Join Serpentine for an escape room experience inside processing…, an archive display exploring Serpentine’s work at the intersection of art and advanced technologies. Discover archival materials, from publications and audio to video games and objects. Players will work together in the Serpentine South’s Education Space to solve the escape room through games, puzzles and riddles. Race against the clock, solve the escape room and compete against other groups for the fastest time.
Taking place during the closing weekend of processing…, escape room… offers a hands-on way to encounter the archive and the ideas behind it. Developed by Serpentine Arts Technologies and informed by its ongoing work with games and experimental forms of participation, the experience invites audiences to explore advanced technologies through play.
An escape room can be a safe space to play, make mistakes and make wild leaps in logic. Follow what intrigues you, engage with what feels unfamiliar and, in algorithmic terms, sweep the behaviour space. Let this be your permission slip.
processing… explores the ongoing, evolving nature of Serpentine’s work with art and advanced technologies. The display brings together materials from across Serpentine’s history, including resources, alternative models, prototypes, governance design, infrastructural experiments, and tools for systemic change. Across these materials runs a shared commitment to worldbuilding and critical inquiry.
Timeslots:
11am – 12pm
1pm – 2pm
3pm– 4pm
5pm – 6pm
Each session lasts approximately one hour and will be hosted by Vi Trinh, Assistant Curator, Serpentine Arts Technologies.
Biography & Credits
Serpentine Arts Technologies places art at the forefront of the technological innovation shaping our world. For over a decade, the department has championed artist-led experimentation through groundbreaking commissions, experimental cultural projects, and research. By bringing artists and audiences together, it explores how advanced technologies can become tools for new possibilities. Operating as both a studio and a research lab, Arts Technologies’ production-led model enables artists, curators, producers, researchers, strategists, and technologists to experiment with emerging systems as pathways for worldbuilding and critical inquiry. Working with technology in real time, the department asks and tests the urgent questions of our era.
escape room… is designed by Vi Trinh, Assistant Arts Technologies Curator
Play testers: Tom Gregson, Tommie Introna, Isobel Peyton Jones, Cosmo Reindorf, Elly Simpson, Tara Tierney, Tsige Tafesse, and Kay Watson
processing… is curated by Tamar Clarke-Brown, Arts Technologies Curator, with Vi Trinh, Assistant Arts Technologies Curator, and Tara Tierney, Digital Archivist.
Additional support from Tommie Introna, Arts Technologies R&D Platform Producer, and Elly Simpson and Cosmo Reindorf, Archive Cataloguers.
Exhibition production led by Isobel Peyton Jones, Arts Technologies Producer, and Richard Install, Head of Production.
Thanks to Serpentine Arts Technologies team past and present;
Ben Vickers, Arts Technologies Founder and Serpentine CTO, 2013-20
Sophie Netchaef, Strategic Projects Manager, 2018-20
Victoria Ivanova, Head of Arts Technologies Innovation and Future Art Ecosystems 2018-26
Alex Boyes, Arts Technologies Producer, 2019-23
Róisín McVeigh, Associate Arts Technologies Producer, 2022-23
Website intervention by Artdao
Receipt poems by Henry Bruce Jones
Fabrication by Whitewall
Exhibition build by Beyond Surface
Technician: Kenji Takahashi
Lighting by Richard Install
Design identity by Roxy Zeiher
Video production by Ralph Pritchard
Serpentine Arts Technologies Team, 2026
Kay Watson, Head of Arts Technologies
Eva Jäger, Arts Technologies Curator and Creative AI Lead
Tamar Clarke-Brown, Arts Technologies Curator
Vi Trinh, Assistant Arts Technologies Curator
Tommie Introna, R&D Platform Producer
Ruth Waters, Arts Technologies Producer
Tsige Tafesse, Arts Technologies Producer, FAE Fellowship
Isobel Peyton Jones, Arts Technologies Producer
Serpentine Digital Archive Team (part of Arts Technologies)
Tara Tierney, Digital Archivist
Thomas Gregson, Digital Preservation Systems Technician
Elly Simpson, Archive Cataloguer
Cosmo Reindorf, Archive Cataloguer
