Somerset House Podcast

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...

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 p...

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, Si...

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 archives
Ahead of their installation in the courtyard of Somerset House, Himali and D...

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 com...

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...

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 Groun...

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 pow...

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 L...

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 q...

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 th...

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...

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...

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 ex...

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 o...

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...

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 i...

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 wo...

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...

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 ge...

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 Being

Soft Life is part of a growing nu...

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 Being

Soft Life is part of a growing number...

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 Being

Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft a...

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 Being

S...

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...

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?   <...

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...

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 s...

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 ins...

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 t...

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.

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

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.

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.

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 bl...

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...

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 Ry...

‘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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ha...

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 t...

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...

How do we cope when our world is unexpectedly turned upside down? 
When lockdown was imposed on the UK, almost all of Iain & Jane's projects came to a grinding halt. With unexpected time on their hands, they discussed starting an online project… but then, like many of us, did nothing else about it.     Fortunately, some did bother, and these online lockdown projects have helped many of us feel a little less isolated. For some, especially performers, it has been about finding ways to carry on regardless. With a new album and tour postponed because of the pandemic, Jarvis Cocker begun...

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 arc...

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 Br...

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...

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...

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 consid...

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...

#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.
Feat...

#3 MasqueradeArtists 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 BedeauxMulti-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 comm...

#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...

#1 MotherlandLegendary 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 B...

A taster of the Get Up, Stand Up Now podcast series, celebrating generations of black creative pioneers. 
A crafted sound odyssey over five episodes, guided by the voices of artists featured in the exhibition who explore the discourse around Black experience, activism, creativity and influence. 
Coming up:

#1 Motherland  Dennis Bovell, Margaret Busby, Normski, Zak Ové            #2 Dream to Change the World Zak Ové in conversation with Gaylene Gould, BFI (Head of Cinema & Events), and Sonia Boyce OBE #3 Masquerade Zoe Bedeaux, Rhea Storr, Margaret Busby and Zak Ové #4 Imaginary LandscapesBarby Asante in conversation with Paul Goodwin, CCH Pounder, Zak Ové #5 Mother...

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 accomp...

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 s...

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 i...

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...

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...

Interview with Marsha Rowe, Co-Founder of Spare Rib.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

An interview with Tony Elliott, Founder of Time Out.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

Interview with Rhona Ezuma, Editor in Chief of Thiiird.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

Interview with Elisabeth Krohn, Editor and Creative Director of Sabat Magazine

Interview with Alpa Depani, Editor of ROMP.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

Interview with Nick Logan, Founder of The Face.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

Interview with Ian Gabb aka Letterpress Monster and the letterpress technician for Royal College of Art. 

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

An interview with John L. Walters, Editor of Eye magazine.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

An interview with Pat Randle, Co-Founder of Double Dagger magazine.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

An interview with Sharan Dhaliwal, Editor in Chief of Burnt Roti.

Print! Tearing it Up at Somerset House explores the history and impact of the British independent magazine scene today. The exhibition charts the evolution of polemic and progressive print publications and celebrates the current diverse industry of innovative independent magazines. 

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/print-tearing-it-up

Perfume is becoming a different kind of cultural experience . In this podcast episode, practitioners and experts spanning the world of perfume, look towards an exciting new future for perfume. New ingredients are providing perfumers with further possibilities for experimentation. Perfumers are exploring novel ideas by embarking on projects with other artists - from photographers to musicians. Contributors explore how the principles of perfume will develop in our increasingly visually saturated world. Featuring: Michael Edwards, fragrance expert, author, and founding editor of Fragrances of the World , the largest guide to perfume classification.
Paul Schütze, multi sensory artist and p...

The olfactory rebel. Los Angeles-based Killian Wells, pop musician turned perfumer turned millennial entrepreneur, represents less a relaxing of the rules of perfumery and more their ripping up. His fragrance house Xyrena pays homage to the retro culture of the 1980s and to the smells we risk losing in the march of modernity. Wells’ first job was a cinema projectionist and this colours the format of the range; each perfume is packaged in a VHS case, with the invitation to display and reminisce over a movie library of scents. Dark Ride, which features in Perfume, is an olfactory snapshot of...

Bertrand Duchaufour, creator of Avignon, is one of the most prolific and respected perfumers within niche perfumery. He was expecting to become a geologist like his father, until at the age of 16 he smelt his girlfriend's Chanel No. 19, launching a new obsession. Trained in Grasse, Duchaufour now works independently, travelling and taking photographs restlessly to generate new ideas. Over his career he has followed several olfactive paths to which he is repeatedly compelled to return. That for which he is best known is incense.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues until 23 September at Somerset House.<...

Perfumer Andy Tauer is a hobbyist turned professional, inspiring many to try their hand at perfumery. Tauer describes the creation of L’Air du Désert Marocain, which features in the exhibition Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent, in cinematic terms as though standing in a desert scene receptive to the odours carried in the breeze. No perfumer has done more than Andy Tauer to communicate with perfume enthusiasts, and to bridge the knowledge gap between creator and consumer.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues until 23 Sept.

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/wha...

Lyn Harris has brought a new relaxed confidence to British perfumery, promoting the role of natural materials. Trained in Paris and Grasse, she emphasises the quality of her ingredients which are allowed to shine through using pared down formulations. In Charcoal, Harris has found beauty in a material usually considered prosaic. The perfume holds the tension between hot, rough smoke and a smooth green translucency, and is built around two grades of juniper oil.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues until 23 Sept. #perfumepioneers

Podcast produced by Jo Barratt.

Free from European perfumery heritage, musician and self-taught perfumer David Seth Moltz is at the vanguard of a thrilling and unorthodox scent movement. His Brooklyn based house D.S. & Durga, co-founded in 2008 with his wife Kavi Durga, uses perfume to tell stories of offbeat landscapes and folk histories capturing places in time and space. David shares his story behind El Cosmico, the perfume created for the eponymous trailer and teepee campsite in the city of Marfa, in the remote high desert of West Texas.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues until 23 Sept. #perfumepioneers

...

Daniela Andrier's perfumery is about evolution, not revolution. Her creation Purple Rain for Prada Olfactories (2015) is an exquisite, seamless layering of iris effects. Daniella introduces her philosophical approach to perfumery and gives insight into how our sense of smell can play an important role in memory, and our understanding of time and space. Purple Rain is designed to prompt a sense of deja vu by smelling distinct yet somehow familiar.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues at Somerset House until 23 September. #perfumepioneers

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/perfume http://perfume.digital/

Antoine Lie talks about love and bodily fluids as he introduces the concept behind Sécretions Magnifiques, perhaps the most provocative scent within the Perfume exhibition. Recalling the height of sexual pleasure with the smells of semen, sweat and milk, the perfume has been highly divisive since its launch a decade ago, labelled as both attractive and repulsive.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent continues at Somerset House until 12 September. #perfumepioneers perfume.digital

Podcast produced by Jo Barratt

The latest Perfume Pioneers podcasts features German entrepreneur Geza Schoen who introduces his elusive perfume Molecule 01, containing just one material known as Iso E Super. The molecule has been used in the making of perfume since the 1970's. Geza explains how his perfume, containing just one synthetic ingredient and a scent that many are unable to smell, became a pop culture phenomenon.

Mark Buxton's Comme des Garçons 2 changed our perceptions of what perfume could be. In the first episode of the Perfume Pioneers series Mark gives insight into his madcap entry to the perfume world and Comme des Garçons 2 which features in the exhibition. It was created in response to a one-line brief to create the smell of a swimming pool of ink.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent, invites you to go on an olfactory journey through some of the most important perfumes over the last 20 years.

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/pe...

An introduction to Perfume: a sensory journey through contemporary scent, at Somerset House, 21 Jun - 17 Sep 2017.

An introduction from the perfumers featured in the multi-sensory exhibition exploring ten contemporary cult perfumes shaking up scent culture and the unseen works of art worn on our skin. Contemporary perfume provocateurs are dispensing with traditional high gloss communication concepts, gender boundaries and conventional notions of good taste.

www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/perfume