El (AKA Jaunts) Jones
(they/them)
@XYZ PROJECTS

IS A QUEER ETHNOGRAPHIC ARTIST/ TRANS TINKERER OF GENRE AND FORM.
THEIR WORK FOCUSES ON CO-OPERATIVE, EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES TO ETHNOGRAPHIC STORYTELLING
AND COMMUNITY-LED HEALTHCARE ARCHIVING- SEEKING TO RECOGNISE MARGINALISED EXPERIENCES OF HEALTH
AND FACILITATE SPACE TO RE-IMAGINE PUBLIC SYSTEMS OF CARE. THEY ARE FOUNDER AND CO-DIRECTOR OF
XYZ PROJECTS (CIC); A TRANS AND DISABLED-LED HEALTHCARE ARTS COLLECTIVE
BASED BETWEEN BIRMINGHAM-LONDON, WHOSE WORK OFTEN TAKES THE FORM OF
TRANS-GENRE MOVING IMAGE AND LIVE PERFORMANCE WORKS.


FIGURES 1&2: 16mm stills from ‘Dr.XYZ: A Medical Drag Transthology’ (XYZ Projects, 2024)

A satirical public information film made with Birmingham’s trans+ community, which functions
as a GP training film on effective and affirming trans healthcare practices.The film was made as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council x British Film Institute’s ‘NHS Untold Stories’ innitiative. It is now ciruclateing as part of a trans healthcare teaching session led by XYZ’s co-director Dr.Raviv Piccus throughout several London and West Midlands NHS staff training networks.Watch here on the BFI Player’s ‘NHS On Film’ collection.


Having recently completed an MA in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths, London, El’s thesis was titled ‘Queering the Healthcare Information Film; exploring the application of community healthcare archiving and collaborative filmmaking to the creation of NHS staff training resources’. It focused on methods of queering and decolonising forms of medical knowledge through community-led healthcare archiving and filmmaking.



FIGURE 3: workshop facilitated by El and Dr. Raviv Piccus (Vivid Projects, 2023)



FIGURE 4: collaborative scriptwriting workshop for Dr. XYZ (XYZ Projects, 2023)



FIGURE 5: Video synth + petri dish experiment ‘A Kiss is A Collision’ (Goldsmiths, 2022)



FIGURE 6: ‘Thanks for Your Patience!’ live performance installation
and healthcare zine launch by XYZ Projects (Vivid Projects, 2024)


FIGURE 7: 16mm stills from ‘Dorothy Towers’ (El Jones, Sean Burns, 2022)

El recently received a UK Partner award from the Wellcome Trust x Unlimited towards the development of ‘Elders, 2085’, a live soap opera exploring queer and trans experiences of ageing in the UK.The research for this performance in underway in the form of a series of recorded discussion salons taking place in Birmingham and London in June-July 2025.

This workshop series is titled ‘The Ageing Salon’.
You can see the call out via XYZ’s instagram account here.