MABEL
FORWARD
Anthropologist, creator and Innovator based in LONDON
Background
In 2023, I completed my Master’s degree in Anthropology with Innovation, graduating with first-class honours. In 2019, I gained a distinction in Visual Communication (Foundation Degree) from Kingston University.
projects
Interests
My passions lie with human-centred design, ethical and sustainable ethnography and making creativity accessible.
I also love life drawing, Sir Grayson Perry, Watershed, dance music, Fred Perry and Muay Thai.
Other bits
I have worked alongside Dawn Butler MP in the House of Commons, participated in an 8-week Art and Philosophy course at the RCA and worked for VIP Hospitality Events across London.
some current thoughts, interests and inspirations:
- USING ETHNOGRAPHIC PRACTICES IN GLOBAL HEALTH
- WORKING-CLASS CREATIVITY
- citizen science
- FLOW STATE in muay Thai
- THIRD-SECTOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
EDucation
MA ANTHROPOLOGY WITH INNOVATION,
first class honours
2019-2023, University of Bristol
Foundation visual communication, graphics, distinction
2018-2019, Kingston School of Art
A-Levels, Media Studies (A*), History (A), English (A) and Art (A)
2011-2018, Graveney School, Tooting.
PAID WORK
Intern at a tech-led, ‘radical-collaboration’ SME
2022, Strange Thoughts
Student Recruitment, Moderator and Ambassador
2020 - 2023, University of Bristol
Interviewer for The Times Final Year Student Survey 2021
2021, High Fliers
social projects
‘Arts and Humanities Students in the Community’ project
2023, University of Bristol
Social Innovation Programme. Creating a report for the expansion of Clevedon Aid,
a local CIC
2021, Burges Salmon & Bristol Hubs
Get in touch :)
Email
mabel.forward@btinternet.com
THE MISPHONIA PROJECT
This is my most recent and largest project to date. It is based on an auditory condition, Misophonia, where seemingly mundane noises trigger very strong, aggressive reactions in around 18% of the population. After 6 months of researching, ideating and prototyping, myself and my research partner, Freya, produced two main 'demonstrator' outputs. The first is a white paper, which we plan on publishing with Zach Rosenthal PhD, after he recently offered to co-author the report. This details our meta-analysis conducted on all the current literature offering social solutions to the problem, and of which confirmed our 'research gap' hypothesis. Our second output is a toolkit (book and website) aimed at researchers looking to expand their human-centred practices, as well as businesses hoping to increase inclusivity.
Ethical research and practice became a core component to our work by the end of the 6 months, validated as crucial (although neglected) amongst the scientific academic community. We had the freedom to pivot, reflect, and ideate within an Agile framework, encouraging us to see the problem space as part of a larger, systems-thinking opportunity to change-make.
Some of the stand-out moments from this project include the (oversubscribed) participatory workshop, for which we applied and received a funding grant from a Misophonia charity in the USA; becoming part of the International Misophonia Research Network; and being invited to discuss our work on a panel and podcast next month.
SKILLS
- SYSTEMS-THINKING APPROACH
- RESEARCH ANALYSIS
- ADAPTABILITY
Black mothers matter
SKILLS
- DETAIL-ORIENTED
- DISRUPTIVE IDEATION
- LISTENING WITH EMPATHY
The surrounding images represent my case study created to investigate innovations in perinatal health. I researched the experiences of BAME mothers in the NHS and discovered a large body of work was dedicated to discussing the disproportionately worse experiences of pregnant black women in the UK.
From this insight, I decided to reach out to Black Mothers Matter UK, interviewing a key founder about the workshops and mitigations they have been implementing across the country. I also spoke to a midwife about their experiences of anti-racist training in the NHS.
I created five mock hospital leaflets inspired by NHS handouts, as a tongue in cheek gesture to highlight the over-simplification of systemic issues within the current health services. These discuss the context, new innovations and critiques, as well as an exploration of how ethnographic research can play a vital role in reversing this health crisis.
visual communication
Creating stamps based off a building site
'Waste Nut, Want Not':
Campaigning peanuts to boat owners
'Waitrose Mums' Animation
'Book of opposites'
'Ropiest Rope'
'A hole lot of fun'
RURAL LONELINESS
Consultancy SuperSum tasked our team to innovate for The Churches Conservation Trust, specifically for The Church of St Saviour's in Puxton, North Somerset. We were given a strong theoretical grounding to investigate, regarding rural loneliness in isolated local communities. Mary Douglas' seminal text on fatalism thus provided a foundational structure for the project, asking us to question: How might we ideate alongside fatalism, instead of trying to find a way around it?
Through in-person interviews, academic literature and experimental iterations, we decided on three outputs to present to SuperSum. These were based on the insight that community members do not feel a sense of belonging to their own community, let alone the church. Our first output was a disruptive design campaign, advertising unlikely events in the church such as film premieres and large-scale concerts, to peak interest and conversation. Our second was an immersive theatre performance, building off a local story where a natural light display was experienced through the stained glass windows. Theatre companies would be invited to use the space and draw attention to the Church and its potential uses. Finally, I created a metal prototype of a community art project, inspired by unusual shoe markings from the 15th Century, found on the roof of the church. The aim was for people to etch their 'mark' on artefacts that we could hang and display from the ceiling.
SKILLS
- DISRUPTIVE IDEATION
- AMBITIOUS PITCHING
- COMPLEX INTEGRATION OF THEORY
super participants for un women uk
The above campaign is an activation idea to drive the growth of self-organising groups and supporters of UN Women UK. This client brief asked us to improve participation in charitable events, turning those simply interested into 'super participants'. We quickly identified TikTok as a platform both popular and largely underused by the institution. We demonstrated how a simple but well-executed idea could have a lasting impact on a target audience.
The key goals of the project were that it should be self-driving and scalable. In the former, each TikTok duet recorded is an individual response to the cause; by being uploaded it can be seen by huge social circles and continually expanded upon exponentially under a controlled frame. We took the UN Women UK’s mission very seriously and felt we had a real opportunity to source our own research, solve a problem we discovered, and scale a solution. By following the institution’s methodology, we made sincere attempts to innovate so that our proposal could be well-integrated and applicable. From the beginning, we stated between ourselves that we did not want to make just another online pretence of change, but actually involve a level of depth to our ideas so that they could form real-world change – whether that be through monetary charity work, petitions or other social engagement.
SKILLS
- TEAM DELEGATION
- MARKETING CONTENT
- CREATIVE ITERATION
Rewilding the uk
Re-Green UK was initiated to inspire companies, farmers and communities to commit to improving the biodiversity of the UK. Our proposed consultancy was formed around a natural capital investment brokerage. Companies would be able to meet CSR goals through partnerships with farmers, who would be funded by the government to implement re-wilding schemes. The community would be encouraged to keep these stakeholders accountable through biodiversity updates, citizen science projects, wildlife tracking and environmental audits.
One of the best things to come out of this venture was learning how to start from a place of negligible topic knowledge, to progress into creating a new venture creation. We received great validation for our project from both farmers and businesses, proving the benefit of committing to a user-centred methodology.
SKILLS
- VENTURE CREATION
- COMMUNICATION
- RAPPORT-BUILDING