Somerset House Podcast

Questions and complications of the metaverse are broken down by artist collective Keiken, whose cross-dimensional practice merges the physical with the digital by building online worlds and augmented realities.

Here they meet with Jazmin Morris, a creative computing artist and educator based in London whose own practice and research explore representation and inclusivity within technology.

Weyland sits down with Filipino artist Leeroy New who was commissioned to create the Earth Day 2022 sculpture in Somerset House’s courtyard.

The pair discuss creating with collected materials, indigenous mythology, and archiving in the face of the climate emergency. We also learn how a Yoruba deity named Ogun influenced the creation of the only acoustic musical instrument created in the 20th century …steelpan

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.

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 black skaters in London who shares how skating has been transformative in her life and was integral to the development of underground music and fashion through the 80s. In a candid and personal conversation, Tyreis and Marilyn share how skating has helped them navigate intergenerational trauma and gain a sense of freedom, inspiring Tyreis to invite her own family to get on four wheels to begin a process of healing.
Additional music in this episode is by Dialgo, D.A.H Trump and Siddhartha Corsus 

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THE PROCESS

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 
Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music is by Ka BairdAdditional music by Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 UK where we are truly outside of private ownership? Col sits down with writer and activist Nick Hayes to talk about the power of trespass, the last of the commons and why he thinks the river could be the ultimate liminal space.
Additional music in this episode is by Pamela Z, the Spore collective, Frances Young and 011668-
The Process 

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 

Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka Baird
Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 Ryan, who has been working at the forefront of interactive music, to hear about where this genre might be headed before talking to games designer Nick Moran to hear how to organise fun. 
Additional music in this episode is by Anna Meredith and Emahoy Tsegué-maryam Guèbrou.

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The Process 

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 

Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka Baird
Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 the stage where he was putting the finishing touches to the installation, which brings together ceramics, textiles, sculpture and archive photos to re-dignify the people affected by the legacies of empire. He is joined by activist and theorist Françoise Verges, born in La Reunion, to discuss strategies of survival and resistance in the region.
Additional music in this episode is by Alain Peters, Menwar and Roger George.

We Are History is sponsored by Morgan Stanley
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The Process 

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 

Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka Baird
Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 some seismic events on the horizon from Christeen Skinner, a financial astrologist who has been working in the City of London for over 20 years and talks to social anthropologist and former equity fund manager, Philip Grant about how ideas of magic and finance overlap. 

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The Process 

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 

Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme music: Ka Baird
Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 Beano into his next endeavour?  How can you keep bending the rules while avoiding being predictable? Is performance art the most effective way of inspiring change? Andy heads out to talk to  performance artist Mark McGowan, aka the artist taxi driver, about performance, politics and the power of persona, all from the back of a black cab.

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The Process 

A new Somerset House Podcast series 
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 100 artists and makers. (And by extension,  it is often the home for the artistic process too), with much of the work we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 

Producer: Alannah ChanceSeries Presenter: Laurent JohnExec Producer: Eleanor ScottTheme Music: Ka Baird
Additional Music: Equiknoxx and Xylo-Ziko 
Additional Sound Design: Harry MurdochMastered by: Nick RyanProduced as part of the Creators-in-Residence Programme 2021Supported by The Rothschild Foundation

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 we present being conceived and made in the building, from start to finish. 
This podcast goes behind the scenes on that process with the artists themselves. Each episode explores one big idea emerging from a work in progress and follows the thread, from the artists’ initial inspiration, through the cross section of thinkers who helped them get there, to hear the form it might take next. 
Curator Andy Holden and performance artist Mark McGowan talk politics and performance from the back of a taxi, artist and writer Gary Zhexi Zhang delves into the world of financial astrology, and La Réunion born activist Françoise Verges and Mauritian artist Shiraz Bayjoo discuss survival and resistance in relation to colonialism in the Indian Ocean region. 

The Process is produced by Alannah Chance as part of the Creators in Residence Programme, supported by The Rothschild Foundation.