Best Somerset House Podcasts (2024)

1
The Process: Episode 16 Trailer - What is the legacy of the 2011 riots? 0:45

1M ago0:45

0:45

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 s…

1
The Process: What is the legacy of the 2011 riots? 34:10

1M ago34:10

34:10

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…

1
The Process: The Darker Side of Cute with Sean-Kierre Lyons 27:00

7M ago27:00

27:00

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 toget…

1
The Process: FELT CUTE, MIGHT SHAPESHIFT LATER with Hannah Diamond 28:48

7M ago28:48

28:48

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…

1
Not Strictly Speaking: The Disembodied Voice with Prem Sahib and Felicia Atkinson 26:55

8M ago26:55

26:55

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 …

1
Not Strictly Speaking: The Voice as Resistance with Vivienne Griffin and Helen Cammock 27:45

8M ago27:45

27:45

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…

1
Not Strictly Speaking: The Voice is the Instrument with Elaine Mitchener & Joan La Barbara 31:50

8M ago31:50

31:50

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…

1
Not Strictly Speaking: Series Trailer 1:26

8M ago1:26

1:26

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 …

1
The Process: Is animal breeding a form of sculpture? | Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen 27:52

9M ago27:52

27:52

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 …

1
The Process: Is Failure More Productive Than Success? | Tom Staples, Makerversity 32:56

9M ago32:56

32:56

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 C…

1
The Process: The Black British Renaissance with Andrew Ibi, Jazzie B & Martine Rose 33:01

11M ago33:01

33:01

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 T…

1
Soft Life: The Earth 29:15

1+ y ago29:15

29:15

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 Jamai…

1
Soft Life: The Body 30:15

1+ y ago30:15

30:15

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 d…

1
Soft Life: Time 32:11

1+ y ago32:11

32:11

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 rel…

1
Soft Life: Work 29:30

1+ y ago29:30

29:30

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…

1
Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of Being 1:12

1+ y ago1:12

1:12

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…

1
The Process: Geometry for Aliens 32:40

1+ y ago32:40

32:40

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 ‘Li…

1
The Process: Slimy Worlds & Quantum Listening 29:48

1+ y ago29:48

29:48

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 …

1
S2 Ep2: The Process: Why is A.I. So Secretive? 29:40

1+ y ago29:40

29:40

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, …

1
The Process: Living with Ghosts 35:26

2y ago35:26

35:26

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…

1
Trailer: The Process Series 2 2:05

2y ago2:05

2:05

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 pra…

1
S1 Ep3: Echoic Archive: Collected Materials, Mythology and Archiving for Climate Change 31:00

2y ago31:00

31:00

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 aco…

1
S1: Trailer: Welcome to the Echoic Archive 2:18

2y ago2:18

2:18

By Somerset House

1
S1 Ep1: Echoic Archive: African Filmmakers in The Diaspora Underground 37:17

2y ago37:17

37:17

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…

1
S1 Ep2: Echoic Archive: Creative Coding & Archive In The Metaverse 31:36

2y ago31:36

31:36

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 represe…

1
S1 Ep4: Echoic Archive: Dark Fecundity + Archiving For The Distant Future 47:06

2y ago47:06

47:06

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 re…

1
The Process: Healing through skating 28:04

2+ y ago28:04

28:04

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 …

1
S1 Ep5: The Process: Reclaiming the Commons 26:50

2+ y ago26:50

26:50

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…

1
The Process: Taking Fun Seriously 28:14

2+ y ago28:14

28:14

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 bumpe…

1
The Process: Language of Resistance 30:00

2+ y ago30:00

30:00

‘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 e…

1
The Process: What is Financial Astrology? 29:16

2+ y ago29:16

29:16

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 o…

1
The Process: Breaking The Rules 29:27

2+ y ago29:27

29:27

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 …

1
Trailer - The Process | Somerset House Podcast 1:53

3y ago1:53

1:53

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 j…

1
Vicki Bennett: Opening Doors 34:35

3y ago34:35

34:35

Vicki Bennett explores the processes of making audiovisual content, working with archives and found footage. Using collage as a compositional tool opens up endless opportunities to create and experience results that are more than the sum of their parts, opening doors (and windows) to let light in and move beyond limited and repetitive ways of creat…

1
Joe Namy: Sound Clash from the Eighth Automobile LDN | Gallery 31: Temporary Compositions 22:26

3y ago22:26

22:26

Studios resident Joe Namy presents sound work Sound Clash from the Eighth Automobile LDN as part of Somerset House Studios' new Gallery 31 exhibition Temporary Compositions, available to listen to online for the duration of the show. Comprising of audio documentation from Namy’s ongoing performance piece Automobile (2012-2021) for cars with souped …

1
Ilona Sagar: Soft Addictions | Gallery 31: Create, Capture, Organise, Pluralise 29:03

3+ y ago29:03

29:03

As part of Ilona Sagar's Soft Addictions works for Gallery 31's third season Create, Capture, Organise, Pluralise, visitors are encouraged to listen to Sagar's looped sound work within the gallery space as an accompaniment to her print and text pieces. Soft Addictions is a generative series of works that analyze the interface between people and com…

1
S12 Ep8: Shenece Oretha: Listening Wholes | Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy 33:43

3+ y ago33:43

33:43

Shenece Oretha takes an experimental approach to the podcast format for Somerset House Studios’ Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy series. The multidisciplinary artist choreographs a DJ lecture mix that explores the theme of the body, using sonic forms that range from instruments and speech, to musicians, conductors, and listeners. Oretha journeys thr…

1
S12 Ep7: Timur Si-Qin | Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy 25:37

3+ y ago25:37

25:37

A new artist-led podcast from Timur Si-Qin exploring how our health is intimately tied to the health of the natural world, as part of Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy. Drawing from religious history, contrasting western and Indigenous cultural relationships with nature, and the desired shift towards a spirituality of symbiosis, artist Timur Si-Qin u…

1
S12 Ep6: Defrag - Technology in Culture and Society 47:11

4y ago47:11

47:11

Defrag was a series of talks curated by Jake Charles Rees for Somerset House Studios between 2017-2019, exploring how technology is changing the world we live in, including the way we produce and consume art and culture. This podcast revisits the live recordings in the form of an audio montage, meshing together a range of fragmented thoughts from g…

1
S12 Ep5: AGM 2020 | Beatrice Dillon, Rian Treanor, Deforrest Brown, Jr. & Sarra Wild 1:04:45

4y ago1:04:45

1:04:45

An hour long segment of reflections and music from Beatrice Dillon alongside the artists she invited to contribute to AGM – DeForrest Brown, Jr., Rian Treanor and Sarra Wild. Somerset House Studios celebrated four years of its dynamic resident artist community with the first online edition of its annual building takeover series AGM. Featuring perfo…

1
Mutant Promise: Jessica Ekomane in conversation with Annie Goh 39:04

4+ y ago39:04

39:04

Part of Mutant Promise's online series for progressive music-making, including introduction courses to coding and sound software, digital field recording, interior soundscape composition, and remote hardware workshops for DIY synth building at home. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Jessica Ekomane is a French-born and Berlin-based electronic musician and sound ar…

1
Trailer | Coping Mechanisms 2:42

4+ y ago2:42

2:42

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 …

1
S1 Ep4: The Avoidance of Boredom | Coping Mechanisms 38:08

4+ y ago38:08

38:08

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 als…

1
S1 Ep3: Connected in Time | Coping Mechanisms 28:12

4+ y ago28:12

28:12

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 t…

1
S1 Ep2: Life Drawing's A Killer | Coping Mechanisms 24:45

4+ y ago24:45

24:45

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, act…

1
S1 Ep1: Make Your Own Entertainment | Coping Mechanisms 24:30

4+ y ago24:30

24:30

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 lock…

1
S12 Ep4: Open Your Palm, Feel The Dust Settling There - Laura Grace Ford 43:47

4+ y ago43:47

43:47

Revisit Open Your Palm, Feel The Dust Settling There, an audio work by artist and Savage Messiah author Laura Grace Ford, generated by psychogeographic walks – drifts – through the Latimer Road, Hammersmith and White City areas of West London. Originally comprised of three parts, the work is now available as a feature length podcast. Comprised of a…

1
S12 Ep3: Climatotherapy - A virtual listening room by Nozomu Matsumoto & Nile Koetting | Deep Listen 16:15

4+ y ago16:15

16:15

The word ‘climatotherapy’ refers to a type of physical and mental treatment which utilizes the influence of climate on the human body, exemplified by treatments in the Dead Sea or at hot springs. Climatotherapy was an installation presented by Nozomu Matsumoto & Nile Koetting at ASSEMBLY in 2018, comprised of sound, light, smell, ikebana and virtua…

1
S12 Ep2: THE UNNOW NOW | Vivienne Griffin 12:57

4+ y ago12:57

12:57

The first in our new Pause series, THE UN-NOW NOW is a new commission by Studios artist Vivienne Griffin. Our programme I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now takes its title from another of Vivienne’s works. This sound work is the culmination of a group workshop hosted by the artist in January, exploring dissonance, vocal fry, polyphonic harmo…

1
S12 Ep1: Jacob Samuel's Eternal Life | Deep Listen 1:00:45

4+ y ago1:00:45

1:00:45

A performance by Jacob Samuel and Samir Kennedy featuring a collage of interviews with Beatrice Dillon, Coby Sey, Ines Camara, Scott Pattinson, Tadej Vindis and Vanessa Omoregie (Camgirls Project). The piece looks into the existence of infinity in the present moment, the relationship of tech and the image of the body, the future of prophecies betwe…

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