‘We need to create’ — artist launches workshop series to get people off phones

Hackney-based artist Emily Tracy is running a series of workshops for people who are sick of looking at a screen. Photograph: Floro Azqueta

An artist has launched a bill of creative workshops encouraging people to disconnect from their phones.

TAP-IN is a series of adult-only evening workshops hosted by artist Emily Tracy, an artist whose work revolves around the idea of ‘socially engaged projects’ which explore the theme of place.

The first of the workshops will be a collaging session run by Tracy herself, with subsequent sessions run by other Hackney-based artists.

Designer Ella Doran will run a class focused on weaving skills, stop frame animator Elizabeth Hobbs will teach participants animation techniques, and 3D light artist Cristina Ottonello will run a geometric paper-folding workshop, giving participants an opportunity to try their hand at a number of different practices.

The workshops will be taught by a number of Hackney-based artists, including Tracy herself. Photograph: Elizabeth Hobbs

Tracy’s own work involves a number of different processes and invites both her and her audiences to ask questions and collect things – whether these be stories, histories, data or objects. Themes of environment, natural history, and humanity all run through her work.

But even as an artist, she said she has struggled at times to fit creativity into her daily life. She told the Citizen: “I’ve worked as an artist [for] a very long time. About 15 years ago someone said to me, ‘What do you actually do all day?’ 

“I realised I was spending all my time writing emails, not actually making”.

This is something Tracy fears many people will be able to relate to, and she hopes the sessions will encourage people to spend time away from screens by rediscovering the joy of making things with their hands.

Disciplines you can learn include collage and animation. Photograph: Supplied

According to a report by the National Library of Medicine in the US, some 27 per cent of parents feel they are addicted to their phones – a number which rises to 50 per cent among their teenage children.

“People are so addicted to their phones,” Tracy continued. “I’m not making a judgment, but people are getting to that point where they’re realising they can’t bear it any longer and they want to do something real. It’s not good for your mental health.

“Creativity is a part of us, it’s innate, we need to create because it helps us to process.”

Tracy founded Make Club in 2020 as a weekly art group for children. During Covid, she also invited her audiences to collect and sort clutter, help reunite lost property and create collage.

In 2023, she completed a residency at 195 Mare Street – one of Hackney’s oldest buildings built in 1697 as a grand country house and currently undergoing restoration. Tracy said she created a piece which “responded to the history of the house” during her time there.

TAP-IN is the latest iteration of Tracy’s community engagement. “Hackney is full of people of all ages that are making”, she said. “My street used to be just burnt-out cars, and now it’s full of people – and lots of those people do creative things”.

Tracy said she has worked with the team at Dalston Curve Garden on a number of occasions over the years. She described it as “an amazing community space” that is “very inclusive” and “very welcoming”.

The artist is also now preparing for an upcoming exhibition at the Wilton Way Gallery in London Fields.

TAP-IN runs from 24 February until 31 March at Dalston Curve Garden. Workshops range from £30-80 depending on the session, with £25 early bird tickets available for the first two workshops. You can purchase them here.