Who we are
We are MakeAmplify; an award-winning collective of artists and technologists working with artistic directors Jennifer Irons and Zach Walker.
We create spectacular large-scale outdoor immersive events that connect people and transform public spaces into the extraordinary.
We illuminate and re-imagine city centres and landscapes, bringing forgotten or ignored buildings to life, and engaging communities and audiences in life-affirming stories that combine the physical, emotional and digital.
How it started
MakeAmplify was born out of a collaboration between Jennifer Irons and Zach Walker in 2009. Their initial project Encounters, saw them working from an empty shop with residents in Harlow that resulted in an interactive audio guided tour.
They went on to work with residents in Stratford to create Apparitions for the opening of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Made in Hull for the opening of Hull City of Culture in 2017.
MakeAmplify are resident artists with Studio Wayne McGregor’s Questlab Network focusing on the intersections between dance and technology, as well as part of the residency programme Arts DRIVA @ FuseBox experimenting with art and emerging technologies.
MakeAmplify are recipients of the 2020 Superfused Collaboration Award; using the Gatwick Airport Data feed to create visualization in Augmented Reality, and part of Digital Catapult’s 5GTAP program experimenting in the 5G testbed.
Take a look…
Our approach
We like making bonkers stuff with awesome people.
“We make work in public spaces because they are owned by everyone.
Art happens everywhere,
we work to reveal it.”
- Jennifer Irons & Zach Walker, Artistic Directors
Meet the Collective
Jennifer Irons
Jennifer is an award-winning choreographer, performer and director working internationally across theatre, commercial and socially engaged projects.
Born and raised in the Yukon, and now over 20 years living in the UK, she has been getting people together to dance since she was five years old.
Zach Walker
Zach is a multi-disciplinary artist whose collection of visual and audio work has been commissioned and programmed for festivals, galleries, museums, large-scale corporate events and bespoke private clients, all over the world.
His unique multi-sensory and interactive installations encourage exploration and play both individually and in groups, and can transform venues and spaces in extraordinary ways.
Chris Hunt
Chris is a creative technologist, director of Controlled Frenzy and builder of rather cool things. He works across a wide spectrum of technologies to build projects in Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities. Examples include Sensing the Unseen at the National Gallery and The Common Line virtual linear forest.
www.controlledfrenzy.co.uk
Stewart Baxter
Stewart is a musician, composer, photographer and designer from Hull who has spent over 20 years within the music industry and over 15 years within community arts and music development. Stewart is the director of Hinterland Creative and plays drums for the band LIFE, who are regulars on the BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music playlists and have toured with IDLES, Slaves and Nadine Shah.
https://bio.site/stewartbaxter
Lou Rogers
Lou is a creative Producer with over 25 years experience in developing large-scale, national and international touring arts projects. Over the past ten years Lou has been Creative Producer at Stopgap Dance Company, Producer with Rifco Arts and currently works as freelance producer with Lila Dance, Flexer and Sandiland and small performance adventures. She is also currently Senior Producer Artist Development at South East Dance.
Dan Hayes
Dan AKA yoB, Fine Print, danbeats and Scampi Dan was born and raised in North London on a strict diet of the trumpet and top of the pops. He has done session and touring work for The Pogues, The Veils, Man Like Me, Imogen Heap & Beans On Toast to name a few. He has worked extensively in the dance sector creating original scores for Caroline Bowditch, Jeanefer Jean Charles, Avant Garde and many more.