A Different Kind of Future with Heart n Soul

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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. 

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 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.