Machines of No Reason

Join a print workshop led by Royal College of Art (RCA) graduate Tamsin Loxley, marking the 175th anniversary of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The workshop is inspired by the John Haddon Etching Press, which dates from the Great Exhibition and is still in daily use in the RCA’s Battersea Print Hall—including by David Hockney to create his Rake’s Progress etchings in 1961!

Open to all ages and levels of experience, this workshop invites you to invent, draw and print playful, imaginary machines. Drawing on the Great Exhibition’s showcase of new thinking, design, and human ingenuity, this workshop will encourage visitors to imagine machines as expressions of creativity and humour, as well as tools of efficiency. Take your print home and/or contribute to a collective exhibition which will grow over the course of the Festival weekend.

Tamsin graduated from the RCA in 2025. Her practice explores the language of the land through materiality, memory and sense of place.

Find out more about the Great Exhibition

Visitor information

This is a drop-in event suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The event has step-free access.

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