Do Your Own Thing

Do Your Own Thing is a full-length work of non-fiction from artist and musician Richard Phoenix detailing his experiences of the best underground arts scene you've never heard of--Do Your Own Thing, a project run by learning disability arts organisation Heart n Soul. Looking at the transformative potential of working to support creative young people make the music and art they want to, this book contributes essential new voices, reflections and considerations to the established ideas of 'Do It Yourself' culture. Phoenix's book, written with a disarming and idiosyncratic voice, asks what our often reductive understanding of DIY aesthetics might mean in light of questions about access, support and who gives permission to whom to make art, guiding us through the kind of project only spoken about in funding reports and transforming it into a polyphonic, collaborative and joyful work of art.

Richard Phoenix is an artist working in London and the South East whose practice involves painting, drawing, writing, music and learning about how these things support people to be together.  Recent projects include solo exhibitions at Flatland Projects and Colden's Gallery, facilitating projects and giving talks at South London Gallery, Cubitt Gallery, Towner Gallery, Studio Voltaire, London College of Communication and Goldsmiths. He was an artist-in-residence within Tate's Schools and Teachers department, was part of the Conditions Studio Programme in Croydon and published the pamphlet D.I.Y. as Privilege: A Manifesto (Rough Trade Books, 2020). He has worked with learning disability arts organisations and individual artists and musicians since 2006 as a facilitator, collaborator and project co-ordinator and has been Associate Artist for Heart n Soul since 2015. He has also been involved within the UK's D.I.Y. music scene for many years being in the bands Sauna Youth, Monotony, Child's Pose, The Steal and Captain Everything! among others.