Somerset House Podcast

Artist Dana-Fiona Armour reveals what the sea snake knows about our changing oceans – and what it’s telling us about the climate emergency. It’s animals like the sea snake – a vital but often neglected bioindicator of marine health – that can be a crucial lens to environmental change. With fragile eco systems, rising sea temperatures and decreasing salinity, what would it take to retune our ears and listen to the sea snake? In her major courtyard commission for 2026, Serpentine Currents – Fragments of a Changing Future, Armour visualises how marine ecosystems are degrading and changing. The installation blends sculpture, science and responsive light technology, translating complex research and predictive ocean data from the British coast into visuals, with the sea snake at its heart. The dataset is also projected 50 years into the future, in a world where warming seas might allow sea snakes to inhabit UK waters. If the sea snake is telling us that the oceans are collapsing, with devastating consequences, then what does the future of our coastlines look like? Credits: Contributors: Anthony Herrel and Heather Spence Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Tess Davidson Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird Additional field recordings and sound: Heather Spence, Felix Blume (FreeSound)

For the first in The Process Archive sub-series we revisit three works from Assembly, Somerset House Studios experimental sound and music series, with artists Elaine Mitchener, Beatrice Dillon, Jennifer Walshe and Memo Akten. Originating in 2018, Assembly emerged from the roots of sonic art and sound-based practice within the Studios resident artist community. To mark its fifth edition, we look back at some of the works that have defined it.

Somerset House Studios artist Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom reimagines the drums as a time-travelling device across continent, history, and bodies. A self-taught drummer, Boakye-Yiadom has long been interested in how we might reframe our perception of the drums. Its primal release of sound and movement. An ability to shape and reshape our sense of time. But what happens if we take it one step further and reimagine the drum kit as a time-travelling device? In this episode of The Process, Boakye-Yiadom explores the often-invisible histories of the drum, from being othered and dismissed as noise, rather than music, to sounding the resistance against colonial power. Why is it that drummers like James Brown – the most sampled drummer of all time – are often neglected in music history? And who decides what is visible? To unpack these questions, Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom speaks to British Italian multi-genre drummer, percussionist and composer, Valentina Magaletti, and writer and musicologist, Matt Brennan, author of A Social History of the Drum Kit. - Boakye-Yiadom joined the Studios community in 2023, as the inaugural recipient of the Donna Lynas Residency, supported by Modern Art Oxford, Somerset House Studios, South London Gallery and Wysing Arts Centre, receiving a salary for three years and the support of each partner, including mentoring, use of facilities and inclusion in public programmes. - The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up. From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

Artist duo Cooking Sections blur the lines between art and activism with their installation, The Ministry of Sewers. The Ministry of Sewers is an exhibit by artist duo Cooking Sections for the Folkestone Triennial. Inspired by the 1976 appointment of Dennis Howell as Minister for Drought – then Minister for Floods and Snows – it invites audiences to reimagine an alternative public service, using the voices of local communities to mobilise action against the scale of water pollution in the UK and reclaim the coastlines. From raw sewage spills to stream contamination and agrochemicals, The Ministry of Sewers amplifies the voices of swimmers, schoolchildren, farmers and scientists alike, all the while demanding change in shaping an alternative future of clean, swimmable seas all year. In this episode of The Process, Cooking Sections’ Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe explore the blurry boundaries between fact and fiction in artmaking: how might art and activism intersect, and can performance be a tool for direct change? They hear from Paula Serafini, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at Queen Mary, University of London, and Liv Pennington and Michele Shonfield, two of the ministers involved in the installation, on how art can empower people to speak out on issues that affect them. Credits Contributors: Cooking Sections - Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe; Paula Serafini, Patricia Rolfe, Michele Shonfeld, and Liv Pennington Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Arlie Adlington Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up: from financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to geometry for aliens. Along the way, we hear from thinkers across disciplines, including artists such as Mark Leckey and Gazelle Twin on their fascination with ghosts and all things paranormal, and Hannah Diamond on the transformative potential of cute – and how these creative influences shape their practice in new and surprising ways.

DJ and producer, Tayo Papoola, explores how the ground-breaking photography of Jennie Baptiste documented a generation of Black British creatives. Rhythm and Roots – Jennie Baptiste’s first major solo exhibition – opened at Somerset House in Autumn 2025, celebrating a three-decade career across music, fashion and youth identity. From the vibrating energy of London’s dancehall scene to the rise of hip hop and R&B, it is a vital visual record of a generation finding its feet – and leaving its mark. But for Jennie, a child of the 80s and teenager of the 90s, it made total sense that photography would be a gateway into the culture. Growing up in north-west London to St. Lucian parents, her family were always taking photos. When her mother bought her a camera at 10, it never left her side as she captured the heyday of the UK’s hip hop scene and an underground culture looking to define itself. In this episode of The Process, radio producer and DJ Tayo Papoola – who grew up alongside this creative generation – asks: what does an authentic portrayal of a creative community look like? And how do you preserve these histories for generations to come? Tayo is joined by a set of creatives and contemporaries to Jennie who were important inspirations in the development of her practice and shaping the culture in real time.... DJ Semtex, music director Jake Nava and British Nigerian fashion designer Wale Adeyemi. Credits: Contributors: Jennie Baptiste, DJ Semtex, Jake Nava and Walé Adeyemi Producer and narration: Tayo Papoola Host: Laurent John Theme Music: Ka Baird Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up: from financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to geometry for aliens. Along the way, we hear from thinkers across disciplines, including artists such as Mark Leckey and Gazelle Twin on their fascination with ghosts and all things paranormal, and Hannah Diamond on the transformative potential of cute – and how these creative influences shape their practice in new and surprising ways.

In this special interview edition of the Process, artist Sidsel Meineche Hansen unpacks the background to her digital commission Grumpy. Sidsel Meineche Hansen is a Danish artist who is interested in how things are made, both through the lens of the industrial complex and material forms of craft. Her work looks at the ways gender is produced and mutated through the production of female gendered commodities in the tech and porn industry, such as the sex robot or the sex doll, exploring questions around ownership and profit. In Grumpy, her commission for our digital platform Channel, Sidsel created a computer-animated version of the anatomical Venus - a wax model of a dissected woman, clad in pearls, which was used to teach medical students' anatomy in the 18th Century. The head of the model hangs backwards, singing softly, as we pan up over her splayed open torso, revealing only the reproductive organs and a smiling foetus To make the work, Sidsel sourced real-life human sexual organs from a cadaver before working on the animation. In this special interview version of The Process, Sidsel unpacks the background to the work with the director of Somerset House Studios Marie McPartlin. She talks about her experience in the operating theatre, the questions it brought up about the role of the artist, the relationship between object and subject and what it was like to make the work while pregnant with her first child. Interviewer: Marie McPartlin Artist: Sidsel Meineche Hansen Executive Producer: Eleanor Ritter-Scott Producer: Alannah Chance Host: Laurent John Sound Engineer: Mike Woolley Theme Music: Ka Baird The Process is an artist-led podcast series, developed by Somerset House, which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up. From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

And how did it manage to disappear with barely a trace? Artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser (Hylozoic/Desires) go on a journey through the archives to unearth the story of the Great Hedge of India, a 4,000km long hedge grown by the British East India Company in the 1840s, to control the flow of salt across the continent. But despite being one of the longest of its kind in history, no visual trace of the hedge can be found in the archives Ahead of their installation in the courtyard of Somerset House, Himali and David tell the story of the hedge and reflect on the complex weave of fiction, truth and silence that surrounds it. In this podcast they ask, what can nature teach us about archives? And how can art create truth retrospectively? They are joined by Dr Alexis Rider, a historian of science at Cambridge, who worked alongside the artists as a researcher on the project and Professor Rohan Deb Roy, a lecturer in South Asian History at Reading, who looks at the ways the termite undermined the authority of empire by eating into both the hedge and the official papers of the state. Produced by: Alannah Chance Presented by: Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser Series presenter: Laurent John Mixed by: Mike Woolley Theme Music:Ka Baird Additional Music:Suraj Nepal, Rahul Popawala, Ish S and Surabhi Saraf Podcast produced in response to 'Salt Cosmologies', an exhibition at Somerset House 20 Feb – 27 Apr 2025. You can also watch a film produced about the artwork on our online platform Channel.

Our Future is tied to the future of our soil. Our decisions as to how we care for and use it matter. Soil teaches us that cycles are ongoing, and even in decline every day offers us opportunities for new beginnings. In this final episode Shenece Oretha explores the regenerative qualities of soil and composting as a model for personal redemption. We hear from Palestinian grower Mohammed Saleh whose life story offers a personal story of hope, looking at how permaculture and art can help to heal the destructive impacts of war. Somerset Studios artist Harun Morrision’s singing compost invites us to see decay in a new light and Fin Jordâo lays out how composting can be a radical action for rethinking our relationships with each other and the planet. Does the future hold a closer, more natural relationship with the soil by rethinking our relationship to burial? Radical undertaker Ru Callander reconsiders our attitude to death. The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet. Presented by Shenece Oretha Produced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike Woolley Original music by Andrew Pekler.

Much of the history of human making springs from the soil. Cuneiform, the earliest form of writing, was engraved into clay; paint pigments come from minerals in the soil; and much of our material history is held in ceramics. But soil is not neutral; it is deeply entangled with politics of ownership embedded in the land. In this episode Shenece Oretha probes the ways the soil and clay are inspiring artists today, looking at the stories soil can tell about our past and our potential future. Ceramicist and writer Jennifer Lucy Allan reflects on the ways clay connects us to the earliest forms of making. Artists Annalee Davis and Lauren Gault look at the ways soil bears witness to our histories, from the trauma of the plantation to the deep time of paleontology. We create art from soil, but through our extraction and interaction, it is also changed. How can we heal our relationship with the soil and in so doing, transform our relationship with the planet? Farmer and food justice advocate Leah Penniman unpacks how indigenous practices of soil care can reverse some of the most egregious effects of climate change. The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet. Presented by Shenece Oretha Produced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike Woolley Original music by Andrew Pekler.

Our entire existence is dependent on our relationship with soil. As awareness builds of the enormity of the ecological crisis that we are facing, a growing number of artists are engaging with soil as a material in their work. This three part series responds to the Somerset House exhibition ‘Soil: The World at Our Feet’, unearthing soil's role in our future through the work of artists and thinkers working with it. Soil is the basis of many creation stories around the world. It is our beginning, and it is what we will return to. In Episode 1 of Common Ground we look at soil as the matter from which life emerges. Exploring growth, beginnings and the ways soil as a material offers unique opportunities for exploration. We hear from artist Asad Raza who makes ‘neo-soil’ from scratch and covers the floor of galleries with it. Artist Eve Tagny’s work examines the cultivation of the Rose as a way to ask questions about the ways we interact with the world. Agroecologist Nicole Masters and farmer Abby Rose, lay out what soil is and why it holds the key to our survival. The episode is set within the garden of our presenter Shenece Oretha. Working with soil has shaped her relationship to the place where she lives and informed her art practice. SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art. Soil is unsung, and largely hidden from view. What if we were to put it in the foreground? To think of it as a collaborator? The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet. Presented by Shenece Oretha Produced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike Woolley Original music by Andrew Pekler Episode Image: Asda Raza - credit Luca Guadagnini.

Soil is unsung, and largely hidden from view. What if we were to put it in the foreground? To think of it as a collaborator? Across three episodes, presenter and Somerset House Studios artist Shenece Oretha traces the life cycle of soil, from it’s foundational role at the beginning of life with artist Asad Raza, through to its manifestation as one of the earliest creative materials, with ceramist and writer Jennifer Lucy Allan. We hear from artists Annalee Davis and Lauren Gault on the ways soil bears witness our difficult histories, before exploring decay and the regenerative powers of soil in our final episode, with the work of artist Mohamed Salah and radical undertaker Rupert Callender. The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet. Presented by Shenece Oretha Produced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott. The series is mixed by Mike Woolley Original music by Andrew Pekler.

Why has the club been so pivotal to the history of black queer placemaking? For artist and filmmaker Topher Campbell, growing up as a Black queer man in 1980s and 90s Britain, the club provided a sanctuary from the judgement and hostility of mainstream society. It became a space for community, self-discovery, and, as a care leaver, a sense of home. As co-founder of the rukus! archive and curator of the exhibition Making a rukus!: Black Queer Histories Through Love and Resistance, Campbell reflects on how the club scene reverberates through the archive, one of Europe's largest Black LGBTQIA+ collections, and its vital role in Black queer placemaking. In this podcast, Campbell speaks with two pioneers of the Black queer club scene: DJ Biggy C (aka Calvin Dawkins) in London, who helped create space for Black music in the capital’s predominantly white gay clubs, and US based Madison Moore, academic, DJ, and author of Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. Madison discusses his mission to reclaim techno for the black femme community and how fabulousness can offer both mask and armour for Black queer club-goers. Madison is an assistant professor at Brown University. For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources: UK Black Pride BLKOUT Black Beetle Health Galop Produced by: Alannah Chance Presented by: Topher Campbell Series presenter: Laurent John Mixed by Mike Woolley Theme Music: Ka Baird Additional Music: Shaun J Wright and Alinka

What one site in Croydon can tell us about the biggest moment of civil unrest in Britain in a generation. Listen to the full episode: Apple | Spotify Artist Imran Perretta was in his early 20s when the riots began in 2011. What started in London quickly spread across England, but it was the footage of a furniture shop set on fire in Croydon which stayed with Imran. Now, 13 years later, Imran revisits that moment in a new commission for Somerset House Studios which recreates Reeves Corner in the gallery space, accompanied by a new work for string quartet, entitled ‘A Requiem for the Dispossessed.’ In this episode of The Process, Imran heads back to Reeves Corner to reflect on its legacy today. We hear from Tim Newburn, professor of criminology and social policy at the LSE, about the history of civil unrest in Britain and the nature of riots. Croydon-based community artist Natalie Mitchell shares how community art projects can transform the way we think about public space. We follow Imran as he records with the Manchester Camerata and hear insights from sound designer Rob Szeliga on the ways in which music can affect how we feel. As the requiem builds to its crescendo and the site lies silent, we ask: what does this patch of land say about the legacy of social unrest in Britain? Why has such a monumental uprising been largely forgotten? And how can sound tell this story in new ways? We’re sensitive to the fact that while this subject matter is important to explore, it may be triggering to some audiences. For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources: Healing Justice https://healingjusticeldn.org Resist and Renew https://resistrenew.com Radical Therapist Network: https://www.radicaltherapistnetwork.com The Black, African and Asian Network (BAATN): https://www.baatn.org.uk Credits Produced by Alannah Chance Presented by Imran Perretta Series presenter is Laurent John Mixed by Mike Wooley Theme Music by Ka Baird with additional music by Harry Murdoch

What one site in Croydon can tell us about the biggest moment of civil unrest in Britain in a generation. Artist Imran Perretta was in his early 20s when the riots began in 2011. What started in London quickly spread across England, but it was the footage of a furniture shop set on fire in Croydon which stayed with Imran. Now, 13 years later, Imran revisits that moment in a new commission for Somerset House Studios which recreates Reeves Corner in the gallery space, accompanied by a new work for string quartet, entitled ‘A Requiem for the Dispossessed.’ In this episode of The Process, Imran heads back to Reeves Corner to reflect on its legacy today. We hear from Tim Newburn, professor of criminology and social policy at the LSE, about the history of civil unrest in Britain and the nature of riots. Croydon-based community artist Natalie Mitchell shares how community art projects can transform the way we think about public space. We follow Imran as he records with the Manchester Camerata and hear insights from sound designer Rob Szeliga on the ways in which music can affect how we feel. As the requiem builds to its crescendo and the site lies silent, we ask: what does this patch of land say about the legacy of social unrest in Britain? Why has such a monumental uprising been largely forgotten? And how can sound tell this story in new ways? We’re sensitive to the fact that while this subject matter is important to explore, it may be triggering to some audiences. For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources: Healing Justice https://healingjusticeldn.org Resist and Renew https://resistrenew.com Radical Therapist Network: https://www.radicaltherapistnetwork.com The Black, African and Asian Network (BAATN): https://www.baatn.org.uk Credits Produced by Alannah Chance Presented by Imran Perretta Series presenter is Laurent John Mixed by Mike Wooley Theme Music by Ka Baird with additional music by Harry Murdoch The Process: A Somerset House Podcast An artist-led podcast series which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process. Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up. From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

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 cartoon animation, specifically its roots in racist caricature. For her Somerset House installation Sean-Kierre created a dragon-like gargoyle called Benevolence, one of nine protector gods she is developing, inspired by the 90s cartoon ‘Gargoyles’ Here Sean-Kierre exposes the double edged sword of cute, looking at how cute characters have been used to mask malicious intent, as in the case of the animated characters used in war propaganda, as well as to deliver moral reminders, as far back as medieval masonry. She talks to animator of the Big Blue, Gyimah Gariba about how he uses cuteness to demonstrate the vulnerability of earth’s climate and art historian Dr Janetta Rebold Benton explains how gargoyles could be thought to be a form of cartoons of the middle ages. Contains strong language from the start. CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, at Somerset House, 25 Jan - 14 Apr 2024. Principal Partner: Sanrio Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series presenter - Laurent John

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 social media we are increasingly becoming the brand, as we seek to cutify our online and IRL selves. Over the last ten years the music collective and label PC Music have been playing with the aesthetics of pop music, internet culture and consumerism to suggest that artifice doesn’t need to be inauthentic. Artist and musician Hannah Diamond is one of the founding members, known for her hyper-real, hyper-pop art direction and an ear for sugary hooks. For CUTE, an exhibition at Somerset House, Hannah was commissioned to curate a room in the style of a girl’s sleepover accompanied by a stream of music videos that embody the power of cute. In this episode we go deeper into the ways pop music and cuteness intersect, celebrating the ways plasticity can be liberating rather than limiting. Hannah talks to fellow label affiliate Hayden Dunham, the brains behind the Hey QT project, about self transformation through world building and Dazed journalist Gunseli Yalcinkaya explains why the internet has such an enduring obsession with cute. CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, at Somerset House, 25 Jan - 14 Apr 2024. Principal Partner: Sanrio Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series presenter - Laurent John

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 repetition, suggesting the idea of a curse or malediction. Resisting the idea that one hostile voice can speak for the many, Prem explores how political rhetoric can speak on behalf of others, and take possession of bodies at a distance. Composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson, who has composed the sound across the podcast series, considers the boundaries between thought and speech, looking at how recorded speech and text can intertwine. Felicia’s work with voice plays with space, distance and found sound, inviting the everyday into her recordings. In this episode, she discusses the role the voice plays within her work, the writers who live within her and how the recorded voice can be slippery and shapeshifting. Alleus by Prem Sahib was co-commissioned and presented by the Roberts Institute of Art and Somerset House Studios as part of Assembly, 2024. Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest. In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series Composer - Felicia Atkinson Mix - Harry Murdoch Assembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

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. Vivienne's sound work often centres around the voice, both her own and those of small choral ensembles. For their piece for Assembly they are drawing on the voice of the harp as a symbol of resistance within the history of British colonialism. The work will be performed by Northern Irish harpist Úna Monaghan alongside a mechanised harp created by Vivienne, who will together interpret a text score. Helen Cammock works across film, printmaking, performance and writing. Her work explores the role of the voice within the creation and maintenance of power structures as well as how the communal voice can subvert the dominant narratives of history. Here Helen unpacks how her work with communal voice has interrogated the idea of the voice as a site of resistance and the body as resilience. Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest. In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series Composer - Felicia Atkinson Mix - Harry Murdoch Assembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

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, the renowned vocal artist and composer Joan La Barbara. Elaine’s vocal work looks at ways of speaking beyond language and explores moments of historical injustice through vocalisation and movement. In her piece for Assembly, 'These Cost The Earth', she explores the dynamics of waste consumerism, in particular the environmental and human impact of the clothes we send to landfill. She uses the Chairman’s Staircase in the New Wing at Somerset House as the site for a choreographed piece which articulates this destructive cycle, giving life to old clothes and evoking the journeys they have been on. The groundbreaking vocalist Joan La Barbara is one of the first artists to play with extended vocal technique, a technique which uses the voice as a sound producing instrument. As a performer she has worked with Cage, Feldman, Reich and Glass and as a composer and improviser she has been writing her own material since the 1970s. As one of the early pioneers of this form of vocal experimentation, we hear as Joan unpacks how she developed her instrument, her work with imaginary language and the idea of super presence in relation to performance. Not Strictly Speaking Series The voice is the first sound we encounter and the first instrument we learn to play, we are subject to the disembodied voice of politicians while the communal voice is raised in protest. In conjunction with this year’s Assembly at Somerset House, this 3 part podcast series explores different manifestations of the voice and how it informs our ways of thinking. Each episode follows one artist featured in the 2024 programme, as they unpack their work with the voice in dialogue with another artist. Vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener is joined by the pioneer of extended vocal technique Joan La Barbara to explore the voice as an instrument, looking at how the human voice can channel meaning without words. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies alongside composer Felicia Atkinson on the mercurial nature of recording, while the vocal work of sound artist Vivienne Griffin is placed in dialogue with artist Helen Cammock on the concept of the voice as a site of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French composer and sound artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions for each episode. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series Composer - Felicia Atkinson Mix - Harry Murdoch Assembly was supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.

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 looks at how the human voice can extend through objects and lay bare the inequities of global supply chains. Artist Prem Sahib plays with the shape shifting nature of political speech and its potential to inhabit other bodies, while sound artist Vivienne Griffin shares research centred on the concept of the harp as a voice of resistance. The sound for the series is composed by French artist Felicia Atkinson who crafts a series of bespoke sound commissions in response to the theme. Assembly is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, John S Cohen Foundation, Kitmapper, The Wire Magazine and Goethe Institute London.