Somerset House Podcast

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 s...

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...

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 ‘...

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...

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 wit...

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 t...

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 podca...

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 unwilli...

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 lo...

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 j...

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 centu...

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...

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...

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 boun...

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 quest...

‘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...

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...

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 c...

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 c...

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 crea...

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...

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...