Gareth Owen Lloyd

Director of Other Today design consultancy, head of making at Machines Room FabLab and Chief Maker at Little Inventors.

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I am a director of Other Today a design studio challenging how and where we make things. We create projects that enable people to invent tools, share knowledge, re-code objects, craft materials and create systems to challenge the status quo. We are experts in makerspaces, hubs and labs; we know the tools, machines and programming that create inspiring spaces and we are passionate about creating opportunities for makers, designers and artists to create new work and tackle real world challenges. We have created a pop-up micro factory for Participatory City in Barking and Dagenham, are part of the EU’s Distributed Design Market Platform, prototyping a sustainable future for manufacturing and are running an industry studio at Brighton University Product Design.

Tearing down electronics at the V&A with Nat Hunter, director Other Today

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Distributed Design is a project funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe fund, that fosters the role of emerging Makers and Designers as part of this new digitised world. Other Today are programming a series of sprints expanding the scope of digital fabrication and showcasing new designers working in the field. The results of 2019′s sprint are here 

2018:

2019:

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I was Head of Maker Projects at Machines Room Fab Lab for 5 years. www.machinesroom.org

MACHINES ROOM was the first FabLab to open in London. Founded in early 2014 and situated in the heart of the Maker Mile (a thriving hub of art, design and creative technology) 

Our programme was oriented towards the Fab City vision and explored Distributed Manufacturing, Open Making, Open Source, Sharing Economy & Circular Economy.

We were also part of the British Council Maker Library Network and hosted Makers in Residence so far, who experimented with processes and materials, creating exciting projects ranging from 3D-printed breathing heads to geodesic construction kits and mechanical techno machines. We particularly welcomed Makers in Residence who worked on projects with social or environmental impact such as design for disability or using waste materials to create new products.

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MoreUtopia! is a collective exploring the relevance of utopian thinking today. (Jasmine Johnson, Gareth Owen Lloyd, Kristin Luke, Rachel Pimm, Alice May Williams), we are sunk, we are sunk, we are finished, 2013/2019, CMYK Print on Flag Fabric, 132 x 100 cm. Exhibition view: New Adventures in Vexillology #5 - Dancing while the earth is burning. (c) Kunstverein Amrum, Photo: S. Hermannsen. > more

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As chief maker at Little Inventors, I sometimes get to turn children's inventions ideas into real objects. This is the Sound Collector

and this is the Worry Shredder

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In 2018 I was lucky enough to spend my summer as Head of Making at Fixcamp. FixCamp is a design and engineering activity camp for the problem-solvers of tomorrow.For 15 days in 2018 the engineers, designers and thinkers of tomorrow tackled big issues and built big. 

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I have written a piece for Garage Magazine titled An Art History of the Future. After collecting artworks found in science fiction I wrote an essay about them and Peter Crnokrak created a visualisation from the data. I worked with Sam Roe to create four augmented reality 3D sculptures that can be viewed with the Garage app. You can buy the full magazine here or read my article here 

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Designed for Britsish Council’s Maker Library visitors, the cards offer first timers and experienced makers a playful way to start a new project. The deck was designed jointly by London Maker Librarian Gareth Owen Lloyd and South African artist Philip Raiford Johnson to encourage thinking through making. The user picks one card from each of the four sets of visual cues to answer the questions: what am I making? In what medium? With what method? How should I modify what I am making? They are available in several of the Maker Libraries, including Machines Room, where they were created.

Maker Cards in collaboration with Phillip Raiford Johnson 

Print your own set > here 

Please credit: copyright Phillip Raiford Johnson and Gareth Owen Lloyd 2015 if you use them

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A New Normal, Machines Room’s exhibition for London Design Festival 2017, asked the question ‘Who is making products for a world beyond mass-production?’ Each exhibit invited the visitor to actively participate in the manufacturing process, such as laser-cutting their own jacket, or parametrically designing a table for their home. A New Normal was a collaboration between Machines Room and Distributed Everything, a research group at the Royal College of Art.

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ANDOR Gallery Another Proposal MoreUtopia! 2nd October - 22nd October 2016 Exhibition opening: Sunday 2nd October 2016, 4 - 7pm  In 1516 British diplomat Thomas More wrote to his friend about an island with an extraordinary society. Towards the end of the year the account was published in Belgium and an elite group of European public officials could read about the customs, civic organisation and culture of the Utopians. Although indistinguishable from early descriptions of colonial encounters with faraway indigenous societies, More’s diagrams, maps and letters were really a satire of 16th century Britain, and the Utopians’ prosperity was built on the backs of slaves and profit from foreign wars. On the 500th anniversary of the book, the word utopia is often emptied of its original cynicism and is used to denote a simple paradise. But as explained by More in the book’s opening poem, Utopia is a made-up Greek pun of both ‘no place’ (OU-topos) and ‘good place’ (EU-topos). After the Brexit vote MoreUtopia! visited the Spanish town of Marinaleda, whose motto is: 'Una Utopia Hacia la Paz' ('A Utopia Towards Peace'). Travelling light, they documented the trip on phones - with video, photos and six-word ‘missives’ texted back to the UK. As the artists look for alternative ways of living, the language of Thomas More creeps into the correspondence via texted replies from home, comparing Britain to Spain to Utopia. The result is a film and window display, shown in the new ANDOR space. The huge archway mirrors the assembly hall of Marinaleda, whilst from the street London Fields appears to have a new shop. Another Proposal 2016 Single channel HD video, 20:9 Script, camera, sound and editing by: Jasmine Johnson, Gareth Owen Lloyd, Kristin Luke, Rachel Pimm, Alice May Williams Window display: Paper flowers, string, insulated bottles, El humoso olive oil, pimentos, artichokes, contact phone number for housing in Marinaleda. Special thanks to Antonio Sanchez Hinojosa, Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, many other residents of Marinaleda, Gerard Rubio, Triambak Saxena, Peter Rees and Fennec. 

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I have been working with the British Council since 2014 on the Maker Library Network. The project enthusiastically promotes making as a cultural practice around the world. In the 3 years I was privileged to meet and work with inspirational makers from Turkey, Ukraine, South Africa, Nigera, Mexica and Scotland. I used the opportunity to create a residency programme at Machines Room and have hosted over 30 artists and designers. This publication by the British Council features some of the projects I organised and some new writing that really helps to put the network in context. The future of the network is exciting, it will grow with new members and we are now working to publish the wealth of resources created over the program. 

Read the publication >here

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14.30 - 15.30 Another Proposal, short film (28 minutes) MoreUtopia! As explained by Thomas More in the opening poem of his book, Utopia is a made-up Greek pun of both ‘no place’ (OU-topos) and ‘good place’ (EU-topos). After the Brexit vote, the artist group MoreUtopia! visited the Spanish town of Marinaleda, whose motto is: 'Una Utopia Hacia la Paz' ('A Utopia Towards Peace'). Travelling light, they documented the trip on phones - with video, photos and six-word ‘missives’ texted back to the UK, and resulting in a film. As the artists look for alternative ways of living, the language of Thomas More creeps into the correspondence via texted replies from home, comparing Britain to Spain to Utopia. >more

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Culturo-Futuro! Beyond the Boundaries of Imagination. European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016. Part of the City of the Future / Wrocław Laboratory programme. 

Part 2. FORECASTS FOR THE FUTURE – presentations and discussion of theorists and artists

What is the artist of the future? What is the future of the artist?

A demiurge or a craftsman catering to people’s needs? The conscience of the nation or an individualist confined to a solitary artistic bubble? A precarious worker or an entrepreneur managing their brand, career and image? A full-time civil servant or a guerilla operating in the underground of culture? Or maybe there will be no artists at all? What are the possible strategies for creative functioning in the world to come?

14:45 PM-15:00 PM Gareth Owen Lloyd – presentation ‘Art History of the Future’

15:00 PM-16:00 PM DEBATE:

Wojciech Blecharz Gareth Owen Lloyd Karina Smigla-Bobinski

http://www.wroclaw2016.pl/culturo-futuro-beyond-the-boundaries-of-imagination

Publication: http://forumprzyszloscikultury.pl/upload/publikacja-kulturo-futuro.pdf

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Contributed to this book Fab City: The Mass Distribution of (almost) Everything which collects a series of essays from the Fab City collective, centred on the themes and challenges of Fab City. In the publication Nat and Gareth join others in calling for London to join the Fab City network .>read

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Project “Tomorrow. Art in the Imaginary Future”6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art26 September — 27 October 2015

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, Mira pr-t, 123b

Moscow City Department of Culture Manege Association

Special section of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2015. With support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Joint project with the Art Caucasus non-profit foundation for culture, art and architecture, and the North Caucasian branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art

Curators: Rostan Tavasiev, Sasha Burkhanova, Galina Tebieva

Research coordinator: Yana Nikulenko

Private view – 25 September, 19.00

“Tomorrow. Art in the Imaginary Future” is the title of an experimental project of curator Rostan Tavasiev which he has carried out together with young artists. The exhibition will feature ideas of artworks designed by the artists for the imaginary future reflected in science fiction. A series of frescoes on the walls of the exhibition room will represent the imaginary history of art dating from the year 2020 through to 143029.

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Maker Mile is one square mile of maker spaces, studios, shops, galleries and workshops running along Mare street between Bethnal Green and London Fields stations.

Building on this area's thriving local maker scene, pop up events took place during the week of London Design Festival 2015. Open Mile was a night of maker workshops across the mile with be involvement across the mile from: RCA design products at Machines Room, Takram at SPACE studios, Those at Open Desk, East London Print Makers and many more. The Maker Mile is documented on www.makermile.cc

> READ MORE

> Time Out > LDF

The Open Mile event and its digital map – www.makermile.cc – is co-supported by Clear Village & Machines Room and programmed by Open Workshop Network as part of the Recode the City Festival co-funded by Human Cities a European Union project.

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