Art & Explore the ideas behind our programme in depth and find out more from the artists we're working with. Ideas

A city skyline is abstracted into geometric patterns in a kaleidoscope effect, all across a warm terracotta-coloured, dusty background

Rain in my hip

Rena Anakwe, 6 Sep 2023

In this looping film work, artist and poet Rena Anakwe responds to ideas of weather, energy and interconnection within Tomás Saraceno’s exhibition, Web(s) of Life.  

Read more +
the two hands of a young child are folded out on a grey parquet floor, making a diamond shape with the thumbs. between them is a spindly spider which the child is playing with

Have you had a productive day?

El Morgan, 26 Jul 2023

A video work by artist and writer El Morgan explores vulnerability, interdependence and the messy crossings of human and animal bodies.

Read more +
a landscape viewed from above, full of trees, shrubby grasslands and green paths or streams. the greens glow almost blue and the image looks tangled, alive and abstract; perhaps the colours have been altered to give it an otherwordly feeling

As It Was in the Beginning, Is Now, and Ever Shall Be

Scott F. Gilbert, 6 Jun 2023

Biologist Scott F. Gilbert tells the story of life on Earth from the perspective of bacteria.

Read more +
Two white women with short hair are sitting cross-legged in a sunny London park. They are laughing beside a patch of tall wild flowers
In Conversation

Understanding Planet as Household: Janine Benyus and Kate Raworth

Janine Benyus & Kate Raworth, 14 Oct 2022

Economist and doughnut economics creator Kate Raworth speaks with Janine Benyus, a scientist and leading figure in biomimicry, about how designing from the whole can help us to thrive.

Read more +
all time

all time

Pratyusha, 14 Sep 2022

A newly commissioned poem by Pratyusha, engaging with the voices and worlds of the Back to Earth exhibition.

Read more +
Sound Gallery: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies by Torkwase Dyson
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies by Torkwase Dyson

6 May 2022

Torkwase Dyson's commission for Sound Gallery embodies breath in relation to the politics of space, the environment, and the rights of Black bodies to breathe.

Read more +
Sound Gallery: IN A GARDEN by Brian Eno
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: IN A GARDEN by Brian Eno

6 May 2022

Rooted in thinking about the landscape around Serpentine, Brian Eno's audio commission, IN A GARDEN, opens up a generative space made of layered sound.

Read more +
Designer Yasaman Sheri on Building more Pathways for Art-Science Creativity (and Eavesdropping on Bacteria)
Interview

Designer Yasaman Sheri on Building more Pathways for Art-Science Creativity (and Eavesdropping on Bacteria)

21 Oct 2020

Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategist at the Serpentine, speaks to Yasaman Sheri about her multifaceted practice, the challenges of art and science collaborations, and how the new Synthe...

Read more +
Back to Earth: Standing with the Forest
Serpentine Podcast

Back to Earth: Standing with the Forest

7 Aug 2020

We listen to Indigenous organisations fighting extraction and climate change and the artists working with them.

Read more +

Back to Earth

In Conversation: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Rebecca Lewin
In Conversation

In Conversation: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Rebecca Lewin

18 Feb 2021

Back to Earth artists consider how art, design and philosophy can effect long-term change in the face of ecological crisis.

Read more +
Back to Earth: Standing with the Forest
Serpentine Podcast

Back to Earth: Standing with the Forest

7 Aug 2020

We listen to Indigenous organisations fighting extraction and climate change and the artists working with them.

Read more +
Courtesy of Himali Singh Soin

*Spring is dangerous, like love. And love survives the lovers.*

29 Mar 2021

Himali Singh Soin, together with curator Kostas Stasinopoulos, asked friends to share messages, traces and transmissions of love.

Read more +
Into The Archives: Vivienne Westwood's Climate Activism
In Focus

Into The Archives: Vivienne Westwood's Climate Activism

10 Mar 2021

We take a look back at the pioneer’s ongoing relationship with Serpentine.

Read more +
140 Ideas
Serpentine Podcast

140 Ideas

19 Jun 2021

A new mini-podcast series inspired by the publication of 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth.

Read more +
In Conversation: Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen with Lucia Pietroiusti
In Conversation

In Conversation: Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen with Lucia Pietroiusti

28 Jan 2021

Back to Earth artists consider how art, design and philosophy can effect long-term change in the face of ecological crisis.

Read more +
Back to Earth: Queer Currents
Serpentine Podcast

Back to Earth: Queer Currents

21 Aug 2020

Artists and thinkers join the dots between queer theory and environmental activism and climate justice.

Read more +

Serpentine Podcast: Sound Gallery

Sound Gallery: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies by Torkwase Dyson
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies by Torkwase Dyson

6 May 2022

Torkwase Dyson's commission for Sound Gallery embodies breath in relation to the politics of space, the environment, and the rights of Black bodies to breathe.

Read more +
Sound Gallery: IN A GARDEN by Brian Eno
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: IN A GARDEN by Brian Eno

6 May 2022

Rooted in thinking about the landscape around Serpentine, Brian Eno's audio commission, IN A GARDEN, opens up a generative space made of layered sound.

Read more +
Sound Gallery: Atlantic Railton by Ain Bailey
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: Atlantic Railton by Ain Bailey

22 Jul 2022

In Ain Bailey's sound work, we hear intimate conversations and sonic resonances that reflect Brixton's sites of care and resistance.

Read more +
a form with a texture like grey mineral
Serpentine Podcast

Sound Gallery: Crystals of this Social Substance by Jay Bernard

22 Jul 2022

Jay Bernard's audio work for the Sound Gallery series brings eight young people into conversation on class, economics and inequality.

Read more +

Art + Technology

Designer Yasaman Sheri on Building more Pathways for Art-Science Creativity (and Eavesdropping on Bacteria)
Interview

Designer Yasaman Sheri on Building more Pathways for Art-Science Creativity (and Eavesdropping on Bacteria)

21 Oct 2020

Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategist at the Serpentine, speaks to Yasaman Sheri about her multifaceted practice, the challenges of art and science collaborations, and how the new Synthe...

Read more +
The Interfaces of AI Art Practices
In Focus

The Interfaces of AI Art Practices

30 Mar 2021

If machine learning is a new paradigm in computing, then why is there no new interface?

Read more +
Filmmaker Kim Heecheon is Using Technology to Test the Limits of Reality
Interview

Filmmaker Kim Heecheon is Using Technology to Test the Limits of Reality

29 Sep 2020

Kim Heecheon and Hans Ulrich Obrist discuss discuss world-building, virtual reality and Pokémon GO.

Read more +
Artists World Illustration
In Focus

Ecological World-Building: From Science Fiction to Virtual Reality

2 Mar 2021

Alice Bucknell draws a line from the otherworldly, ecological imaginings of writers like Octavia Butler to the "digital gardening" practices of artists like Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Jen...

Read more +
Rebecca Allen on Kraftwerk, Video Games and Artificial Life
Interview

Rebecca Allen on Kraftwerk, Video Games and Artificial Life

17 Sep 2020

"Artists are inventors too; coming up with new ideas and new forms of expression, so to be in a research lab and to be an artist inventing new things made a lot of sense to me." Rebecc...

Read more +
The umbra of an imago: Writing under control of machine learning
In Focus

The umbra of an imago: Writing under control of machine learning

14 Aug 2020

Allison Parrish draws parallels between automatic writing and writing under the control of automation.

Read more +
An Introduction to Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s New Realities
In Focus

An Introduction to Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s New Realities

23 Feb 2021

To encounter the immersive virtual landscapes and meditative soundscapes of Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen is to be transported to a new world.

Read more +

Serpentine Podcast

Bringing together the artists, writers and thinkers of our time to explore timely questions around technology, ecology and equality.

Listen and subscribe
Podcasting for the Arts with Reduced Listening

Archive

Discover over 50 years of the Serpentine

From the architectural Pavilion and digital commissions to the ideas Marathons and research-led initiatives, explore our past projects and exhibitions.

View archive