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The Joy of Sets

Workshop

2014–
with Nicholas Mortimer

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The Joy of Sets is a workshop that introduces on hands-on and playful approaches to building sets and imagining science fictions.

The workshop leads leads a hands-on and playful process of building 1:1 scale film sets with cardboard and other simple materials. The format enables and empowers ambitions in designing and making at different scales, from shaping macro architectural elements to crafting finer details. The sets are then brought to life on camera as participants create short science fiction films.

The workshop promotes an ethos of thinking through making—encouraging participants to work rapidly and iteratively in dynamic and playful studio atmospheres. In a short space of time (3–4 days) participants are able to produce immersive environments with lo-fi materials that are full of invention and character. 

The set-building methods also form a basis for engaging participants with ideas and approaches of science fiction and speculative design. By handmaking scenographies and populating them with objects, they can exploring and question imagined futures by describing scenarios in high resolution.

The Joy of Sets has run at many leading art and design universities across Europe including the Royal College of Art, ArtEZ University of the Arts, University of Arts London, HEAD Genève, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The project has also collaborated in diverse projects and design briefs, including exhibition installations for London Design Festival and a Mars mission simulation with the University of the Underground.

Selected images from various The Joy of Sets workshops