I have a selection of writings included in: 'Publication Happens – ESP Write Club'.
This publication collects different texts and exercises undertaken by various members of Write Club (Eastside Projects) over its two-year duration.
Co-authored and edited by members of Write Club 2016–2018: Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Brenda Hickin, Sophie Huckfield, Joanne Masding, Elvin Sanders, Jenni Schütt, Andrew Smith, Suzanne van der Lingen, Emily Warner.
Available to purchase here
I'll be part of upcoming event ‘Future Factory’ at the Design Museum joining leading designers and material researchers to rethink sustainable production for the 21st century on 1st December 2018
Ambience Factory has had a variety of talks/events in the Autumn of 2018. We have presented at 'Between the expanded and Interdisciplinary' conference at the University of Wolverhampton. We were selected by Manchester based Scaffold Gallery as part of group show "Who are we in these Interesting Times' in November 2018. We most recently presented at the November edition of Maker Monday in Birmingham for Birmingham City University. Keep updated by following us on instagram @ambiencefactory or twitter @Factory_Ambience
I am happy to announce that I am Artist in Residence at the University of Birmingham for the 2018/19 Academic year. I plan to respond to the Physics Workshop archive, alongside tools and the works of Eduardo Paolozzi within the Research and Cultural Collections
GU Women were invited to submit recommending Reading for the latest edition of Art Licks Magazine.
Was very proud to take part in Group show with GU Women at Modern Clay. GU Women is a new Birmingham-based female collective, comprised of writers, curators, artists and researchers, who all have a connection to Grand Union.
GU Women is a group that prioritises mentorship and support – an active network which combats the lack of women in the arts. Rather than fitting to a system failing women, they make and cultivate a grassroots system which champions women. GU Women is focused on the idea of supportive exchange – they share knowledge, networks, resources and importantly, intend to increase the visibility of their practices with each other.
In April 2018 I visited Chengdu and Xi'an in China with the British Council. We visited a wide variety of maker spaces and makers, in order to understand and map the making landscape of these regions. From this experience I was asked to write a report around my initial thoughts of this experience. Part one of this explores womens role within maker spaces and the maker community.
Footnote Publication developed by artist duo Tate n Lyle. In early 2018 I was asked to contribute a text to their latest publication. Copies available here
The Terracotta Army sculptures in Xi'an - Photo by Bernd Thaller
I'm excited to announce that I've been selected by the British Council to take part in their 'Living Research' programme.
"Based in China, covering Xi’an and Chengdu, the programme will investigate the local ecosystem of creative practitioners, academics, industrial design houses, makerspaces and technology hubs, and determine how the UK maker culture could meaningfully engage with them."
Who are the Ambience Factory? Myself and artist Sophie Bullock ran our first workshop at the University of Birmingham. We devised a series of creative tasks for participants to decipher their personal and collective stress. Culminating in participants imagining new technologies and objects we could create which could ease and placate stress. From a hoover which sucks up numbers to a flying bathtub.
The Ambience factory is a collaborative art project with the Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group and artists Sophie Bullock and Sophie Huckfield, which explores our emotional relationship to technology and the commodification of anxiety.
Generously funded by the Alumni Impact Fund at the University of Birmingham
I am pleased to announce a new collaborative project between artists Sophie Bullock and Sophie Huckfield and the Contemporary Philosophy and Technology Group at the University of Brimingham. Generously funded by the Alumni Impact Fund.
We'll be working with the group to create a new art work which explores our emotional relationship to technology and the commodification of anxiety.
Come along to our first event at the University of Birmingham on the 21st March 2018
Modern Clay is having a Christmas sale! As part of Digbeth First Friday the Artist's in Residence will be selling specially commissioned works. I'll have various extruded sculptures and hands to help...
I ran a workshop at Modern Clay for the Ikon Youth Program. We used alginate and plaster to make casts of small body parts to explore the potential of moulding and casting as an artistic process.
I am currently Artist in Residence at Modern Clay, a studio project run by Mark Essen "https://www.modernclay.org"
Throughout the residency I have proposed to explore our relationship to objects and matter through the medium of ceramics. I have so far designed and laser cut new dies for the extruder, pressing out shapes such as hands. Alongside using clay to take impressions of my tools- deforming and contorting them in the process.
I am excited to announce that myself and Birmingham based Curator Aly Grimes have been selected to become a studio holder at Grand Union! grand-union.org.uk/studios/
This summer, I have had the opportunity to do an intensive international short course at Konstfack University college of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. Studying "Design for Sustainable Co-creation", the aim of the course was to introduce an approach to design for sustainable development that addresses a live issue regarding food systems. Run in collaboration with John Thackara, director of Doors of Perception, who is a design expert on sustainable development and social innovation.The course was run through distance learning and culminated in a camping week in the Swedish countryside exploring gardening, foraging and localism in food production
I've been in Artist in residence for Summer Lodge at Nottingham Trent University for the past couple of weeks. It culminated in new sculptural works and collaborative performances. To see more of what we got up to go to: http://www.summerlodge.org/
Neon glass workshop demonstration run by Workshop Birmingham
I was selected for the STEAMlab workshop run by Birmingham City University. Discussing and developing plans for my swarf object series
https://www.bcu.ac.uk/business/steam/steamhouse
New work for Artefact Show in Birmingham. Water jet cut aluminum off cut on granite
Swarf and Jesmonite test pieces
Glass blown into Foundry waste