The Do Nothing Machine returns to Harewood for this year’s Make It Harewood Festival!

Saturday 2 + Sunday 3 July | All day

This is a free drop in activity which is included within your Make It Harewood entry ticket and is free for members. No need to book, just turn up and join in!

Nik Ramage, Jim Bond and Martin Smith return to Harewood House with an exciting new community project specially commissioned for the ‘Make It’ festival. With the help of Make It festival visitors of all ages, they will create a large Do Nothing Machine over the course of the weekend.

Suitable for all ages

About the Do Nothing Machine Team

Nik Ramage
Nik makes sculptural machines that have drifted away from utility and objects that have forgotten their purpose. Some move and others teeter on the edge of movement. They are assembled from found objects, scrap and steel. Each work might embrace paradox or absurdity but is comfortable with it’s own quirks and runs to it’s own logic.

Jim Bond
Jim Bond is a sculptor specialising in dynamic kinetic structures and forms which evolve before the eyes. His fascination with mechanisms and human anatomy led him to an exploration of anthropomorphic machines as creators of their own narratives. From intricate responsive silver and copper devices to engineered, large scale wind powered installations these mechanised structures unfold to reveal wondrous illusions and hidden surprises. Working from his studio in Yorkshire he exhibits nationally and internationally most recently at The Morris Museum, USA, and he has created significant commissions for the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge University and Lords Cricket Museum, London. His anthropomorphic illusionary portrait of Rosalind Franklin was commissioned by English Heritage for their ‘Immortalised’ exhibition and his work is in private collections in the UK, Canada, The US, South Korea, Dubai and New Zealand.  

Martin Smith
Martin Smith is an artist whose research and work are concerned with people’s perception and interpretation of space. He undertakes quite large architectural commissions that interact with their given space and the viewer through mechanical movement.  Alongside this work, his practice is also concerned with making kinetic devices that investigate themes of repetition, precision and rules. These utopian objects and spaces are what currently drive his work forward.

Martin is also the Co-Founder and Art Director of the design label, Laikingland. The collaborative work he creates through this company plays with the themes of humour, nonsense and futility.

nikramage.com

jimbond.co.uk

smithautomata.co.uk

@smithautomata

About Make It Harewood

Following the success of our last summer craft festival, Make It Harewood is returning for 2022!

With a weekend packed full of workshops and demonstrations, visitors will have the opportunity to get hands on and learn from some of the leading talents in their respective crafts fields. As well as a range of intimate workshops for smaller groups, we will have drop-in sessions and beginners activities for all the family, so there will be plenty to keep you busy all weekend long.

Find out more >>