Arjun Harrison-Mann and Kaiya Waerea led an online workshop for the Come Together artist cohort exploring the politics of acting as a proxy for someone else using their Proxy Protest tools, codesigned with Benjamin Redgrove.  

Arjun and Kaiya taught the cohort how to make a DIY harness for video calling devices to enable the wearer’s body to act as a proxy for a video caller. We used found objects from around our homes like tights, scarves, and ribbons, to tie a mobile device onto our chests in a sash design. 

The device’s screen faced outwards, so that a video caller could be viewed, heard, and spoken to.

This positioning acts as a subversion of the functionality and aesthetics of ‘body cams’ — the one-way tool of surveillance and image capture. Instead, the virtual attendee can both view the space and be viewed within the space, providing accountability and promoting dialogue rather than fear of surveillance. 

The sash design also references the historic use of wearable items as symbols of solidarity among civil rights and equality movements — most notably the Suffragettes. 

After making our harnesses, Kaiya and Arjun led us through different prompts for activities that invited us to see and explore our domestic spaces from new perspectives and think broadly about the social model of disability. 

You can learn how to make your own Proxy Protest tools in this DIY guide to Proxy Protest. 

During the Come Together project, we used DIY harnesses inspired by this workshop to connect remote participants with those who came in-person.   

We live-streamed the ‘Future Places Toolkit’ workshop on Filwood Broadway plus the ‘Hybrid Tree Walk’ with Jim Smith. This meant that virtual attendees could listen to and chat with local residents who came in-person.

We found the harnesses to be comfortable, secure, and lots of fun to make and use. There were some connection issues due to lack of data outdoors which meant the video could become pixelated.