Serpentine Galleries →Arts Technologies

Arts Technologies

Serpentine’s Arts Technologies programme proposes critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on technologies through artistic interventions and creative research
and development.

How can artistic experimentation challenge and reshape the role that technologies can play in culture and society?  Serpentine Arts Technologies operates as an integrated programme for artistic and organisational experimentation, seeking to continually augment our capabilities and develop new propositions for how art and creative R&D can contribute towards societal negotiation of technologies. The programme supports artists in developing ambitious artworks that deploy advanced technologies as a medium, tool or topic, often operating beyond gallery walls.

The foundation of the Arts Technologies programme is an evolving Research and Development Platform that nurtures the development of infrastructures for ongoing artistic exploration and interrogation of advanced and emerging technologies. As the initiator of Future Art Ecosystems, Arts Technologies champions sector-convening initiatives and builds dedicated, diverse communities by co-commissioning and co-producing innovative projects which share knowledge, capabilities and resources. 

R&D Platform

The foundation of the Arts Technologies programme is located in an evolving R&D Platform that supports the development of infrastructures for ongoing artistic exploration and ...

R&D - Cloud Index

Hivemind

Online 29 Mar 2022 Free

Hivemind is a knowledge game for artists to navigate the inner workings of their practice.

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

Offsite 11 Apr 2022 Free

Artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley invites you to take part in an intimate playtesting event

Future Art Ecosystems

Future Art Ecosystems

Online Annual Strategic Briefing Free

An annual strategic briefing for practitioners and organisations with an interest in the development of future art ecosystems.

Legal Lab

Online September 2019 - ongoing

Exploring how the law can better support collaborations across art, science and technology

Legal Lab Report 1: Art + Tech/Science Collaborations

Legal Lab Report 1: Art + Tech/Science Collaborations

26 July 2021 Free BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

The launch presentation of Serpentine’s Legal Lab Report with Alana Kushnir, Legal Lab’s Principal Investigator, Marie Potel-Saville, founder of Amurabi, an...

Rendered Ghost Mantis

Synthetic Ecologies Lab

Online Oct 2020 – Ongoing

Making with a multitude of species and living systems.

Still from forthcoming ML/AI Interfaces Tutorial Series, 2020. Image courtesy of Trust, Berlin

Creative AI Lab

Online 9 Jul 2020 – Ongoing

A collaboration between Serpentine Galleries R&D Platform and the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College.

Credit: Image courtesy of Furtherfield, 2019

Blockchain Lab

Online June 2019 – Ongoing

Supporting network development between visionary artists, cultural workers, blockchain entrepreneurs.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: The Deep Listener

Online Serpentine South Gallery Ongoing Free

A site-specific public artwork and digital archive of five species, designed as an augmented reality and spatial audio work.

Performing the Metaverse: Performance x Virtual Worlds

Performing the Metaverse: Performance x Virtual Worlds

Online 17 Mar 2022 Free

A live conversation on Serpentine's Twitch with a panel of artists, producers and directors as they explore risks and opportunities associated with virtual perf...

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

Offsite 11 Apr 2022 Free

Artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley invites you to take part in an intimate playtesting event

Future Art Ecosystems Live

Future Art Ecosystems Live

18 Aug 2020

A series of online talks emerging from the Serpentine's inaugural Future Art Ecosystems report.

Serpentine Podcast: Playtesting

Serpentine Podcast: Playtesting

16 Jul 2021

In Playtesting, we speak to artists working with the metaverse, from counter archives for Black liberation to decentralised frameworks.

Artist Worlds: Primal Tourism

Artist Worlds: Primal Tourism

Online 16 Mar 2021 Free BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

An experimental live multiplayer virtual event with Jakob Kudsk Steensen and friends.

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

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 collaboration...

Rebecca Allen on Kraftwerk, Video Games and Artificial Life

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...

R&D at Arts Institutions

Research & Development at the Art Institution

9 Jul 2020

What would it mean for a cultural institution to make their programmes matter not only artistically, but infrastructurally?

Playing Nature: Alenda Y. Chang on Gaming's Role in the Climate Crisis

Playing Nature: Alenda Y. Chang on Gaming's Role in the Climate Crisis

10 Mar 2021

Can video games offer insights into real world environmental systems and ecological thinking?

Jenna Sutela, I Magma App, 2019. Co-commissioned by Moderna Museet and Serpentine Galleries, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.

Back to Earth: Systems and Sprouts

9 Jul 2020

How are artists using technologies to imagine alternate realities, new alien languages and manipulate time?

Still from forthcoming ML/AI Interfaces Tutorial Series, 2020. Image courtesy of Trust, Berlin

Luba Elliott on the Emergence of the Creative AI Field

9 Jul 2020

Eva Jäger, Mercedes Bunz & Luba Elliott discuss the landscape of AI and how Elliott built a Creative AI community in London.

Artists World Illustration

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 Jak...

Aesthetics of New AI

Aesthetics of New AI

10 Nov 2020

How do we find the balance between researching AI as a technical object, without distancing it as “other” to the human?

Swooding Architects

Future Art Ecosystems: Focus on China

18 Aug 2020

Mi You shares insights on art and technology ecosystems in China — past, future and present.

The Interfaces of AI Art Practices

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?

Skills for Future Art Ecosystems

Skills for Future Art Ecosystems

Online 24 Jul — 18 Sep 2021 Free

Learn how to make art in the metaverse from artists.

dmstfctn: GOD MODE (ep.1)

dmstfctn: GOD MODE (ep.1)

Serpentine South Gallery 3 December 2022, 2 - 3pm

The Creative AI Lab and Coventry University presents GOD MODE (ep. 1), an interactive audiovisual performance by artist duo dmstfctn.

Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech Launch

Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech Launch

Online 25 November 2022 8-9.30pm Livestream: Closed Captions

A presentation of Future Art Ecosystems 3 (FAE3) – Serpentine Arts Technologies’ annual strategic briefing. FAE3 provides new learnings around decentralised...

Synthetic Ecologies Compendium

Synthetic Ecologies Compendium

Online 7 July –31 October 2022

Compendium is a growing collective archive of resources, reflections, sketches, conversations, and content that support artistic and critical inquiry into ecolo...

Legal Lab Live: Indigenous Sovereignty in the Metaverse

Legal Lab Live: Indigenous Sovereignty in the Metaverse

Online Thu 20 Oct 12-1pm BST/10-11pm AEST/7-8am EDT Open Captions

Join Vanessa Lee-Ah Mat and Alana Kushnir as they explore Indigenous agency and data sovereignty in the metaverse.

Synthetic Ecologies Live: Namita Patel x Seetal Solanki

Synthetic Ecologies Live: Namita Patel x Seetal Solanki

Online Tuesday 30 August, 6-7pm BST

The Compendium is a growing archive of resources and library of creative and critical inquiry in life science and ecology.

Libby Heaney plays Hivemind

Libby Heaney plays Hivemind

Online Tuesday 16 August, 6pm BST Open Captions

Follow artist and quantum physicist Libby Heaney as she explores the new logic systems in Hivemind, a knowledge game made by and for artists.

Blockchain Lab: Radical Friends Book Launch

Blockchain Lab: Radical Friends Book Launch

Serpentine Pavilion Serpentine South Gallery Thursday 14 July 2022, 7-9pm

Join Principal Investigator of the Blockchain Lab Ruth Catlow and writer Penny Rafferty – editors of the new book, Radical Friends.

Compendium Launch: Yasaman Sheri x Angela Dimayuga

Compendium Launch: Yasaman Sheri x Angela Dimayuga

Online Thursday 7 July 2022, 20:00 BST/12:00 PDT/15:00 EDT

The Synthetic Ecologies Lab brings together artistic and scientific communities into experimental exchange through its latest project: Compendium.

Legal Lab Live: Forging Creative Agency in the Metaverse

Legal Lab Live: Forging Creative Agency in the Metaverse

Online 23 June, 1-2pm BST, 10-11pm AEST/9-10am EST Open Captions

How can artists and cultural organisations forge their agency within the Metaverse, and how can a deeper understanding of their legal rights and responsibilitie...

YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE

YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE

Online 24 May 2022 6-7pm BST Open Captions

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Serpentine Arts Technologies invite you to playtest an interactive murder mystery.

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE

Offsite 11 Apr 2022

Artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley invites you to take part in an intimate playtesting event

Performing the Metaverse: Performance x Virtual Worlds

Performing the Metaverse: Performance x Virtual Worlds

Online 17 Mar 2022

A live conversation on Serpentine's Twitch with a panel of artists, producers and directors as they explore risks and opportunities associated with virtual perf...

Sophia Al-Maria, Tosh Basco and Kelsey Lu: tarax'sup?

Sophia Al-Maria, Tosh Basco and Kelsey Lu: tarax'sup?

Online 21 December 2020 - ongoing

Launching on the Winter Solstice, 21 December 2020, tarax’sup? is a gift from the artists to you, and especially for queer kin everywhere.

Tactical Entanglements: Creative AI Lab in conversation with Martin Zeilinger

Tactical Entanglements: Creative AI Lab in conversation with Martin Zeilinger

Online 15 Nov 2021

Join us online for a discussion around the impact of artificial intelligence on human-centered notions of creative agency, authorship and ownership.

Rendered Ghost Mantis

Synthetic Ecologies Lab

Online Oct 2020 – Ongoing

Making with a multitude of species and living systems.

A Cephalopod ↔ Machine Encounter

A Cephalopod ↔ Machine Encounter

Online 11 Oct 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

How can an octopus, in an encounter with artificial intelligence, transform our understanding of technological development?

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Robin McNicholas x Alex Boyes

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Robin McNicholas x Alex Boyes

4 Oct 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Join the Serpentine Arts Technologies team and our contributors to Future Art Ecosystems 2 as we discuss the metaverse and the opportunities and challenges faci...

Jenna Sutela: I Magma (App)

Jenna Sutela: I Magma (App)

Online 2 Oct 2019 – ongoing

This comprises an app for mobile devices which can be downloaded and experienced anywhere, and an exhibition in Stockholm.

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: David Blandy and Larry Achiampong x Kay Watson

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: David Blandy and Larry Achiampong x Kay Watson

27 Sep 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Join the Serpentine Arts Technologies team and our contributors to Future Art Ecosystems 2 as we discuss the metaverse.

Suzanne Treister: From SURVIVOR (F) to The Escapist BHST (Black Hole Spacetime)

Suzanne Treister: From SURVIVOR (F) to The Escapist BHST (Black Hole Spacetime)

Online 19 September 2019 – ongoing

Suzanne Treister explores emerging technologies, alternative belief systems and potential human futures.

Skills for Future Art Ecosystems

Skills for Future Art Ecosystems

Online 24 Jul — 18 Sep 2021

Learn how to make art in the metaverse from artists.

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Amelia Winger-Bearskin x Tamar Clarke-Brown

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Amelia Winger-Bearskin x Tamar Clarke-Brown

Online 13 Sep 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Artist, technologist and producer Amelia Winger-Bearskin discusses the metaverse and the opportunities and challenges facing artists, producers and cultural ins...

Taraxos: A Wish is a Form of Travel

Taraxos: A Wish is a Form of Travel

Online 20 Mar — 31 Aug 2021

For part two of Taraxos, on the Spring Equinox, we move in reverse and take flight.

Call for Case Studies: Artist ML Interfaces

Call for Case Studies: Artist ML Interfaces

International Online 12 Feb — 31 Jul 2021

A year-long investigation into the back-end interfaces or 'internal tooling' that artists use to create/experiment with.

Credit: Image courtesy of Furtherfield, 2019

Blockchain Lab

Online June 2019 – Ongoing

Supporting network development between visionary artists, cultural workers, blockchain entrepreneurs.

Still from forthcoming ML/AI Interfaces Tutorial Series, 2020. Image courtesy of Trust, Berlin

Creative AI Lab

Online 9 Jul 2020 – Ongoing

A collaboration between Serpentine Galleries R&D Platform and the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College.

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Sam Rolfes x Alex Boyes

Future Art Ecosystems 2 Live: Sam Rolfes x Alex Boyes

Online 29 Jul 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Join the Serpentine Arts Technologies team and our contributors to Future Art Ecosystems 2 as we discuss the metaverse.

Legal Lab Report 1: Art + Tech/Science Collaborations

Legal Lab Report 1: Art + Tech/Science Collaborations

26 July 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

The launch presentation of Serpentine’s Legal Lab Report with Alana Kushnir, Legal Lab’s Principal Investigator, Marie Potel-Saville, founder of Amurabi, an...

Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse: Launch Presentation

Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse: Launch Presentation

Online 13 Jul 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Join us for the launch presentation of Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse (FAE2).

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: The Deep Listener

Online Serpentine South Gallery Ongoing

A site-specific public artwork and digital archive of five species, designed as an augmented reality and spatial audio work.

R&D Labyrinths

Online 5 May 2021 Open Captions

Follow the artist through the software interfaces that shape their work

Hidden Patterns-A Conversation About Networks and Arts

Hidden Patterns

Online 8 Apr 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

Join Serpentine Creative Director Hans Ulrich Obrist, physicist and Director of BarabásiLab Albert-Lászlo Barabási.

Artist Worlds: Primal Tourism

Artist Worlds: Primal Tourism

Online 16 Mar 2021 BSL Interpreted Closed Captions

An experimental live multiplayer virtual event with Jakob Kudsk Steensen and friends.

Artist Worlds: UBS and Serpentine co-present a live conversation with Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Ben Vickers

Artist Worlds: UBS and Serpentine co-present a live conversation with Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Ben Vickers

Online 24 Feb 2021

Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Ben Vickers discuss simulating nature, immersive story-telling and multi-player game worlds.

Aesthetics of New AI Interfaces—Panel Discussion

Aesthetics of New AI Interfaces—Panel Discussion

Online 12 Feb 2021

A panel discussion on machine learning and its art-making interfaces with Christian Ulrik Andersen, Agnes Cameron and Rebecca Fiebrink

Ian Cheng: Bad Corgi

Ian Cheng: Bad Corgi

Online 24 Sep 2015 – ongoing

Ian Cheng invites you to enter the world of Bad Corgi: a shadowy mindfulness app for contemplating chaos.

James Bridle: Cloud Index

James Bridle: Cloud Index

Online 29 Sep 2016 – ongoing

Cloud Index explores the connections between climate, behaviour and networks.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016-18 Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 2018 Christo

Serpentine and Acute Art Present Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s London Mastaba in AR

Online 8 July 2020 to Ongoing

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 2016 - 2018 sculpture, The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park can be experienced in Augmented Reality through the Acute Art ...

Suzanne Treister, The Escapist BHST (Black Hole Spacetime)/Museum of Black Hole Spacetime 1, 2018-19. Courtesy the artist, Annely Juda Fine Art, London and P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York

The Museum of Black Hole Spacetime Séance with Suzanne Treister

Online 29 Oct 2020

Join Suzanne Treister online for a virtual séance to a hypothetical museum in the cosmos.

Aesthetics of new AI—Panel Discussion

Aesthetics of new AI—Panel Discussion

Online 9 Oct 2020

A panel discussion on machine learning and its aesthetic capacity with Mercedes Bunz, Leif Weatherby, Nora Khan & Joanna Zylinska.

Cao Fei: Blueprints

Cao Fei: Blueprints

Serpentine South Gallery 4 Aug — 13 Sep 2020

Cao Fei is a multi-media artist and filmmaker based in Beijing.

Jenna Sutela x Stefanie Hessler, Live Q&A

Jenna Sutela x Stefanie Hessler, Live Q&A

Online 19 Aug 2020

A live discussion about meaning and randomness in Jenna Sutela's work.

Future Art Ecosystems Live: Rachel Armstrong x Rival Strategy

Future Art Ecosystems Live: Rachel Armstrong x Rival Strategy

Online 7 Aug 2020

Join pioneering architect Rachel Armstrong and Rival Strategy for a live conversation.

The Long Time Sessions: Deep Time Culture: Future Art Ecosystems

The Long Time Sessions: Deep Time Culture: Future Art Ecosystems

Online 9 Jul 2020

A fortnightly online talk series on cultivating care for the world beyond our lifetimes.

Future Art Ecosystems

Future Art Ecosystems

Online Annual Strategic Briefing

An annual strategic briefing for practitioners and organisations with an interest in the development of future art ecosystems.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Catharsis

Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Catharsis

Online 14 Jan — 31 May 2020

Discover Jakob Kudsk Steensen's portal to a virtual forest.

Hito Steyerl: Actual Reality OS

Hito Steyerl: Actual Reality OS

Online 11 April 2019 — 31 January 2020

Visitors were prompted to view an app that uses augmented reality to show Actual RealityOS.

Serpentine Augmented Architecture

Serpentine Augmented Architecture

1 Jan — 31 Dec 2019

Augmented Architecture connects the Serpentine’s expertise in commissioning new architecture with its work in the field of advanced technologies.

AGNES

Online 6 February 2014 — 31 May 2019

The first in a series of digital commissions by Cécile B. Evans, coinciding with the launch of the 2014 Serpentine website.

Hito Steyerl: Power Plants

Hito Steyerl: Power Plants

Serpentine North Gallery 11 Apr — 6 May 2019

Steyerl's work explores the complexities of the digital world, art, capitalism and the implications of Artificial Intelligence for society.

Pierre Huyghe: UUmwelt

Pierre Huyghe: UUmwelt

Serpentine South Gallery 3 October 2018 — 10 February 2019

The exhibition was changed irrevocably and unpredictably over the course of the time in which it existed.

New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future: James Bridle in conversation with Ben Vickers

New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future: James Bridle in conversation with Ben Vickers

Offsite 28 Jun 2018

An evening with artist and writer James Bridle on the occasion of the publication of his new book.

Ian Cheng: Emissaries

Ian Cheng: Emissaries

Serpentine South Gallery 24 Apr — 28 May 2018

Ian Cheng's trilogy of simulations Emissaries (2015-17) came to the Serpentine in the second half of his two-part exhibition.

Film with Sondra Perry

Sondra Perry: Typhoon coming on

Serpentine North Gallery 6 Mar — 20 May 2018

Sondra Perry constructs multifaceted narratives that explore the imagining, or imaging, of blackness throughout history.

Portraits with BOB

Portraits with BOB

Serpentine South Gallery 11 Mar & 28 Apr 2018

Visitors to the Ian Cheng exhibition could have their portrait drawn with BOB.

Ian Cheng: BOB

Serpentine South Gallery 6 Mar — 22 Apr 2018

Ian Cheng populated the Serpentine with artificial life in a two-part exhibition, starting with BOB and continued with Emissaries.

Ian Cheng in conversation with Nora Khan and Ben Vickers

Ian Cheng in conversation with Nora Khan and Ben Vickers

Serpentine South Gallery 6 Mar 2018

Artist Ian Chen joins writer Nora Khan and Serpentine Galleries CTO Ben Vickers to discuss his exhibition.

GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon

GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon

Offsite 7 Oct 2017

Considering the advent of AI, consciousness, interspecies cooperation, trans-humanism and non-linear time.

Zaha Hadid: Virtual Reality Experiences

Zaha Hadid: Virtual Reality Experiences

Serpentine North Gallery 8 December 2016 — 12 February 2017

On the occasion of the exhibition Zaha Hadid: Early Paintings and Drawings a series of experimental virtual reality experiences were specially developed with Za...

Simon Denny: Products for Organising

Simon Denny: Products for Organising

Serpentine North Gallery 25 November 2015 — 14 February 2016

Simon Denny works with sculptural installations that include print, graphics, moving images and texts.

Culturehacking: A Panel with Simon Denny, Heba Amin, Ryan Gallagher and Brett Scott, in conversation with Charlotte Higgins

Culturehacking: A Panel with Simon Denny, Heba Amin, Ryan Gallagher and Brett Scott, in conversation with Charlotte Higgins

Offsite 28 Jan 2016

Simon Denny discussed networks, power, revolution and surveillance with Heba Y. Amin, Ryan Gallagher and Brett Scott.

An Evening on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

An Evening on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Offsite 19 Mar 2015

Artists, architects, researchers and filmmakers explore global infrastructure and the movement of people, things and information.

Gustav Metzger: Mass Media: todayandyesterday.co.uk

Gustav Metzger: Mass Media: todayandyesterday.co.uk

Online Launched 18 October 2014

In autumn 2014 Serpentine Galleries commissioned Gustav Metzger's first digital work. Gustav Metzger’s first digital work Mass Media: todayandyesterday...

Ed Atkins: www.80072745

Ed Atkins: www.80072745

Online 20 Oct 2014

Serpentine Galleries commissioned a digital work by Ed Atkins in autumn 2014 that saw the artist begin a decade of personal exchanges. As part of Ed Atkin...

Extinct.ly

Online 18–19 Oct 2014

EXTINCT.LY is a digital platform created to host the work of artists, writers, speculative designers and programmers exploring the subject of extinction. E...

89plus CLUBHOUSE

89plus CLUBHOUSE

Serpentine North Gallery 18 Oct 2013

The 89plus CLUBHOUSE was an online platform built to facilitate digital participation in the Serpentine Marathon in 2013 and give form to a highly distributed c...

R&D Platform

The Serpentine’s Research and Development Platform is a space where the institution’s ‘back-end’ (operations, protocols, in-built values) and ‘front-end’ (what it ...