we were asked by bradford district council for some ideas of what they might do for an exhibition stand for an event. the stand was to represent voluntary groups that work with people with disabilities and they liked the idea of some kind of interactivity and ideally wanted to at least consult the groups that it would represent.

we suggested a creative session where the groups members would be invited to come and create artwork - both visual, tactile and audio - to be incorporated into the stand design. taking inspiration from anthony gormley’s field we invited the participants to make a clay model to represent themselves, and to create a photomontage/collage from images they had brought with them.

audio recordings were made on the day and developed into an ambient soundscape of voices and sounds to accompany the stands. we invited artist morwenna catt and audio artist joe gilmore to help at the session. we also asked both the people who run the groups and those who attend then what they valued about belonging - these quotes are the words you can see at the top of the stands.

the completed stand was constructed from three roller banners, thereby allowing it to be used in a cut-down version with only one banner if desired. the soundscape plays on CD behind the stands on a loop, and - this is the interactive bit - there’s plenty modeling clay and an invitation for people to add their own creation, thus building up a community of clay people as the stand is used in different locations.

in many ways this is one of the most authentic pieces of design we have done - it’s perhaps not very ‘cool’ but it includes the voices and work of the people it represents and we valued the opportunity to work with them.