Hannah Stockwell, born in Leeds, graduated from BA Design at Goldsmiths University of London in 2023. She currently works as an artist educator and designer in London.
Her work is focused on imagining radical ways to care for each other sustainably and uses play as a method to joyfully conceive of alternative possibilities. The objects she designs are created to be tools of empowerment that help facilitate engagement and autonomy over what can feel like complex and overwhelming subjects. Workshop running and creating spaces for co-creation is a key part of her practice with a focus on highlighting youth voices.
“(Referring to a longing for home; a home that we have not yet invented.)
Based on the experience of young carers, this modular table is a play tool that collaboratively investigates how we can create a home that is constantly reassessing and reconfiguring to meet everyone’s care needs. Through playing with the table, and thus who sits within our home, we can continuously remap our boundaries of care to work against isolated and unsupported caregiving positions. This project seeks to empower and validate the perspective of young carers by facilitating conversations and granting autonomy over the structure of the home.
I see joy as an immensely powerful political act against apathy and hopelessness. Through my design practice, I create playful rebellions with an aim to envision and encourage new futures together. Nothing is too large or fixed for change to occur and I aim to facilitate engagement with these issues through accessibility, critical questioning, care and humour.
I believe play with materiality can act as a microcosm to much larger issues, facilitating and catalysing explorations into what can be overwhelming and complex subjects. Deconstructing authorship within design is of huge importance to me and I aim for the things I produce to always be tools for empowerment, prioritising inclusive conversations in the process. I am driven by people and believe in the endless wealth we can gain from knowledge exchange, and reciprocity from listening, learning and caring for each other.”
