Somerset House Podcast

Slipping between the real and the imaginary. Filmmaker Liam Young uncovers the concept behind his film Renderlands, which portrays a global network of 24/7 workers generating popular Western culture from films to video games.   Artists explore the non-stop nature of modern life. Liam Young’s short fiction film Renderlands is set in the sphere of videogame companies and render farms in India highlighting a global network where outsourced workers operate 24/7. In Western design studios, wireframed structures are sketched out for imaginary cities and landscapes, which are then rendered by anonymous workforces in other countries into the high-precision digital architectures of video games and films. Renderlands is a utopia that exists in the screen alone – a virtual city that stretches from Los Angeles to Bangalore, constructed from the remnants of demolished landmarks, alien invasions, and outsourced dreams.   Featuring contributions from exhibition curator Sarah Cook and Jonathan Reekie, co-curator of 24/7 and Director of Somerset House.    The exhibition 24/7 - A Wake Up Call For Our Non-Stop World at Somerset House takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through five themed zones and contains over 50 multi-disciplinary works that will provoke and entertain. The exhibition runs at Somerset House until 23 February 2020.   Producer: Eleanor Scott Sound Design: Harry Murdoch Mixed by Nick Ryan Featuring excerpts from Renderlands by Liam Young. 

How did you sleep last night? Artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and writer Stuart Evers paint a possible future for our sleep and dreams in a 24/7 world. Artists explore the non-stop nature of modern life. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard discuss their work Somnoproxy, a futuristic bedtime story with writer Stuart Evers, which features as part of the exhibition 24/7. This immersive audio installation centres on the fictional story of someone who sleeps on behalf of wealthy executives, too busy to sleep themselves. It’s a state-of-the-art sonic escape from reality, complete with a dream-machine designed by Brion Gysin, ‘viewed’ with the eyes closed. The pulsating light can produce Hypnagogia, the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. ‘Sleep coincides with the metabolizing of what is ingested by day: drugs, alcohol, all the detritus from interfacing with illuminated screens; but also the flood of anxieties, fears, doubts, longings, imaginings of failure or the big score.’ — Jonathan Crary   Featuring contributions from exhibition curator Sarah Cook and Jonathan Reekie, co-curator of 24/7 and Director of Somerset House.  The exhibition 24/7 - A Wake Up Call For Our Non-Stop World at Somerset House takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through five themed zones and contains over 50 multi-disciplinary works that will provoke and entertain. The exhibition runs at Somerset House until 23 February 2020. Producer: Eleanor Scott Sound Design: Harry Murdoch Mixed by Nick Ryan Featuring excerpts from Somnoproxy, an audio installation by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Story by Stuart Evers. Read by Enzo Cilenti and Kate Ashfield. Originally commissioned by Moog Sound Lab UK with support from the Adonyeva Foundation.

How many times have you looked at your phone today? Artist Mat Collishaw draws parallels between behavioural experiments on birds and the highly addictive nature of social media. And Artist Hasan Elahi explains how a false investigation led to a 15 years project, sharing his personal data and images with the FBI and public.  Artists explore the non-stop nature of modern life. Mat Collishaw’s work The Machine Zone was inspired by the behavioural experiments of American psychologist B.F. Skinner (1904 – 1990) whose work is widely referenced in relation to the algorithms which drive interactions on social media. Using birds and other small mammals, Skinner’s ‘operant conditioning chamber’ investigated the subconscious primal side of the brain involved in motivated behaviours. He demonstrated that random rewards create a constant uncertainty that encourages a behavioural loop. Collishaw worked with animatronics designer Adam Keenan to create these mechanised pigeons exhibiting obsessive repetitive behaviour.  Skinner’s ghost has persisted into the modern day, a quiet spectre among our statuses, likes, comments, and shares. Today an average user spends 1/7th of their waking lives on social platforms, and we owe some of this apparent addiction to Skinner’s research. His work followed on from philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s research into human motivation (‘the utilitarian self’ as pleasure seeking and pain avoiding) as demonstrated in Bentham’s ‘Table of the Springs of Action’.  Over the last fifteen years Hasan Elahi has generated online systems to share personal data and photographic evidence of his whereabouts at all times with the FBI, as a result of their mistakenly putting him on a no-fly list after the events of 9–11. In his work, Scorpion W2, 2019 he mines this ongoing personal database to create large immersive collages picturing all the meals he’s eaten, beds he’s slept in and airports he’s flown to. The overall pattern is the current operational camouflage pattern of the American military – standardized across all divisions, units and countries in 2019 – but Elahi has changed the colours to those that feature in the test pattern shown during a U.S. television emergency broadcast. Featuring contributions from exhibition curator Sarah Cook and Jonathan Reekie, co-curator of 24/7 and Director of Somerset House.  The exhibition 24/7 - A Wake Up Call For Our Non-Stop World at Somerset House takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through five themed zones and contains over 50 multi-disciplinary works that will provoke and entertain. The exhibition runs at Somerset House until 23 February 2020. Producer: Eleanor Scott Sound Design: Harry Murdoch Mixed by Nick Ryan

Refresh, reflect, reset... Artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg invites you to sit and listen to the dawn chorus, questioning how the city may sound without birds. Through the power of humming Melissa Mongiat, co-founder of Daily Tous Les Jours, highlights a metaphysical connection through music.  Light and sound pollution from our 24-hour urban lifestyle affects birds, which are singing earlier, louder, for longer, or at a higher pitch to communicate. Some species are better at adapting to survive. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s installation in 24/7, Machine Auguries questions how the city might sound with changing, homogenising, or diminishing bird populations. Solos of chiffchaffs, great tits, redstarts, robins, thrushes, and entire dawn choruses were used to ‘train’ two neural networks – a Generative Adversarial Network, or GAN – pitted against each other to sing. Reflecting how birds develop their song from each other, a call and response spatialises the evolution of a new language, as samples of each stage (or epoch) in the GAN’s training reveals the artificial birds’ increasing realism.  Melissa Mongiat, co-founder of Daily Tous Les Jours presents I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, a participatory humming channel that reveals an invisible connection uniting those people around the world listening to Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah. Real time user data representing the number of these listeners is transformed into a virtual choir – each online listener represented by a humming voice in the space. These sounds are transformed into low frequency vibrations as you start humming along, allowing you to feel a collective resonance. The work is both a scientific and a spiritual experiment, highlighting the metaphysical connection between people on a common wavelength.  Featuring contributions from exhibition curator Sarah Cook and Jonathan Reekie, co-curator of 24/7 and Director of Somerset House.  The exhibition 24/7 - A Wake Up Call For Our Non-Stop World at Somerset House takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through five themed zones and contains over 50 multi-disciplinary works that will provoke and entertain. The exhibition runs at Somerset House until 23 February 2020 Producer: Eleanor Scott Sound Design: Harry Murdoch Mixed by Nick Ryan Machine Auguries Credits Multi-channel sound installation  Machine Learning: Dr Przemek Witaszczyk (Faculty) / Sound design: Chris Timpson (Aurelia Soundworks) / Research/Design: Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Johanna Just, Ness Lafoy, Ana Maria Nicolaescu / Lighting design: Lucy Carter / Associate to Lucy Carter: Sean Gleason / Production: Angharad Cooper / AV: KSO  With thanks to Chris Watson, Geoff Sample, The British Library, Sara Keen, Xeno-canto, Professor Ben Sheldon, Maria Diaz and Dr John Mansir of Faculty and Karishma Rafferty  Courtesy of the artist  Commissioned by Somerset House and A/D/O by MINI. With additional support from Faculty and the Adonyeva Foundation

Artist Benjamin Grosser explores the notion of ‘more’ in a 24/7 world. The 24/7 podcast invites artists to explore the non-stop nature of modern life.  Extracted from every video appearance Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made between 2004 and 2018, Benjamin Grosser edited together the relative measures that crop up regularly in Zuckerberg’s speeches and interviews: ‘more’, ‘grow’, ‘50%’, ‘a million’, repeated ad nauseum. Grosser’s projects aim to draw attention to Facebook’s accumulative mindset, revealing the inherent design of social media platforms which keep you addicted through showing you how many likes, interactions, and comments you have. As with Instagram, Facebook is also now considering hiding the ‘like count’ as research has shown it creates anxiety in users if their friends’ posts get more likes than their own. Featuring contributions from exhibition curator Sarah Cook and Jonathan Reekie, co-curator of 24/7 and Director of Somerset House.  The exhibition 24/7 - A Wake Up Call For Our Non-Stop World at Somerset House takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of sunset through five themed zones and contains over 50 multi-disciplinary works that will provoke and entertain.  With every moment seemingly an opportunity to connect and work, unrelenting pressure to produce and consume, sleep itself monitored and commodified, how we cope is one of the most urgent contemporary issues affecting us all. Inspired by Jonathan Crary’s book of the same name, 24/7 holds up a mirror to our always-on culture and invites you to step outside of your day-to-day routine to engage, reflect and reset. The exhibition runs at Somerset House until 23 February 2020 Producer: Eleanor Scott Sound Design: Harry Murdoch Mixed by Nick Ryan

Calling planet earth! Artist Yinka Shonibare CBE, acclaimed saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi, and Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové explore themes around Black futures and afro-futurism. Presented by spoken word artist Joshua Idehen. Music by Shabaka Hutchings and GAIKA, excerpts from Sun Ra Arkestra BBC Radio 3 session courtesy of Somethin' Else and BBC Radio 3. Producer: Mae-Li Evans The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House Yinka Shonibare CBE Yinka Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class through painting, sculpture, photography and film. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions. His trademark material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ batik fabric he buys at Brixton Market. The fabric was inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold in British colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s, the material became a new sign of African identity and independence. Shabaka Hutchings constantly evaluates his music’s relationship to Caribbean and jazz traditions, and sees his role as pushing the boundaries of both. His trajectory started early when he moved to Barbados at the age of six, began studying classical clarinet aged nine, and graduated to tenor saxophone, which has been a regular part of his performances since his return to the UK aged 16. Hutchings has three primary projects – Shabaka and the Ancestors, Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming. Between them, Hutchings has gathered a substantial number of awards and nominations, including winning the 2013 MOBO Jazz Act of the Year. Mowalola Ogunlesi founded the menswear brand Mowalola in 2017 to celebrate the African male and culture, sexuality and desire. He was awarded Best New Designer at the 2018 Milan Fashion Film Festival. Mowalola had its London Fashion Week debut in January 2019 with Fashion East and their work has been featured in publications such as Vogue UK, Vogue US, i-D, Dazed & Confused, Surface Magazine, SHOWstudio and W Magazine. GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019 A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now

#4 Imaginary Landscapes What is the place of Black diasporic art in Britain today? How do artists use imaginary landscapes to look to the future, break ground and envisage a world beyond? Can you imagine this alternative future? Artist Barby Asante in conversation with curator Paul Goodwin; artist, activist and collector of diasporic art CCH Pounder, alongside Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové reflect, 50 years on from Baldwin’s Nigger (Horace Ové, 1969) in which African-American writer James Baldwin discussed Black experience and identity in Britain and America. Presented by spoken word artist Joshua Idehen with music by GAIKA. Featuring excerpts from Baldwin's Nigger, 1969 by Horace Ové, and an extract reading from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Producer: Femi Oriogun-Williams The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House Barby Asante Barby Asante is an artist, curator and researcher. Her work is concerned with the politics of place and the histories and legacies of colonialism, producing projects that are collaborative and performative to stimulate dialogue on what is unheard or missing from cultural archives. Through creating social rituals and re-enactments she interrogates dominant narratives to think about migration, safe spaces in hostile cities and the overlooked everyday contributions of people of colour to our social, political and cultural understandings. Paul Goodwin Working as a curator at Tate Britain from 2008 to 2012 Goodwin directed the pioneering Cross Cultural Programme that explored questions of migration and globalisation in contemporary British art through a programme of international conferences, workshops, talks and live art events. His curatorial projects include a number of internationally significant exhibitions including: Migrations: Journeys Into British Art, Tate Britain 2012; Thin Black Line(s), Tate Britain, 2011; Coming Ashore, 2011, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Portugal; Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic (consultant curator), Tate Liverpool, 2010; Underconstruction, Hospital Julius De Matos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009. In 2013 he curated Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye at New Art Exchange, Nottingham which was long-listed for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014. CCH Pounder CCH Pounder’s diasporic collection includes approximately 500 works of art. It aims to capture the temperament of the times through which she has lived. With a career spanning over 40 years, the actress was first celebrated for her strong female roles in television shows such as ER, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy, as well as films including Avatar, Orphan and Baghdad Café. Pounder opened an art gallery in Los Angeles, the Pounder-Kone Art Space and founded with her late husband Boubacar Kone the Musée Boribana, the first privately owned contemporary art museum in Dakar, Senegal. It featured works by local artists and pieces from the African diaspora including the United States, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and Haiti. GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019 A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now

#3 Masquerade Artists Zoe Bedeaux and Rhea Storr, writer Margaret Busby and Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové explore the concept of masquerade in Black diasporic creativity, reflecting upon the history of Trinidad carnival documented in Horace Ové’s 1973 documentary, King Carnival. Music by Gaika. Excerpts from A Protest, A Celebration, A Mixed Message by Rhea Storr. Zoe Bedeaux Multi-disciplinary artist Zoe Bedeaux studied art and design at Harrow School of Art before working as a styling assistant to famous punk designer Judy Blame. Her work encompasses style curation, art direction, writing, photography, print-making, poetry, audio readings and cultural commentary. She has been featured as model, muse and contributing editor in publications and various online platforms such as Nowness, Another, SHOWstudio, The Face, i-D, Self-Service, 032C, Vogue and Vestoj. Rhea Storr Rhea Storr’s practice is concerned with producing images which refute stereotypes of Black identity. Working on 16mm film, but also making peripheral drawings, photographs and scores, she questions how a body performs and how other bodies react to it. Of Bahamian and English heritage, her interests centre around the inherent tensions in being between two cultures where oversimplified statements about racial identity have no meaning. Carnival is often the subject of her work, and her approach affirms Caribbean culture while subverting traditional power structures.  Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. Graduating from London University, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967, where she was editorial director for 20 years. Subsequently pursuing a career as editor, broadcaster and critic, she has contributed to many publications, written drama for radio and the stage, served as a judge for prestigious literary competitions, and campaigned for diversity in publishing since the 1980s. She compiled the ground-breaking international anthology Daughters of Africa (1992), and 2019’s follow-up, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad).  Zak Ové Zak Ové shared his father’s passion for film and photography as he assisted him on film sets from a young age and eventually studied film at St. Martins School of Art. Influenced by Trinidad’s steel pan, Zak became an accomplished percussionist; music and art remained the backbone of his work when he moved to New York, as a music video director, shooting classic videos of that time. Extending his work into advertising, Zak directed a range of campaigns and worked with Lee Scratch Perry, whose freedom of creativity left its mark on Zak. Ultimately disillusioned with the commercial world, Zak returned to Trinidad to document Carnival and its old-time masquerade, which subsequently inspired him to create sculptural artworks. Producers: Chris Elcombe, Eleanor Scott and Joby Waldman The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019 A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now

#2 Dream to Change the World How do we imagine a better future? How do we imagine equality and how do we get there? Horace Ové CBE is internationally renowned as one of the leading Black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His 1976 film Pressure is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the first feature-length film made by a Black British director. Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové and Gaylene Gould, British Film Institute (Head of Cinema & Events) are in conversation exploring Pressure, its production and legacy. Artist Sonia Boyce OBE RA discusses her work as an artist and activist starting in the 1980’s with the Black Arts Movement. Spoken word artist Joshua Idehen creatively responds to the themes of activism, change and hope. Zak Ové Zak Ové shared his father’s passion for film and photography as he assisted him on films sets from a young age and eventually studied Film at St. Martins School of Art, London. Influenced by Trinidad’s steel pan, Zak became an accomplished percussionist; music and art remained the backbone of his work when he moved to New York, as a Music Video Director, shooting classic videos of that time. Extending his work into advertising Zak directed a range of campaigns and worked with Lee Scratch Perry, whose freedom of creativity left its mark on Zak. Ultimately disillusioned with the commercial world Zak returned to Trinidad to document Carnival and its old-time masquerade which subsequently inspired him to create sculptural artworks. Today Zak’s multi-disciplinary practice focuses on sculpture but still includes film and photography. His work is informed in part through the history and lore carried through the African diaspora to the Caribbean, Britain and beyond, with particular focus on the traditions of masking and masquerade. His artworks explore interplay between old world mythology and what he posits as ‘potential futures’. Using modern materials, and ‘a sound clash of colour’, he blurs the edges between reality and possibility, flesh and spirit.  Sonia Boyce OBE RA  Sonia Boyce OBE RA is a British African-Caribbean artist who gained prominence with Black Women Artists, as part of the Black British cultural renaissance of the 1980s. Her earlier works examined the issues of race and gender in the media and in daily life through large pastel drawings and photographic collages. Her work has since shifted to include a range of media, from prints and film to drawings, sound, installation and photographs.  Boyce has been working closely with other artists since 1990, which often involves improvisation and spontaneous performative actions on the part of her collaborators. She is represented in the permanent collections of Arts Council England and London’s Tate Modern. She is a Professor in Black Art & Design at University of the Arts London and in 2019, Boyce was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the arts.  Music by GAIKA, with selected tracks from Trojan Records: East Of The River Nile - Augustus Pablo Is it Because I'm Black - Ken Boothe  Hang' em High - Richard Ace The Liquidator - The Harry J All Stars  Featuring excerpts from Pressure (1976), dir. Horace Ové. Courtesy of the British Film Institute (BFI) Producer: Mae-Li Evans and Joby Waldman The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019 A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.

#1 Motherland Legendary musician Dennis Bovell, writer Margaret Busby, and photographer Normski come together with Get Up, Stand Up Now exhibition curator Zak Ové and spoken word artist Joshua Idehen to explore the notion of ‘motherland.’  Original music by Dennis Bovell and Gaika, with selected tracks from Trojan Records. Stalag 17 - King Tubby and the Technique Allstars (Trojan Records) After Tonight - Matumbi (Trojan Records) The Shadow of Your Smile - Tommy McCook and the Super Sonics (Trojan Records) Excerpt from Andrea Levy's Small Island    Producer: Femi Oriogun-Williams The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House Dennis Bovell         An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer and producer, Dennis Bovell has earned himself the reputation of Britain’s reggae maestro. He moved from Barbados to south London at the age of 12 and whilst still at school joined his first band, Road Works Ahead. He later formed the group Matumbi which went on to become Britain’s foremost reggae band, at a time when the genre was spreading from Jamaica to an international audience.  Bovell also formed the Dub Band, beginning an enduring partnership with reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson which resulted in the production of numerous classic albums. The 1980s saw Bovell in great demand as a producer, working with bands as diverse as The Slits, Chalice, Orange Juice, The Thompson Twins and Bananarama. Bovell has also worked in television and film and continues to record, produce and play music live all over the world.  Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL, was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. Graduating from London University, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967, where she was editorial director for 20 years. Subsequently pursuing a career as editor, broadcaster and critic, she has contributed to many publications, written drama for radio and the stage, served as a judge for prestigious literary competitions, and campaigned for diversity in publishing since the 1980s. She compiled the ground-breaking international anthology Daughters of Africa (1992), and 2019’s follow-up, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad).  Normski Norman ‘Normski’ Anderson was bought his first camera by his Jamaican mother at an auction when he was nine years old. His interest in photography was partly inspired by Horace Ové, as he was childhood friends with Ové’s son Zak. Normski was part of the emerging hip hop music scene during the 1980s and his involvement in music culture led him to photograph hip hop artists and fashions for publications like The Face, i-D and Vogue. Normski harnesses his personal sensibilities to capture exquisite detail and memories that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. He also created publicity photographs for the musicians themselves. He has also worked as a DJ and television presenter. GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS 12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019 A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.

A new, site-responsive audio work exploring society’s relationship with the natural elements from award-winning artist Serena Korda. Following her acclaimed installations at the National Trust’s Speke Hall and The Hepworth Wakefield, award-winning artist Serena Korda joins Somerset House’s Earth Day 2019 programme with a new, site-responsive work exploring our relationship with the natural elements. Inspired by the Greek primordial goddess of air and mother of birds, Khaos, Korda raises a new flag above the Somerset House courtyard, with the flag design paying homage to a history of maritime warning flags. A flag will accompany the new audio piece which was formed using a handcrafted aeolian harp, a musical instrument named after the ancient Greek god of wind, Aeolus. Korda recorded the harp, which produces sound when a current of air passes through it, during an afternoon spent in and around the dome that holds Somerset House’s flag. Combined with additional field recordings of the flag, the resonance of the flagpole and wind data taken from an anenometer which records wind speed, the resulting audio installation captures the voice of the air.  Visit somersethouse.org.uk for more information on Earth Day Season 2019

The second iteration the London Design Biennale brings the best in global design thinking to Somerset House.  This year it is devoted to the theme of Emotional States and explores big questions and ideas around sustainability, migration, pollution, energy, cities, and social equality. Each participating country or region has explored how design can be used to make a better, more sustainable environment for us all to live in through engaging and immersive installations, innovations, artworks and proposed design solutions. In this podcast Sir John Sorrell, president of the London Design Biennale guides us though a selection of the installations and their designers, focussing on the work displayed by four countries: Latvia, Greece, Lebanon and Pakistan.  The London Design Biennale is at Somerset House until the 23rd October 2018. Book Now: http://bit.ly/LDB2018

An interview with writer/director Bart Layton ahead of the UK premiere of American Animals, a true-crime tale full of high tension, bold style, and black humour. A group of four students come together in classic heist movie fashion (think Reservoir Dogs, because that's what they do) to steal some of the world's rarest books from the special collections room of their college library. Quite why they decided to do this, or why they these juvenile amateur criminals thought they were capable of pulling it off, are just some of the deeper currents that run through this irrepressible thriller that may ostensibly conform to crime film conventions but has a way of telling a story that is very much all its own. American Animals asserts both that “This is” and “This is Not Based on a True Story” right from the opening titles, making it very clear that doubt is going to play a very big part in what's to come. Credit writer-director Bart Layton with the high-wire narrative risks, his skill as a documentarian providing an unexpected extra level to the film that really increases its emotional power. What really gives the action its zest and freshness are the performances from the four young leads – mischievous looking star Evan Peters (Quicksilver in the X-Men franchise and a series regular in American Horror Story), the wonderful Irish actor Barry Keoghan (unforgettable in both Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Blake Jenner (Supergirl and The Edge of Seventeen) and Jared Abrahamson. Each member of the group is distinctive in their own right, but the best scenes are when they come together as a perfectly imperfect gang of thieves. The UK premiere of American Animals is at Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House on 22 Aug 2018.

In our rapidly evolving media landscape, how are projects that might previously have been confined to print media, manifesting online and through other technologies? Panellists explore what diversifying mediums mean for their message and the opportunities, limitations and challenges they pose. Speakers include Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarine Muhammad The White Pube, Andres Colemenares Internet Age Media, Daniel Caulfield Sriklad Communication Design UAL. Part of PROCESS!, a two day festival celebrating independent media & making presented by Somerset House & Somerset House Studios residents OOMK, bringing together established & emerging designers, artists, activists & publishers to explore, interrogate & share approaches to creative & collaborative process. In the context of high speed media & access to infinite information, how do we create time, space & approaches that can enable us to process the social & political climate & create new media and outputs? Image by Minute Books taken from live illustrations created in response to the talks and insights shared by the speakers.

A panel discussion featuring contemporary publishing practices that embrace interdependent approaches as integral to their process and outcomes. How do collaborative and networked modes of thinking, working and producing challenge notions of ‘independence’ within contemporary publishing? Speakers include Abeera Kamran Exhausted Geographies, Dámaso Randulfe Migrant Journal, Maker & Educator Esther McManus and Sofia Niazi OOMK. Part of PROCESS!, a two day festival celebrating independent media & making presented by Somerset House & Somerset House Studios residents OOMK, bringing together established & emerging designers, artists, activists & publishers to explore, interrogate & share approaches to creative & collaborative process. In the context of high speed media & access to infinite information, how do we create time, space & approaches that can enable us to process the social & political climate & create new media and outputs?

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 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   Additional music: Harry Murdoch    Mastered by: Nick Ryan   Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022   Supported 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