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OCTOBER 2025

REHEARSAL FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

Joseph led the Creative Direction and Spatial Design of this innovation performance curated by Grisha Coleman. The project was a collaboraiton with Marrissa Molinar and Masary Studios.

OCTOBER 2025

MOVEMENT UNDERCOMMONS PRESENTATION AT JACOB’S PILLOW TAKES PLACE

Joseph led the architecture and spatial design of the performance on behalf of Grisha Coleman.

AUGUST 2025

JOSEPH TO BE A JUDGE FOR THE 2025 BOSTON ARTADIA AWARDS

AUGUST 2025

ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE FINANICIAL TIMES, ‘Notting Hill Carnival and the power of the DIY sound system’

Joseph publishes opinion piece exploring the power of DIY culture and what it tell us all about the importance of focussing on the value supply chains in delivering social and economic impacts.

JULY 2025

SUPA SYSTEM 2.0 ON DISPLAY AT THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURE

JULY 2025

DESIGN PROPOSALS DEVELOPING FOR DOX THRASH MEMORIAL GARDEN

JULY 2025

BURNT MILK:ACQUIRED BY CRITERION CHANNEL

Burnt Milk, a film project from British-Jamaican filmmaker Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, has been acquired by the Criterion Channel.

The film is available to watch on the streamer starting today.

Running just over nine minutes, Burnt Milk was commissioned by the British Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, marking the first time a film was included as part of the Pavilion’s official offerings.

The film was shot on rich 16mm Kodak and is shaped around a lyrical monologue voiced by Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black), but attributed to the fictional Una, played by first-time actor Clover Webb, who we see on-screen. She’s an older Jamaican woman in London, a member of the Windrush generation, and her life is beset by the crippling isolation of 1980s England. Thatcher’s England. One day, she takes a moment of solace to make burnt milk, a ritual that takes her and the audience back home.

JULY 2025

NEW LONDON ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

Joseph appointed to the International Judging Jury for the 2025 New London Architecture Awards.

Every year, a prestigious International Jury comprised of leading professionals from across the globe bring their unique expertise to pick the very best projects to win an NLA Award. This year, we welcome Janette Sadik-Khan, Principal at Bloomberg Associates and former Commissioner for the New York City Department of Transport, and Joseph Zeal-Henry, Director of Cultural Planning for the City of Boston and Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP to the Jury, who join returning members Sadie Morgan, Director at dRMM and Finn Williams, City Architect for Malmö.

The NLA Awards undergo a rigorous judging process involving the International Jury and our London-based Expert Assessors from across the built environment industry. During two weeks in July, the Expert Assessors review hundreds of submitted projects to compile a shortlist. Shortlisted projects are then presented to the International Jury for an intense week of judging to select the winners. As well as identifying exemplar projects across London, the process provides a great way to network with peers and identify key themes emerging across different sectors.

JULY 2025

PROXIMITY CONTINUUM TRAILER

MARCH 2025

CREATIVE DIRECTION AND CURATION FOR NEW CULTURAL RITUAL FOR BARBADOS - IN COLLABORATION WITH LAUREN HAREWOOD

“This moment of arrival is not just a marker of the past, but a space for reckoning with what the future might hold. The memorial stands as a site of sacred remembrance, acknowledging the arrival of the first slave ship to arrive in Barbados 400 years ago with enslaved Africans. It is an expression of commemoration, not just of loss, but of continuity—a way to honour what was and to insist upon what our collective futures could be”.

FEBRUARY 2025

DANCING BEFORE THE MOON FILM SCREENED AT THE E-FLUX SPACE IN NEW YORK

FEBRUARY 2025

PROXIMITY CONTINUUM FILM SCREENING AT THE HARVARD ART LAB

FEBRUARY 2025

RECLAIMING SPACE THROUGH SOUND

Joseph to be in conversation with Liz Phillips at the E-Flux Screening Room in NYC.

FEBRUARY 2025

DESIGN BIENNALE ROTTERDAM

Joseph has been invited to give the key note speech at the opening symposium of the Design Biennale Rotterdam 2025.

DECEMBER 2024

PROXIMITY CONTINUUM TO PREMIER AT HARVARD ART LAB

The film “Proximity Continuum”, is a reinterpretation of a rehearsal of Proximity through the lens of Black Boston creativity. The film explores the thematic explorations of sound culture mediating the world of movement and spatial design, creating a common ground for the formation of new narratives within the conception of the Black Atlantic, specifically bridging shared culture between diasporic communities in Britain, the United States, and beyond.

The film continues to express the reconciliation of disconnected and unacknowledged histories through the movement of synchronized bodies, sonic culture and Black visual expression. “Proximity Continuum” takes a moment of immaterial culture and archives the performance into a piece of forever media. The film is co directed by Malakhai Pearson and Joseph Zeal-Henry.
“Proximity,” choreographed by Grisha Coleman and curated by Joseph Zeal-Henry, questions our proximity to our diverted shared origins and their reconciliation as an opportunity for liberation through collective imagination. The choreography of Proximity exists in dialogue with the modular sonic sculpture SUPA System which transformed into a triptych of poses throughout the performance.

The SUPA System is a commission of the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) and was made possible with the support of the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University.

SEPTEMBER 2024

PROXIMITY

Proximity Dance rehersal takes place at the Harvard ArtLab as part of Joseph’s ArtLab residency.

MAY 2024

PLACE-BASED SOUND

Joseph in coversation with Nu Goteh, Frederick Dunson and DJ Lady D at the Chicago Institute of Contemporary Art for the Deem Journal Symposium 012.

JUNE 2024

SUPA SYSTEM FEATURED IN THE POINT MAGAZINE, LICKABLE WALLPAPER ISSUE

JULY 2024

SUPA SYSTEM HOSTS RECORD SWAP SOCIAL AT EXIT GALLERY IN ALLSTON, BOSTON.

JUNE 2024

SUPA SYSTEM TO LAUNCH AT HARVARD ART LAB

Built at a human-scale, SUPA System asks what music and sound can tell us about how we occupy spaces of power, and aims to inspire new ways of thinking about communal gathering spaces. A manifesto made physical, SUPA System cites far ranging influences to imagine how the vernacular of infrastructure could create new ways of living.

Taking inspiration from the aluminium frame of commercial billboards, the modular and open source structure riffs on a plurality of architectural traditions to create a flexible installation that repurposes commercial infrastructure to foster collaboration.

MAY 2023

‘DANCING BEFORE THE MOON’ AWARDED A SPECIAL MENTION FOR THE 2023 BRITISH PAVILON.

Dancing Before the Moon at the British Pavilion was awarded a special mention for this year’s La Biennale di Venezia’s 18th International Architecture Exhibition.

The commissioner, curators, and artists were awarded the only Special Mention for National Participation with the jury noting: ‘for the curatorial strategy and design propositions celebrating the potency of everyday rituals as forms of resistance and spatial practices in diasporic communities’.

Thank you to the British Council, La Biennale and Lesley Lokko, and the co-curators and many artists and makers that made Dancing Before the Moon possible.

MAY 2023

BURNT MILK TAKES CENTRE STAGE DURING DANCING BEFORE THE MOON OPENING WEEKEND

MAY 2023

DANCING BEFORE THE MOON FILM IS PORTAL TO THE FUTURE AT VENICE

MAY 2023

DANCING BEFORE THE MOON OPENS AT THE 18TH VENICE ARCHITECTURRA BIENNIAL

Large-scale objects reflecting different cultural and geographical customs populate the pavilion - from a giant, futuristic domino carved from ash timber to a ‘bone temple’ made of textiles. The exhibition demonstrates the need for architecture to look beyond buildings and economic structures and towards everyday social practices, customs and traditions in order to meaningfully reflect how people use and establish space.

In the UK, rituals practiced by diasporic communities are powerful vehicles for forging new spaces that promote cultures and traditions that are not considered in the planning of Britain’s built environment. Dancing Before the Moon celebrates those rituals and presents new ways of thinking about architecture beyond buildings and economic structures.

MAY 2023

BURNT MILK BY JOSEPH DOUGLAS ELMHIRST & RUBY ELMHIRST TO DEBUT IN VENICE AT THE BRITISH PAVILLION

MARCH 2023

ON BELL HOOKS, JOSEPH FEATURED IN ANOTHER MAGAZINE TO PREVIEW DANCING BEFORE THE MOON

NOVEMBER 2023

DANCING BEF THE MOON TAKEOVER AT THE V&A FOR THE RADICAL IMAGINARIES LATE

OCTOBER 2022

SOUND ADVICE PRODUCES WE ARE HERE DAYTIMER FESTIVALS AT THE RIO CINEMA, DATION

WE ARE HERE, celebrated the contribution of south asian culture and design in the develop of London’s contemporary fabric. The event included artworks by Chila Burman, DJ sets by D-Lish and Goldtooth.

JUNE 2023

“BRITISH TEAM SHINE IN THE MOONLIGHT”, DANCING BEFORE THE MOON REVIEWED IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES

MAY 2023

SHUBZ A VENEZIA

FEBRUARY 2023

DANCING BEFORE THE MOON BRANING AND CURATORIAL VISION LAUNCHED

Dancing Before the Moon is an exploration of the architectural phenomenon that is intangible. It deconstructs our understanding of the built environment, placing the focus on people, communities, rituals, social practices, and everyday customs. The Pavilion rejects the preconceived understanding of architecture that is rooted in buildings and economic structures, focusing instead on reflecting how people use and occupy space. It offers an alternate perspective on how cultures relate to land and geography collectively and how communities cooperate to hold space through social activities and production.

OCTOBER 2022

SOUND & SOLIDARITY 04 AT SOAS

APRIL 20232

SOUND & SOLIDARITY 02 AT THE MOSAIC ROOMS

Explore solidarity through sound and contribute to our third collective listening session presented by Sound Advice with Arman Nouri. The happening took take place on the 18 August 2022 at the Mosaic Rooms

Each participant was invited to pick a song as a sonic artefact that they want to share with the group to start the conversation. In the gathering, participants will use music to help articulate their approach to challenging colonialism and offering solidarity.

NOVEMBER 2021

SHUBZ AT THE V&A TAKEOVER OF THE V&A WITH OPP-BLOCK RADIO.

NOVEMBER 2022

“A HOUSE FOR ARTISTS” WINS RIBA NEAVE BROWN AWARD FOR HOUSING

JUNE 2021

NOW YOU KNOW PUBLISHED

Exclusion and racial bias are built into our cities. In its debut publication Now You Know, Sound Advice – the platform exploring spatial inequality in architecture – has gathered the thoughts and reflections of more than 50 architects and urbanists of colour in an extraordinary compendium of essays, poems, interviews and, yes, advice on how to address the discrimination baked into our built environment.

Crowdfunded to the tune of £19,500 by 418 supporters, the 180-page paperback is designed by Joel Antoine-Wilkinson and edited by Sound Advice's co-hosts, the urbanists Pooja Agrawal and Joseph Henry. Its contributors range from MBEs to architecture students, artists to urban policymakers – each one accompanying their piece with a concise tip of the kind that has made the Sound Advice Instagram feed such a compelling resource, paired with a music recommendation.

“Through Now You Know we wanted to explore a compelling alternative and more plural vision of the future in our voice and within our own space. The contributors have created an incredible manifesto so we really hope that people engage with the content in the book and don’t just leave it collecting dust on a coffee table or to decorate a Zoom background.” Joseph Henry, Sound Advice

DECEMBER 202119

SOUND ADVICE: SURVIVAL TIPS AND TUNES FOR BAME ARCHITECTS PUBLISHED BY ATFERPARTI

SUMMER 2017

GOOD GRIEF TEMPLE AT HIGH CEMETRY COMPLETED

JOSEPH ZEAL-HENRY