Assembly Mixtape Club
Joe Namy, 2020
 

Artist Joe Namy set up a collaborative platform for young people using social care services to explore sound and art.

A participant wearing white headphones whilst using a laptop placed on a table
A screenshot of the tools and software used during the workshop
Copyright, 2020, Joe Namy, The White house
A screenshot of the tools and software used during the workshop
A participant writing notes in a notebook whilst sitting at a table with a laptop and headphones
A person sitting and using a laptop connected to a speaker, microphone and large television screen
A participant wearing white headphones whilst using a laptop placed on a table

Artist and composer Joe Namy hosted the Assembly Mixtape Club throughout 2020 and 2021. Joe worked with young people referred by social care staff. Through a series of online sessions, they explored open-source sound technologies and creatively examined how music and deeper forms of listening can shape our experiences, memories, relationships, identity and wellbeing.

The group collectively explored the politics of listening, sharing and distribution, helping to shape a greater sense of self, environment and community. Together they thought about how different environments or locations may influence our memories.

In Autumn 2021, he hosted the second iteration of Assembly Mixtape Club at The White House Dagenham, collaborating with a second cohort of young people to produce a new sound work incorporating shared research, reflections and conversations with social care staff and service users.

This site-specific work will be a permanent work of art at the Mayesbrook Centre from Autumn 2021 and presented as part of Becontree Forever celebrating the Becontree Estate centenary in 2021. This building houses the Specialist Intervention Service, part of Children's Care and Support in the Borough.

"I worked with New Town Culture as an artist, I organised and ran a workshop called the Assembly Mixtape Club. We used music and the mixtape format to explore the power of listening, collaborating with a group of young people during a series of online sessions over two weeks in August. Trying to plan and organise collaborative workshops during a pandemic entirely online was a challenge for everyone involved, but the New Town Culture team was supportive and flexible in how things turned out, and the young people taking part were brilliant despite all the challenges. We're now working on putting together a final artwork based on the outcomes of the workshop, which we'll be sharing with the public later this year. " (Joe Namy)
Joe Namy

Joe Namy is an artist, educator, and composer, often working collaboratively and across mediums in sound, performance, photography, text, video, and installation. Joe’s projects often focus on the social constructs of music and organized sound, such as the noise laws and gender dynamics of bass or the colours and tones of militarization. He was a participant in the inaugural Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace independent study program in Beirut, and has independently studied jazz, Arabic, and heavy metal drumming. Recent exhibitions, screenings and performances include Le18 Rooftop Disguised as Dancefloor, 1-54 Forum, 2020; Half Blue, Berlinale Forum Expanded, 2020 and Minneapolis Museum of American Art 2019; Libretto-o-o d'artifice, Royal Northern College of Music, 2020; Automobile Redux, V&A Museum, 2019; 32:The Rescore, Sharjah Art Foundation, 2019 and The Eighth Automobile, Art Night, 2019.