Becoming Other: Building New Worlds from Cardboard
Over three Young Creatives sessions in June 2026, our Youth Associate, Lucy Marriott, led Becoming Other, a project created as part of our Rubbish series.
Working with recycled cardboard, the young creatives turned discarded packaging into masks, costumes and imagined worlds. Beginning with simple drawings, the group gradually built strange identities, using everyday waste materials to build something entirely new.
Through guided meditation, drawing and discussion, they considered the worlds their characters might inhabit. Inspired by the surreal photographic work of artist Steven Arnold, the group created immersive scenes from cardboard, tape and found materials.
Each young person developed their own character before working together, taking turns as makers, photographers and directors. The resulting photographs feel somewhere between theatre & dreamscape!
The final session introduced the historic cyanotype process which we have explored before in YC, one of the earliest forms of photographic printing. The young creatives combined portraits, acetate drawings and collected imagery to create striking blue prints, layering symbols, patterns and personal marks over their photographs. Alongside individual works, the group experimented with large collaborative cyanotypes.
The finished artworks are playful, surreal and personal, reflecting three weeks of experimentation and exploration.
A huge thank you to Lucy Marriott for leading this project, and to our Young Creatives for approaching the process with curiosity and no shortage of wonderfully strange ideas.
