Somerset House Podcast
The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. Each series goes behind the scenes at Somerset House to uncover the stories explored through our programme and creative community. As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House connects creativity and the artist with wider society to produce unexpected outcomes and unexplored futures, intensifying creativity and multiplying opportunity to drive artistic and social innovation.
Episodes
April 12, 2024 • 27 mins
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 ...
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 ...
Mark as Played
March 28, 2024 • 28 mins
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...
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...
Mark as Played
March 22, 2024 • 26 mins
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 repetit...
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 repetit...
Mark as Played
March 21, 2024 • 27 mins
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.
Vi...
Vi...
Mark as Played
March 20, 2024 • 31 mins
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...
Mark as Played
March 20, 2024 • 1 min
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 lo...
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 lo...
Mark as Played
February 19, 2024 • 27 mins
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 & Tuu...
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 & Tuu...
Mark as Played
January 31, 2024 • 32 mins
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 ...
Mark as Played
December 2, 2023 • 33 mins
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 Orienta...
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 Orienta...
Mark as Played
July 25, 2023 • 29 mins
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 ...
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 ...
Mark as Played
July 25, 2023 • 30 mins
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 d...
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 d...
Mark as Played
July 25, 2023 • 32 mins
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 w...
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 w...
Mark as Played
July 25, 2023 • 29 mins
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 Za...
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 Za...
Mark as Played
July 25, 2023 • 1 min
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 ...
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 ...
Mark as Played
March 15, 2023 • 32 mins
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 ot...
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 ot...
Mark as Played
March 1, 2023 • 29 mins
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...
Mark as Played
February 15, 2023 • 29 mins
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 could...
Mark as Played
February 1, 2023 • 35 mins
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...
Mark as Played
January 27, 2023 • 2 mins
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 studi...
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 studi...
Mark as Played
September 7, 2022 • 31 mins
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.
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.
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.