Somerset House Podcast

From alternative modes of listening to live performance as a form of time travel, the Black political economy of music and the platform conditions of distribution, musician, curator and theorist, DeForrest Brown Jr. wants to discover new ways of relating to audio. In a world of noise and an oversaturated music industry, what new worlds might we discover if we reimagine how we make and listen to music?  In this sonic essay for The Process, DeForrest reveals some of the ideas generated from his one-month residency at Somerset House Studios in 2025. Drawing on his research project, Rhythmanalytics, where he explores electronic music at the end of the music industry, DeForrest gives insight into his multi-media project, Synoptic Audio.   In a richly textured dialogue between sound and words, DeForrest shares his experience of returning to Somerset House Studios to perform live as part of Assembly 2026 programme.  Credits: Contributors: DeForrest Brown Jr  Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Tess Davidson  Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird  Additional sound: DeForrest Brown Jr (live recording, Assembly, Somerset House Studios, 2026) 

Artist Dana-Fiona Armour reveals what the sea snake knows about our changing oceans – and what it’s telling us about the climate emergency.  It’s animals like the sea snake – a vital but often neglected bioindicator of marine health – that can be a crucial lens to environmental change. With fragile eco systems, rising sea temperatures and decreasing salinity, what would it take to retune our ears and listen to the sea snake? In her major courtyard commission for 2026, Serpentine Currents – Fragments of a Changing Future, Armour visualises how marine ecosystems are degrading and changing. The installation blends sculpture, science and responsive light technology, translating complex research and predictive ocean data from the British coast into visuals, with the sea snake at its heart.  The dataset is also projected 50 years into the future, in a world where warming seas might allow sea snakes to inhabit UK waters. If the sea snake is telling us that the oceans are collapsing, with devastating consequences, then what does the future of our coastlines look like? Dana is joined by marine biologist, composer and researcher, Heather Spence, and researcher at French CNRS and Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, Anthony Herrel.  Credits: Contributors: Anthony Herrel and Heather Spence Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Tess Davidson  Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird  Additional field recordings and sound: Heather Spence, Felix Blume (FreeSound) 

For the first in The Process Archive sub-series we revisit three works from Assembly, Somerset House Studios experimental sound and music series, with artists Elaine Mitchener, Beatrice Dillon, Jennifer Walshe and Memo Akten.Originating in 2018, Assembly emerged from the roots of sonic art and sound-based practice within the Studios resident artist community. To mark its fifth edition, we look back at some of the works that have defined it.

Somerset House Studios artist Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom reimagines the drums as a time-travelling device across continent, history, and bodies.A visual artist who has been learning the drums as part of an art project since 2020, Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom has long been interested in how we might reframe our perception of the drums. Its primal release of sound and movement. An ability to shape and reshape our sense of time. But what happens if we take it one step further and reimagine the drum kit as a time-travelling device?In this episode of The Process, Boakye-Yiadom explores the often-invisible histories of the drum, from being othered and dismissed as noise, rather than music, to sounding the resistance against colonial power. Why is it that drummers like Clyde Stubblefield – the most sampled drummer of all time – are often neglected in music history? And who decides what is visible?To unpack these questions, Boakye-Yiadom speaks to British Italian multi-genre drummer, percussionist and composer, Valentina Magaletti, and writer and musicologist, Matt Brennan, author of A Social History of the Drum Kit.Boakye-Yiadom works across a multi-disciplinary practice, creating installations where the mediums are ever-evolving, and constantly in conversation with each other.He joined the Studios community in 2023, as the inaugural recipient of the Donna Lynas Residency, supported by Modern Art Oxford, Somerset House Studios, South London Gallery and Wysing Arts Centre, receiving a salary for three years and the support of each partner, including mentoring, use of facilities and inclusion in public programmes. -The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process.Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up. From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

Artist duo Cooking Sections blur the lines between art and activism with their installation, The Ministry of Sewers. The Ministry of Sewers is an exhibit by artist duo Cooking Sections for the Folkestone Triennial. Inspired by the 1976 appointment of Dennis Howell as Minister for Drought  – then Minister for Floods and Snows – it invites audiences to reimagine an alternative public service, using the voices of local communities to mobilise action against the scale of water pollution in the UK and reclaim the coastlines. From raw sewage spills to stream contamination and agrochemicals, The Ministry of Sewers amplifies the voices of swimmers, schoolchildren, farmers and scientists alike, all the while demanding change in shaping an alternative future of clean, swimmable seas all year. In this episode of The Process, Cooking Sections’ Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe explore the blurry boundaries between fact and fiction in artmaking: how might art and activism intersect, and can performance be a tool for direct change? They hear from Paula Serafini, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at Queen Mary, University of London, and Liv Pennington and Michele Shonfield, two of the ministers involved in the installation, on how art can empower people to speak out on issues that affect them. Credits Contributors: Cooking Sections - Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe; Paula Serafini, Patricia Rolfe, Michele Shonfeld, and Liv Pennington  Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott  Producer: Arlie Adlington  Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird  Sound Engineer: Mike WoolleyThe Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up: from financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to geometry for aliens. Along the way, we hear from thinkers across disciplines, including artists such as Mark Leckey and Gazelle Twin on their fascination with ghosts and all things paranormal, and Hannah Diamond on the transformative potential of cute – and how these creative influences shape their practice in new and surprising ways. 

DJ and producer, Tayo Papoola, explores how the ground-breaking photography of Jennie Baptiste documented a generation of Black British creatives.  Rhythm and Roots – Jennie Baptiste’s first major solo exhibition – opened at Somerset House in Autumn 2025, celebrating a three-decade career across music, fashion and youth identity. From the vibrating energy of London’s dancehall scene to the rise of hip hop and R&B, it is a vital visual record of a generation finding its feet – and leaving its mark.  But for Jennie, a child of the 80s and teenager of the 90s, it made total sense that photography would be a gateway into the culture. Growing up in north-west London to St. Lucian parents, her family were always taking photos. When her mother bought her a camera at 10, it never left her side as she captured the heyday of the UK’s hip hop scene and an underground culture looking to define itself.  In this episode of The Process, radio producer and DJ Tayo Papoola – who grew up alongside this creative generation – asks: what does an authentic portrayal of a creative community look like? And how do you preserve these histories for generations to come?  Tayo is joined by a set of creatives and contemporaries to Jennie who were important inspirations in the development of her practice and shaping the culture in real time.... DJ Semtex, music director Jake Nava and British Nigerian fashion designer Wale Adeyemi. Credits:  Contributors: Jennie Baptiste, DJ Semtex, Jake Nava and Walé Adeyemi Producer and narration: Tayo Papoola   Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird  Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process.   The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process.  Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up: from financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to geometry for aliens.  Along the way, we hear from thinkers across disciplines, including artists such as Mark Leckey and Gazelle Twin on their fascination with ghosts and all things paranormal, and Hannah Diamond on the transformative potential of cute – and how these creative influences shape their practice in new and surprising ways.  

In this special interview edition of the Process, artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen unpacks the background to her digital commission Grumpy.  Sidsel Meineche Hansen is a Danish artist who is interested in how things are made, both through the lens of the industrial complex and material forms of craft. Her work looks at the ways gender is produced and mutated through the production of female gendered commodities in the tech and porn industry, such as the sex robot or the sex doll, exploring questions around ownership and profit.  In Grumpy, her commission for our digital platform Channel, Sidsel created a computer-animated version of the anatomical Venus - a wax model of a dissected woman, clad in pearls, which was used to teach medical students' anatomy in the 18th Century. The head of the model hangs backwards, singing softly, as we pan up over her splayed open torso, revealing only the reproductive organs and a smiling foetus  To make the work, Sidsel sourced real-life human sexual organs from a cadaver before working on the animation. In this special interview version of The Process, Sidsel unpacks the background to the work with the director of Somerset House Studios Marie McPartlin. She talks about her experience in the operating theatre, the questions it brought up about the role of the artist, the relationship between object and subject and what it was like to make the work while pregnant with her first child.   Interviewer: Marie McPartlin Artist: Sidsel Meineche Hansen  Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Alannah Chance  Host: Laurent John Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley  Theme Music: Ka Baird The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process.Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up. From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

And how did it manage to disappear with barely a trace? Artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser (Hylozoic/Desires) go on a journey through the archives to unearth the story of the Great Hedge of India, a 4,000km long hedge grown by the British East India Company in the 1840s, to control the flow of salt across the continent. But despite being one of the longest of its kind in history, no visual trace of the hedge can be found in the archivesAhead of their installation in the courtyard of Somerset House, Himali and David tell the story of the hedge and reflect on the complex weave of fiction, truth and silence that surrounds it. In this podcast they ask, what can nature teach us about archives? And how can art create truth retrospectively?They are joined by Dr Alexis Rider, a historian of science at Cambridge, who worked alongside the artists as a researcher on the project and Professor Rohan Deb Roy, a lecturer in South Asian History at Reading, who looks at the ways the termite undermined the authority of empire by eating into both the hedge and the official papers of the state.Produced by: Alannah ChancePresented by: Himali Singh Soin and David Soin TappeserSeries presenter: Laurent JohnMixed by: Mike WoolleyTheme Music:Ka BairdAdditional Music:Suraj Nepal, Rahul Popawala, Ish S and  Surabhi SarafPodcast produced in response to 'Salt Cosmologies', an exhibition at Somerset House20 Feb – 27 Apr 2025.You can also watch a film produced about the artwork on our online platform Channel.

Our Future is tied to the future of our soil. Our decisions as to how we care for and use it matter. Soil teaches us that cycles are ongoing, and even in decline every day offers us opportunities for new beginnings. In this final episode Shenece Oretha explores the regenerative qualities of soil and composting as a model for personal redemption.  We hear from Palestinian grower Mohammed Saleh whose life story offers a personal story of hope, looking at how permaculture and art can help to heal the destructive impacts of war. Somerset Studios artist Harun Morrision’s singing compost invites us to see decay in a new light and Fin Jordâo lays out how composting can be a radical action for rethinking our relationships with each other and the planet. Does the future hold a closer, more natural relationship with the soil by rethinking our relationship to burial? Radical undertaker Ru Callander reconsiders our attitude to death.The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet.Presented by Shenece OrethaProduced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike WoolleyOriginal music by Andrew Pekler.

Much of the history of human making springs from the soil. Cuneiform, the earliest form of writing, was engraved into clay; paint pigments come from minerals in the soil; and much of our material history is held in ceramics. But soil is not neutral; it is deeply entangled with politics of ownership embedded in the land.In this episode Shenece Oretha probes the ways the soil and clay are inspiring artists today, looking at the stories soil can tell about our past and our potential future. Ceramicist and writer Jennifer Lucy Allan reflects on the ways clay connects us to the earliest forms of making. Artists Annalee Davis and Lauren Gault look at the ways soil bears witness to our histories, from the trauma of the plantation to the deep time of paleontology. We create art from soil, but through our extraction and interaction, it is also changed. How can we heal our relationship with the soil and in so doing, transform our relationship with the planet? Farmer and food justice advocate Leah Penniman unpacks how indigenous practices of soil care can reverse some of the most egregious effects of climate change. The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet.Presented by Shenece OrethaProduced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike WoolleyOriginal music by Andrew Pekler.

Our entire existence is dependent on our relationship with soil. As awareness builds of the enormity of the ecological crisis that we are facing, a growing number of artists are engaging with soil as a material in their work.  This three part series responds to the Somerset House exhibition ‘Soil: The World at Our Feet’, unearthing soil's role in our future through the work of artists and thinkers working with it.Soil is the basis of many creation stories around the world. It is our beginning, and it is what we will return to. In Episode 1 of Common Ground we look at soil as the matter from which life emerges. Exploring growth, beginnings and the ways soil as a material offers unique opportunities for exploration. We hear from artist Asad Raza who makes ‘neo-soil’ from scratch and covers the floor of galleries with it. Artist Eve Tagny’s work examines the cultivation of the Rose as a way to ask questions about the ways we interact with the world. Agroecologist Nicole Masters and farmer Abby Rose, lay out what soil is and why it holds the key to our survival. The episode is set within the garden of our presenter Shenece Oretha. Working with soil has shaped her relationship to the place where she lives and informed her art practice. SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art.Soil is unsung, and largely hidden from view. What if we were to put it in the foreground? To think of it as a collaborator?  The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet.Presented by Shenece OrethaProduced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike WoolleyOriginal music by Andrew PeklerEpisode Image: Asda Raza - credit Luca Guadagnini.

Soil is unsung, and largely hidden from view. What if we were to put it in the foreground? To think of it as a collaborator?  Across three episodes, presenter and Somerset House Studios artist Shenece Oretha traces the life cycle of soil, from it’s foundational role at the beginning of life with artist Asad Raza, through to its manifestation as one of the earliest creative materials, with ceramist and writer Jennifer Lucy Allan. We hear from artists Annalee Davis and Lauren Gault on the ways soil bears witness our difficult histories, before exploring decay and the regenerative powers of soil in our final episode, with the work of artist Mohamed Salah and radical undertaker Rupert Callender. The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet.Presented by Shenece OrethaProduced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike WoolleyOriginal music by Andrew Pekler.

Why has the club been so pivotal to the history of black queer placemaking? For artist and filmmaker Topher Campbell, growing up as a Black queer man in 1980s and 90s Britain, the club provided a sanctuary from the judgement and hostility of mainstream society. It became a space for community, self-discovery, and, as a care leaver, a sense of home. As co-founder of the rukus! archive and curator of the exhibition Making a rukus!: Black Queer Histories Through Love and Resistance, Campbell reflects on how the club scene reverberates through the archive, one of Europe's largest Black LGBTQIA+ collections, and its vital role in Black queer placemaking. In this podcast, Campbell speaks with two pioneers of the Black queer club scene: DJ Biggy C (aka Calvin Dawkins) in London, who helped create space for Black music in the capital’s predominantly white gay clubs, and US based Madison Moore, academic, DJ, and author of Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. Madison discusses his mission to reclaim techno for the black femme community and how fabulousness can offer both mask and armour for Black queer club-goers.  Madison is an assistant professor at Brown University.For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources:  UK Black Pride BLKOUT Black Beetle Health Galop Produced by: Alannah Chance Presented by: Topher Campbell Series presenter: Laurent John Mixed by Mike Woolley Theme Music: Ka Baird  Additional Music: Shaun J Wright and Alinka 

What one site in Croydon can tell us about the biggest moment of civil unrest in Britain in a generation.Listen to the full episode: Apple | Spotify Artist Imran Perretta was in his early 20s when the riots began in 2011. What started in London quickly spread across England, but it was the footage of a furniture shop set on fire in Croydon which stayed with Imran. Now, 13 years later, Imran revisits that moment in a new commission for Somerset House Studios which recreates Reeves Corner in the gallery space, accompanied by a new work for string quartet, entitled ‘A Requiem for the Dispossessed.’ In this episode of The Process, Imran heads back to Reeves Corner to reflect on its legacy today. We hear from Tim Newburn, professor of criminology and social policy at the LSE, about the history of civil unrest in Britain and the nature of riots.  Croydon-based community artist Natalie Mitchell shares how community art projects can transform the way we think about public space. We follow Imran as he records with the Manchester Camerata and hear insights from sound designer Rob Szeliga on the ways in which music can affect how we feel.  As the requiem builds to its crescendo and the site lies silent, we ask: what does this patch of land say about the legacy of social unrest in Britain? Why has such a monumental uprising been largely forgotten? And how can sound tell this story in new ways? We’re sensitive to the fact that while this subject matter is important to explore, it may be triggering to some audiences.  For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources: Healing Justice https://healingjusticeldn.org Resist and Renew https://resistrenew.com Radical Therapist Network: https://www.radicaltherapistnetwork.com   The Black, African and Asian Network (BAATN): https://www.baatn.org.uk Credits Produced by Alannah Chance Presented by Imran Perretta Series presenter is Laurent John Mixed by Mike Wooley Theme Music by Ka Baird with additional music by Harry Murdoch 

What one site in Croydon can tell us about the biggest moment of civil unrest in Britain in a generation.Artist Imran Perretta was in his early 20s when the riots began in 2011. What started in London quickly spread across England, but it was the footage of a furniture shop set on fire in Croydon which stayed with Imran. Now, 13 years later, Imran revisits that moment in a new commission for Somerset House Studios which recreates Reeves Corner in the gallery space, accompanied by a new work for string quartet, entitled ‘A Requiem for the Dispossessed.’ In this episode of The Process, Imran heads back to Reeves Corner to reflect on its legacy today. We hear from Tim Newburn, professor of criminology and social policy at the LSE, about the history of civil unrest in Britain and the nature of riots.  Croydon-based community artist Natalie Mitchell shares how community art projects can transform the way we think about public space. We follow Imran as he records with the Manchester Camerata and hear insights from sound designer Rob Szeliga on the ways in which music can affect how we feel.  As the requiem builds to its crescendo and the site lies silent, we ask: what does this patch of land say about the legacy of social unrest in Britain? Why has such a monumental uprising been largely forgotten? And how can sound tell this story in new ways? We’re sensitive to the fact that while this subject matter is important to explore, it may be triggering to some audiences.  For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources: Healing Justice https://healingjusticeldn.org Resist and Renew https://resistrenew.com Radical Therapist Network: https://www.radicaltherapistnetwork.com   The Black, African and Asian Network (BAATN): https://www.baatn.org.uk Credits Produced by Alannah Chance Presented by Imran Perretta Series presenter is Laurent John Mixed by Mike Wooley Theme Music by Ka Baird with additional music by Harry Murdoch The Process: A Somerset House Podcast   An artist-led podcast series which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up.  From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next. 

How can cuteness be used to sugar coat difficult messages? In this episode we join another artist commissioned for the Somerset House exhibition CUTE, Brooklyn based Sean-Kierre Lyons, to explore how cute characters have been used to tackle sensitive ideas from the middle ages on.  In her practice, Sean-Kierre brings the grotesque and the cute together to approach challenging themes. Much of her work is inspired by cartoon animation, specifically its roots in racist caricature. For her Somerset House installation Sean-Kierre created a dragon-like gargoyle called Benevolence, one of nine protector gods she is developing, inspired by the 90s cartoon ‘Gargoyles’Here Sean-Kierre exposes the double edged sword of cute, looking at how cute characters have been used to mask malicious intent, as in the case of the animated characters used in war propaganda, as well as to deliver moral reminders, as far back as medieval masonry. She talks to animator of the Big Blue, Gyimah Gariba about how he uses cuteness to demonstrate the vulnerability of earth’s climate and art historian Dr Janetta Rebold Benton explains how gargoyles could be thought to be a form of cartoons of the middle ages.Contains strong language from the start. CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, at Somerset House, 25 Jan - 14 Apr 2024.Principal Partner: SanrioProducer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries presenter - Laurent John

Hannah Diamond reflects on the transformative powers of cute Cute aesthetics have exploded into pop culture. We use filters to make ourselves look like cute cats, dot our texts with hearts and smiley faces and our phones ping with alerts from cartoon animals reminding us to study French or change energy suppliers. Brands have been using cute images to sell us things since the dawn of advertising but with the rise of social media we are increasingly becoming the brand, as we seek to cutify our online and IRL selves. Over the last ten years the music collective and label PC Music have been playing with the aesthetics of pop music, internet culture and consumerism to suggest that artifice doesn’t need to be inauthentic. Artist and musician Hannah Diamond is one of the founding members, known for her hyper-real, hyper-pop art direction and an ear for sugary hooks. For CUTE, an exhibition at Somerset House, Hannah was commissioned to curate a room in the style of a girl’s sleepover accompanied by a stream of music videos that embody the power of cute. In this episode we go deeper into the ways pop music and cuteness intersect, celebrating the ways plasticity can be liberating rather than limiting. Hannah talks to fellow label affiliate Hayden Dunham, the brains behind the Hey QT project, about self transformation through world building and Dazed journalist Gunseli Yalcinkaya explains why the internet has such an enduring obsession with cute.CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, at Somerset House, 25 Jan - 14 Apr 2024.Principal Partner: SanrioProducer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries presenter - Laurent John

What does it mean to use the voice of others within a performance, text or recording? In this episode of Not Strictly Speaking, we look at the ways in which the voice is used both in service of power, and as a way of reclaiming agency.Prem Sahib’s new sound performance for Assembly, Alleus, takes a speech by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and renders it into a new form through layers of processing and repetition, suggesting the idea of a curse or malediction. Resisting the idea that one hostile voice can speak for the many, Prem explores how political rhetoric can speak on behalf of others, and take possession of bodies at a distance.Composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson, who has composed the sound across the podcast series, considers the boundaries between thought and speech, looking at how recorded speech and text can intertwine. Felicia’s work with voice plays with space, distance and found sound, inviting the everyday into her recordings. In this episode, she discusses the role the voice plays within her work, the writers who live within her and how the recorded voice can be slippery and shapeshifting.Alleus by Prem Sahib was co-commissioned and presented by the Roberts Institute of Art and Somerset House Studios as part of Assembly, 2024.Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest.  In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode.Commissioned by Somerset House StudiosProducer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries Composer - Felicia AtkinsonMix - Harry MurdochAssembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

The communal voice has a long history within the resistance movement, from African American spirituals, to the protest songs of the civil rights movement and the current pro-Palestine marches. In this episode we explore the enduring power of group singing and how it can embody resistance and resilience with Turner prize winning artist Helen Cammock and artist and Somerset House Studios resident, Vivienne Griffin.  Vivienne's sound work often centres around the voice, both her own and those of small choral ensembles. For their piece for Assembly they are drawing on the voice of the harp as a symbol of resistance within the history of British colonialism.  The work will be performed by Northern Irish harpist Úna Monaghan alongside a mechanised harp created by Vivienne, who will together interpret a text score. Helen Cammock works across film, printmaking, performance and writing. Her work explores the role of the voice within the creation and maintenance of power structures as well as how the communal voice can subvert the dominant narratives of history. Here Helen unpacks how her work with communal voice has interrogated the idea of the voice as a site of resistance and the body as resilience.Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest.  In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode.Commissioned by Somerset House StudiosProducer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries Composer - Felicia AtkinsonMix - Harry MurdochAssembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

The voice is something we all share and yet rarely do we explore the full range of our instrument. Ahead of Assembly at Somerset House we talk to two vocal artists who stretch the capacities of the voice as a sound producing instrument to look at the ways the voice can channel meaning beyond words; voice artist and composer Elaine Mitchener, who is resident at Somerset House Studios; and the pioneer of Extended Vocal Technique, the renowned vocal artist and composer Joan La Barbara.  Elaine’s vocal work looks at ways of speaking beyond language and explores moments of historical injustice through vocalisation and movement. In her piece for Assembly, 'These Cost The Earth', she explores the dynamics of waste consumerism, in particular the environmental and human impact of the clothes we send to landfill.  She uses the Chairman’s Staircase in the New Wing at Somerset House as the site for a choreographed piece which articulates this destructive cycle, giving life to old clothes and evoking the journeys they have been on. The groundbreaking vocalist Joan La Barbara is one of the first artists to play with extended vocal technique, a technique which uses the voice as a sound producing instrument.  As a performer she has worked with Cage, Feldman, Reich and Glass and as a composer and improviser she has been writing her own material since the 1970s. As one of the early pioneers of this form of vocal experimentation, we hear as Joan unpacks how she developed her instrument, her work with imaginary language and the idea of super presence in relation to performance. Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest.  In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode.Commissioned by Somerset House StudiosProducer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries Composer - Felicia AtkinsonMix - Harry MurdochAssembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

A three-part podcast series, released 20-22 March 2024, exploring different manifestations of the voice, produced in conjunction with Somerset House Studios' Assembly.Each episode follows artists featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack the power of the voice beyond speech; examining it as a form of possession and how we might give voice to the inanimate.  Vocal artist and composer Elaine Mitchener looks at how the human voice can extend through objects and lay bare the inequities of global supply chains. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies, while sound artist Vivienne Griffin shares research centred on the concept of the harp as a voice of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions in response to the theme.Assembly is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

Artists Revival Cohen & Tuur Van Balen explore how humans have transformed the animals that we live with. The way in which we think about animals is riven with contradictions. We dote on our pets yet consume vast amounts of animals as meat. The UK consistently donates more money to animal welfare charities than any other cause and yet have created pet breeds with horrifying health defects. Revival Cohen & Tuur Van Balen are an artist duo who are interested in these ambiguities, in particular the moment when animal bodies are transformed into objects of human desire. They’ve made work with thoroughbred race horses, bred their own batch of genetically modified goldfish and in 2023 they were the recipients of the UAL’s Creative Computing Institute x Somerset House Experimental Technology Fellowship 2023, offering a unique development and commission opportunity for an artist looking to incorporate new technology within their work. This resulted in a new film, May the Fox Take You for CHANNEL, our online space for art, process and ideas.   In this episode of The Process we join them in the research process for their next work, which continues to explore a question central to their practice: can animal breeding be considered a form of sculpture? We talk to historian Michael Worboys about how the Victorians created the modern dog breed and writer and curator Filipa Ramos discusses how art has informed the way we think about the animal body. Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen were in residence at Somerset House Studios in 2023. May The Fox Take You was commissioned by Somerset House in collaboration with UAL Creative Computing Institute.Producer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottSeries presenter - Laurent John

The road to success is paved with inspirational quotes about failure.  But could failure be more productive than success? In this episode of The Process we step inside the community of designers on site at Makerversity in Somerset House to explore the role of mistakes in the design process.  Founding member Tom Stables talks to biomaterial designer Cassie Quinn, who makes sustainable sequins out of household waste. She shares stories of the mistakes that ended up being transformative to her practice.  He then sits down with performance artist and clown Julia Masli to talk about her latest Edinburgh show which is designed to go wrong, to learn how to fail more spectacularly. The ProcessThe creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist or curator as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.Producer - Alannah ChanceExec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-ScottPresenter - Tom StablesSeries presenter - Laurent John

Tracing the legacy of Black British fashion with Andrew Ibi, Jazzie B & Martine Rose.The late 80s to the early 90s saw a Black cultural renaissance in Britain. Artists and designers like Sonia Boyce, Joe Casely-Hayford and Soul II Soul were breaking new ground across the arts and changing the landscape for Black creatives. While putting together The Missing Thread exhibition, co-curator Andrew Ibi (Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency), realised that despite its significance this era hasn’t been given its due. In this episode of the Process, Andrew rectifies that, tracing the thread back to a lost generation of Black creatives to explore how Black fashion arose from the club and the back room sewing machine rather than the catwalk.Andrew looks back at that time with Jazzie B, whose group Soul II Soul soundtracked the era, and with cutting edge designer Martine Rose, who has worked with everyone from Drake to Kendrick and Balenciaga.The ProcessThe creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work. Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist or curator as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.CreditsProduced by Alannah ChancePresented by Andrew IbiSeries presenter is Laurent JohnSound Design by Nick RyanThe Missing Thread is sponsored by Morgan Stanley

What if the way we're approaching the crisis is part of the crisis?We look at the effect our endless drive for productivity is having on the planet and how we’re intimately entangled with the natural world with Somerset House Studios artist Sam Williams on the invisible labour of the earthworm, poet Jason Allen-Paisant on tenderness in rural Jamaica, systems theorist Nafeez Ahmed on why the old systems are crumbling and artist Natalie Sharp on her love of ecosex. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of BeingSoft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth?In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel KacoutiéWith sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

How can the soft body challenge social hierarchies? We turn our gaze towards the soft life of the body and unpack new ways of thinking about embodiment in artistic practice with Somerset House studios artists Florence Peake on radical softness in somatics, choreographer and writer Dr Martin Hargreaves on the history of protest through softness in dance, Ilona Sagar on rendering bodies hard through architecture and disabled film maker Jameisha Prescod on the colonial history of black pain.Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of BeingSoft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth?In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock.Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel KacoutiéWith sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

How can we make time free? We contemplate different ways of experiencing time beyond the linear, with Somerset House Studios artist Shenece Oretha on transforming time through the practice of listening, sociologist Judy Wajcman on unpicking progress from speed in the digital sphere and psychologist Dr Ruth Ogden on how our experience of time is relational and whether it’s possible to conceive of ‘free time’ in a modern world. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of BeingSoft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth?In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel KacoutiéWith sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig This episode includes the following sound works by Shenece Oretha:ConspiracyListening Wholesat/TributeAh So It Go, Ah No So it Go, Go So!Who Can’t Hear Must Feel 

Our ways of working aren’t working. How can art offer new ways of being outside of the values of hustle culture?  We explore changing attitudes to work post-pandemic and re-evaluate the importance of rest as a creative space. We hear from Bayo Akomolafe about the fertile spaces of the cracks, Black Power Naps on rest as a radical act and we lie down to contemplate art in Somerset House with artist Raquel Meseguer Zafe, after her workshop for this year’s Hyper Functional Ultra Healthy programme. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of BeingSoft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth?In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock.Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel KacoutiéWith sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

A new limited series for the Somerset House Podcast Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth? In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis?  In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock.  Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel KacoutiéWith sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig

Artist Leila Dear explores whether geometry could be a universal language What do our attempts to communicate with extra-terrestrials say about us?  Jerwood artist in residence, Leila Dear uses geometry as a way of thinking about interdependence and non-human design.  In this episode of The Process she explores whether geometry could be used as a ‘Lingua Cosmica’, a universal language by which to communicate with other intelligences beyond earth.  Given the prevalence of geometric patterning within the natural world and the universal limitations of physics, could geometry provide a way of relating to other minds without preferencing our own?   She puts the idea to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI institute (the Search for Extra-terrestrial Life) who is sure we will find evidence of aliens within the next 20 years.  This led Leila to reflect on the other forms of mind we already share the earth with. She is joined by science writer Philip Ball to discuss how a better understanding of animal and plant intelligence might help us de-centre the human.   The ProcessThe creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work. Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next. Producer: Alannah Chance  Series Presenter: Laurent John  Theme music: Ka Baird  Additional music: Aylu (Mana Records) Lord Tusk Mastered by: Nick Ryan  Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022  Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

The artist Libby Heaney spent many years as a quantum physicist researching the concept of quantum entanglement, the way objects can affect each other even when separated by vast distances, or what Einstein called ‘spooky action at a distance’.  It’s an idea that challenges our assumptions about the physical world and for Libby it offers up fertile ways of rethinking old hierarchies. In this podcast we take up this mystery and dance with it, seeing where metaphors of entanglement can take us. Firstly Libby talks to biologist Susanne Wedlich about slime and how this shape shifting substance can help us get closer to the quantum world. She then sits down with deep listener and dream expert IONE, the partner and lifelong collaborator of Deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros. IONE and Libby meditate on how a practice of quantum listening can entangle us with both the physical and the metaphysical world, including a connection beyond death. -Libby Heaney is a London based artist with a PhD in Quantum Physics, who works across moving image, performance, installation and physical media, usually combining these with advanced technologies such as machine learning, game engines & quantum computing - a new type of computer that processes information on particles following the weird laws of quantum physics. Heaney is widely known as the first person to make art with quantum computers. Her artwork Ent-, commissioned by Light Art Space, 2022, has been exhibited across continents and received substantial international press in places like Der Welt, Wallpaper* and Spike Art.  Before retraining as an artist at Central St. Martins, London, Heaney completed a PhD in Quantum Information Science at the Uninversity of Leeds and led her own research at the University of Oxford, publishing around 20 papers on the topic of quantum entanglement. She won the HSBC and Intitute of Physics, UK, Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the year in 2008. - The ProcessThe creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  Producer: Alannah Chance Series Presenter: Laurent John Theme music: Ka Baird Additional music: Pauline Oliveros and IONE, Aylu (Mana Records) Carmen Jaci and Irama Gema Mastered by: Nick Ryan Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022 Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

Film maker Morgan Quaintance is interested in what AI can teach us about being human. For his commission for our digital platform Channel, he set out to explore divergent cultural attitudes to AI between the UK and Japan. But when he started putting out requests for interviews, he was met with a wall of silence.  Public institutions, AI developers, robotics companies and schools all seemed unwilling to reply and the film couldn't be made. Frustrated about the stonewalling he'd experienced, he started to think more about the process and what this says about the development of AI. Why was there such overwhelming silence from companies developing this technology? What does this say about some of the moral questions that go into its formation?  Morgan is joined by The Guardian’s tech journalist Alex Hern and AI artist Nouf Aljowaysir to try to find out.  Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer. His moving image work has been shown and exhibited widely at festivals and institutions including: MOMA, New York; Mcevoy Foundaton for the Arts, San Francisco; Konsthall C, Sweden; David Dale, Glasgow; European Media Art Festival, Germany; Alchemy Film and Arts Festival, Scotland. Over the past ten years, his critically incisive writings on contemporary art, aesthetics and their socio-political contexts, have featured in publications including Art Monthly, the Wire, and the Guardian, and helped shape the landscape of discourse and debate in the UK.  The ProcessThe creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  Producer: Alannah Chance  Series Presenter: Laurent John  Theme music: Ka Baird  Additional music: Harry Murdoch   Mastered by: Nick Ryan  Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022  Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

Elizabeth Bernholtz, aka Gazelle Twin, has had paranormal experiences since her early childhood. Ever since she’s been both terrified and thrilled by the occult, gripped by stories of poltergeist possession and famous hauntings. Fresh off the back of her commission for The Horror Show at Somerset House, Gazelle Twin is getting back into the writing process for her next album which explores her long held fascination with ghosts.  We join her as she considers what it would mean to take these stories seriously and to harness her fear as a creative fuel. She talks to artist Mark Leckey, also inspired by the supernatural, about how he uses samples as a form of haunting and how art can be a form of self-exorcism.  Ghost hunter Innes Smith helps unpack the hauntings she experienced in her childhood home. The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  Producer: Alannah Chance Series Presenter: Laurent John Theme music: Ka Baird Mastered by: Nick Ryan Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022 Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  In this second series we take a turn for the unexplained, starting with a ghost story from musician Gazelle Twin, who explores how art can be a form of exorcism with artist Mark Leckey. Film maker Morgan Quaintance reflects a recent film that couldn't be made and examines the culture of secrecy in AI. Artist Leila Dear asks how geometry can help us communicate with life on other planets and Somerset House Studios resident Libby Heaney explores quantum entanglement, through the prism of slime and deep listening. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators Programme 2022Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

Many African Filmmakers, both on the continent and in the diaspora, have been using the medium to connect and communicate across time and space.Having grown up both in Nigeria and the west, Akinola Davies Jr attempts to bridge the gap between traditional and millennial Black communities in both locations. Award-winning filmmaker and author of Love for Liberation: African Independence, Black Power, and a Diaspora Underground Dr. Robin J. Hayes joins in for a discussion of their personal journeys as filmmakers.

Questions and complications of the metaverse are broken down by artist collective Keiken, whose cross-dimensional practice merges the physical with the digital by building online worlds and augmented realities.Here they meet with Jazmin Morris, a creative computing artist and educator based in London whose own practice and research explore representation and inclusivity within technology.

Weyland sits down with Filipino artist Leeroy New who was commissioned to create the Earth Day 2022 sculpture in Somerset House’s courtyard.The pair discuss creating with collected materials, indigenous mythology, and archiving in the face of the climate emergency. We also learn how a Yoruba deity named Ogun influenced the creation of the only acoustic musical instrument created in the 20th century …steelpan

Weyland hops on an audio space adventure to Andromeda with Somerset House Studios artist and writer Sonya Dyer to explore how we can construct the future based on the archive we leave behind.Dyer is currently collaborating with Dr. Jeff Grube as part of a funded research and development scheme connecting academics from King's College London and residents of Somerset House Studios.

Roller skating is having a moment.  Instagram videos of roller skaters doing synchronised dances went viral over lockdown and inspired a new generation to get on four wheels. Somerset House Studios artist Tyreis Holder was one of them. She discovered skating during lockdown and in her words, it saved her life.  In this episode of the Process, Tyreis joins the dots between her art practice, poetry and her love of skating, tracing its history within the black community in London. She heads out to Hyde Park to talk to artist and coach Marilyn Fontaine, part of an older generation of black skaters in London who shares how skating has been transformative in her life and was integral to the development of underground music and fashion through the 80s. In a candid and personal conversation, Tyreis and Marilyn share how skating has helped them navigate intergenerational trauma and gain a sense of freedom, inspiring Tyreis to invite her own family to get on four wheels to begin a process of healing.Additional music in this episode is by Dialgo, D.A.H Trump and Siddhartha Corsus  -THE PROCESS A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music is by Ka BairdAdditional music by Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

Col Self grew up as a child playing on the sites of the new age traveller community in the 1990s. After the passing of the criminal justice bill and the crackdown on the travelling community that came with it, it started to become clear to her what a unique moment in British history she had lived through. Now, as a resident artist at Somerset House Studios, her practice continues to probe the boundaries of private and public space, searching for liminal domains which exist outside the grasp of late stage capitalism. But are there any common spaces left in the UK where we are truly outside of private ownership? Col sits down with writer and activist Nick Hayes to talk about the power of trespass, the last of the commons and why he thinks the river could be the ultimate liminal space.Additional music in this episode is by Pamela Z, the Spore collective, Frances Young and 011668-The Process  A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka BairdAdditional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

Somerset House Studios resident Anna Meredith is a composer who takes writing playful music seriously. But her process is anything but reckless.  Over the summer she set herself a challenge, to write a series of compositions for bumper cars which would be installed in the courtyard of Somerset House for Dodge.  Tunes would be triggered when the bumper cars bumped. But this posed some tricky questions. How can you control the structure of the composition when the audience is in the driving seat? Who is the composer here, Anna or the drivers? Anna sits down with her studio neighbour Nick Ryan, who has been working at the forefront of interactive music, to hear about where this genre might be headed before talking to games designer Nick Moran to hear how to organise fun. Additional music in this episode is by Anna Meredith and Emahoy Tsegué-maryam Guèbrou.- The Process  A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka BairdAdditional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

‘How do you imagine yourself as anything other than what you are told you are?’   Shiraz Bayjoo is a Mauritian artist living in London whose practice explores how language and identity in the Indian Ocean have been shaped by the legacy of European colonialism in the region. In a commission for We Are History, an exhibition at Somerset House, Shiraz explored different perspectives on the plantation system, and it’s structures of extraction and subjugation.  The We Are History exhibition traced the complex interrelations between today’s climate crisis and the legacies of colonialism. We joined Shiraz in his studio at the stage where he was putting the finishing touches to the installation, which brings together ceramics, textiles, sculpture and archive photos to re-dignify the people affected by the legacies of empire. He is joined by activist and theorist Françoise Verges, born in La Reunion, to discuss strategies of survival and resistance in the region.Additional music in this episode is by Alain Peters, Menwar and Roger George.We Are History is sponsored by Morgan Stanley- The Process  A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka BairdAdditional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

What is Financial Astrology? Somerset House Studios artist Gary Zhexi Zhang is interested in exploring the chimeric edges of global systems.  Recently his research has taken him into the world of finance, where he’s been drawn to the sorts of speculative ways of thinking we might normally associate with the occult. Enter Financial Astrology, a way of forecasting the markets based on the positions of the cosmos.  In this episode of The Process, Gary goes down the rabbit hole to try to understand this area and why cryptocurrency in particular is so obsessed with the stars. He hears about some seismic events on the horizon from Christeen Skinner, a financial astrologist who has been working in the City of London for over 20 years and talks to social anthropologist and former equity fund manager, Philip Grant about how ideas of magic and finance overlap.  -The Process  A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka BairdAdditional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

Breaking the Rules featuring Andy Holden & Mark McGowan‘The power of performance lies in it not really being there’ Andy Holden grew up with one foot in Bedford and one foot in Beano-town, the fictional town from the Beano full of semi-detached houses and fractious families.  As the curator of the exhibition Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules at Somerset House, Andy became immersed in the comic’s world of childlike anarchy and rebellion. Now, as he shakes off his cartoon limbs and returns to being fully human, he wonders what can he take from the spirit of the Beano into his next endeavour?  How can you keep bending the rules while avoiding being predictable? Is performance art the most effective way of inspiring change? Andy heads out to talk to  performance artist Mark McGowan, aka the artist taxi driver, about performance, politics and the power of persona, all from the back of a black cab.- The Process  A new Somerset House Podcast series We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme Music: Ka BairdAdditional Music: Equiknoxx and Xylo-Ziko Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

A brand new six-part podcast series, The Process, takes listeners behind the scenes with some of today’s most exciting creatives on their journey to create new works. Released weekly from 16 February 2022.We’re used to experiencing the work of an artist in its final form - in the gallery, on the stage, or mixed on an album. But what has been the journey to get there? Somerset House is home to a community of over 70 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. Curator Andy Holden and performance artist Mark McGowan talk politics and performance from the back of a taxi, artist and writer Gary Zhexi Zhang delves into the world of financial astrology, and La Réunion born activist Françoise Verges and Mauritian artist Shiraz Bayjoo discuss survival and resistance in relation to colonialism in the Indian Ocean region.  The Process is produced by Alannah Chance as part of the Creators in Residence Programme, supported by The Rothschild Foundation.  

Speaking to familiar faces, including Carol Morley, Jarvis Cocker, Nabihah Iqbal, Noel Fielding and Tim Burgess, the series reflects on how guest have instigated new activities online, open to all, to stay creative in lockdown.Created and hosted by award-winning artists and film makers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, this series is a joyful listen for anyone who has (re)discovered their creative side in lockdown.

In the final episode Iain and Jane talk to the stand-up comedian and radio broadcaster Robin Ince about the Stay at Home Festival and musician, producer and DJ Nabihah Iqbal about her time as Lockdown Herbalist in Pakistan, interrogating what it is that drives people to channel their creative energies and help us feel a little less isolated. We also welcome back Jarvis Cocker who may well send you off to sleep with his Bedtime Stories.  Exploring what we can learn from the people behind these ventures, Iain and Jane ask just what is that we gain from an online hang out or drop in.Credits Coping Mechanisms is a Somerset House podcast. Created by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Produced by Eleanor Scott & Daniel BreuerMusic by Bernholtz.  Thank you to all the artists who have contributed to the series.

Exploring whether we can really have a collective experience online, our hosts meet with Carol Morley and Tim Burgess. Catch up with the brilliant writer and director Carol Morley, whose films include Dreams of a Life and The Falling. Carol has been hosting “Friday Film Club” – each week she chooses a readily available, free-to-watch film. People then watch at the same time and meet up on Twitter to discuss it afterwards. Similarly, The Charlatans frontman, musician, writer, DJ and record label owner, Tim Burgess launched an extensive series of “Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties”, where fans could come together, with Tim and members of the band, to ask questions and share memories.Credits Coping Mechanisms is a Somerset House podcastCreated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Produced by Eleanor Scott & Daniel BreuerMusic by Bernholz.  Thank you to all the artists who have contributed to the series

Why is it so many of us paint, draw or in some way turn to creativity in tough times? When we’re told to stay at home, and required to hold our family and friends literally at arm’s length why do we look to the arts to make things better? The comedian Noel Fielding, well-known for his role as one half of The Mighty Boosh, is a comedian, writer, actor, artist, musician and now the presenter of a much-loved TV show about baking. Sue Tilley is an artist. She’s best known as the subject of Lucian Freud’s painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and her book written about her close friend Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon. CreditsCoping Mechanisms is a Somerset House podcastCreated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Produced by Eleanor Scott & Daniel BreuerMusic by Bernholtz.  Thank you to all the artists who have contributed to the series