[ origins ]

+ our backstory

THE ADV_ has evolved many times over expanding its content, format and delivery. Starting in 2015 in its first carnation as a deck of prompt cards with a marker pen. Today we deliver our bespoke experience as an immersive interactive device we call the Empathy Axis as well as through an online encounter.


+ trial + error = innovation

Just do it! It’s a great experience and makes you think.
— Christina Tuber, Vögele Kultur

[ ALLies ]

+ collaborators

Since our inception, THE ADV_ has formed relationships across sectors and borders; as associates, allies and advisors. As we continue our development, we constantly seek critical and mutually beneficial partnerships with; individuals, collectives and establishments.

  • Stephanie is an award-winning composer and creative director. Her work has featured at the Royal Opera House, FutureFest, The Roundhouse and more. In 2014 she founded BitterSuite, an internationally touring sensory music concept. In 2017 she conceived and directed ‘Open Senses’, a city-wide festival of sensory arts. Her work has been featured internationally in publications including The Guardian and Smithsonian.

  • Mo-Ling Chui is the course leader for B.A. (Hons) Design Management and Cultures at, UAL : London College of Communication. She is a creative director, marketing communications strategist, project manager, curator, and educator with more than 20 years of international experience, including orienting brands to Chinese markets. Her research and creative practice apply ethnographic and human-centred approaches to develop cultural intelligence and social design projects.

  • Nigel Stewart is a UK-based businessman and social entrepreneur who holds the position of Director at the learning institute Centre of Pan African Thought and The Care Plus Group in London. Nigel’s career spans 15 years in the fields of asset management, property and corporate finance. Nigel also works extensively as a consultant, specialising in coaching and mentoring start-ups and small caps on corporate strategy.

  • As an early-career strategist, she uses the process of design thinking to identify and coordinate innovation within the creative, business and political sectors to explore new methods of creating sustainable, long-lasting change.

    Lead : Manoeuvres, Power [at]. Play podcast

  • A freelance interaction designer and technologist, founding partner at Greyspace (a design & futures studio), a UK Design Council Associate, Member of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, visiting faculty at CIID, Royal College of Art, Erhvervs Akademi, and a network expert at Canvas8. I’ve designed new digital products and services, prototyped 24-hour immersive future experiences, made a synthesiser out of cheese, and designed the user experience for Kodak’s first camera mobile app. I’ve spoken internationally at events on future-facing topics, design thinking and championed approaching research, design and prototyping through creative practices like immersive experience prototyping, improvisation, physical prototyping, creative coding and world-building.

  • Philip Howe is an independent writer, researcher and artist with a background in the arts and non-profit sector, with a particular interest in radical politics, technology and conflict. His work across these fields has focuses on the intersections of contemporary technological developments and statecraft as well as the reemergence of anarchist theory in modern political dialectic, thought and action.


+ our network

The understanding was there as permission to be evil, with all cynicism, brought out the powerful element of truth and knowledge.
— Ade Adeyemi | NHS England / Chatham House

[ history ]

+ case studies

THE ADV_ has been balancing between public events and private consultation. As we shift our public interest towards our memberships, here are a few case studies of some of the most notable commissions.


+ our proud moments