The road to success is paved with inspirational quotes about failure.  But could failure be more productive than success? In this episode of The Process we step inside the community of designers on site at Makerversity in Somerset House to explore the role of mistakes in the design process.  Founding member Tom Stables talks to biomaterial designer Cassie Quinn, who makes sustainable sequins out of household waste. She shares stories of the mistakes that ended up being transformative to her practice.  He then sits down with performance artist and clown Julia Masli to talk about her latest Edinburgh show which is designed to go wrong, to learn how to fail more spectacularly.  The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work. Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist or curator as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up. Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Presenter - Tom Stables Series presenter - Laurent John

Tracing the legacy of Black British fashion with Andrew Ibi, Jazzie B & Martine Rose. The late 80s to the early 90s saw a Black cultural renaissance in Britain. Artists and designers like Sonia Boyce, Joe Casely-Hayford and Soul II Soul were breaking new ground across the arts and changing the landscape for Black creatives. While putting together The Missing Thread exhibition, co-curator Andrew Ibi (Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency), realised that despite its significance this era hasn’t been given its due. In this episode of the Process, Andrew rectifies that, tracing the thread back to a lost generation of Black creatives to explore how Black fashion arose from the club and the back room sewing machine rather than the catwalk. Andrew looks back at that time with Jazzie B, whose group Soul II Soul soundtracked the era, and with cutting edge designer Martine Rose, who has worked with everyone from Drake to Kendrick and Balenciaga. The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work. Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist or curator as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up. Credits Produced by Alannah Chance Presented by Andrew Ibi Series presenter is Laurent John Sound Design by Nick Ryan The Missing Thread is sponsored by Morgan Stanley

What if the way we're approaching the crisis is part of the crisis? We look at the effect our endless drive for productivity is having on the planet and how we’re intimately entangled with the natural world with Somerset House Studios artist Sam Williams on the invisible labour of the earthworm, poet Jason Allen-Paisant on tenderness in rural Jamaica, systems theorist Nafeez Ahmed on why the old systems are crumbling and artist Natalie Sharp on her love of ecosex. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of Being Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth? In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel Kacoutié With sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

How can the soft body challenge social hierarchies? We turn our gaze towards the soft life of the body and unpack new ways of thinking about embodiment in artistic practice with Somerset House studios artists Florence Peake on radical softness in somatics, choreographer and writer Dr Martin Hargreaves on the history of protest through softness in dance, Ilona Sagar on rendering bodies hard through architecture and disabled film maker Jameisha Prescod on the colonial history of black pain. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of Being Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth? In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel Kacoutié With sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

How can we make time free? We contemplate different ways of experiencing time beyond the linear, with Somerset House Studios artist Shenece Oretha on transforming time through the practice of listening, sociologist Judy Wajcman on unpicking progress from speed in the digital sphere and psychologist Dr Ruth Ogden on how our experience of time is relational and whether it’s possible to conceive of ‘free time’ in a modern world. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of Being Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth? In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis?  In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel Kacoutié With sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig  This episode includes the following sound works by Shenece Oretha: Conspiracy Listening Wholes at/Tribute Ah So It Go, Ah No So it Go, Go So! Who Can’t Hear Must Feel 

Our ways of working aren’t working. How can art offer new ways of being outside of the values of hustle culture?  We explore changing attitudes to work post-pandemic and re-evaluate the importance of rest as a creative space. We hear from Bayo Akomolafe about the fertile spaces of the cracks, Black Power Naps on rest as a radical act and we lie down to contemplate art in Somerset House with artist Raquel Meseguer Zafe, after her workshop for this year’s Hyper Functional Ultra Healthy programme. Soft Life: Experiments In New Ways of Being Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth? In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis? In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock. Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel Kacoutié With sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig 

A new limited series for the Somerset House Podcast Soft Life is part of a growing number of movements challenging the way we work. How can soft approaches in art help us rethink our relationship to time, the body and the earth?  In March 2020, the non-stop nature of our 24/7 world came to a stop. For many in the Western world, it allowed us a space to reconsider the way we value our time and with that our relationship to work. Now, amidst the strikes and the resignations, a new movement  is emerging called ‘Soft Life’. which seeks to sidestep the values of hustle culture for slowness and ease.  How can softness open up new ways of being in the world and create different types of value? Could it be a way of healing our relationship with the natural world at a point of crisis?   In this four-part series we take the idea of ‘soft life’ as a launch off point to explore alternative ideas around work, time, the body and ecology emanating from Somerset House and beyond. We talk to radical thinkers, artists and writers, who are carving out these new ways of being in the body, centring the soft and the in-between, finding space for rest and looking at ways of expanding time beyond the clock.   Soft Life is produced by Alannah Chance and Axel Kacoutié With sound by Axel Kacoutié and additional music by Ellen Zweig

Artist Leila Dear explores whether geometry could be a universal language  What do our attempts to communicate with extra-terrestrials say about us?  Jerwood artist in residence, Leila Dear uses geometry as a way of thinking about interdependence and non-human design.  In this episode of The Process she explores whether geometry could be used as a ‘Lingua Cosmica’, a universal language by which to communicate with other intelligences beyond earth.  Given the prevalence of geometric patterning within the natural world and the universal limitations of physics, could geometry provide a way of relating to other minds without preferencing our own?    She puts the idea to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI institute (the Search for Extra-terrestrial Life) who is sure we will find evidence of aliens within the next 20 years.  This led Leila to reflect on the other forms of mind we already share the earth with. She is joined by science writer Philip Ball to discuss how a better understanding of animal and plant intelligence might help us de-centre the human.     The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  Producer: Alannah Chance   Series Presenter: Laurent John   Theme music: Ka Baird   Additional music: Aylu (Mana Records) Lord Tusk  Mastered by: Nick Ryan   Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022   Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

The artist Libby Heaney spent many years as a quantum physicist researching the concept of quantum entanglement, the way objects can affect each other even when separated by vast distances, or what Einstein called ‘spooky action at a distance’.  It’s an idea that challenges our assumptions about the physical world and for Libby it offers up fertile ways of rethinking old hierarchies. In this podcast we take up this mystery and dance with it, seeing where metaphors of entanglement can take us. Firstly Libby talks to biologist Susanne Wedlich about slime and how this shape shifting substance can help us get closer to the quantum world. She then sits down with deep listener and dream expert IONE, the partner and lifelong collaborator of Deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros. IONE and Libby meditate on how a practice of quantum listening can entangle us with both the physical and the metaphysical world, including a connection beyond death. - Libby Heaney is a London based artist with a PhD in Quantum Physics, who works across moving image, performance, installation and physical media, usually combining these with advanced technologies such as machine learning, game engines & quantum computing - a new type of computer that processes information on particles following the weird laws of quantum physics.  Heaney is widely known as the first person to make art with quantum computers. Her artwork Ent-, commissioned by Light Art Space, 2022, has been exhibited across continents and received substantial international press in places like Der Welt, Wallpaper* and Spike Art.   Before retraining as an artist at Central St. Martins, London, Heaney completed a PhD in Quantum Information Science at the Uninversity of Leeds and led her own research at the University of Oxford, publishing around 20 papers on the topic of quantum entanglement. She won the HSBC and Intitute of Physics, UK, Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the year in 2008.  - The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.  Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.  Producer: Alannah Chance Series Presenter: Laurent John Theme music: Ka Baird Additional music: Pauline Oliveros and IONE, Aylu (Mana Records) Carmen Jaci and Irama Gema  Mastered by: Nick Ryan  Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022  Supported by The Rothschild Foundation 

Film maker Morgan Quaintance is interested in what AI can teach us about being human. For his commission for our digital platform Channel, he set out to explore divergent cultural attitudes to AI between the UK and Japan. But when he started putting out requests for interviews, he was met with a wall of silence.  Public institutions, AI developers, robotics companies and schools all seemed unwilling to reply and the film couldn't be made. Frustrated about the stonewalling he'd experienced, he started to think more about the process and what this says about the development of AI. Why was there such overwhelming silence from companies developing this technology? What does this say about some of the moral questions that go into its formation?  Morgan is joined by The Guardian’s tech journalist Alex Hern and AI artist Nouf Aljowaysir to try to find out.   Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer. His moving image work has been shown and exhibited widely at festivals and institutions including: MOMA, New York; Mcevoy Foundaton for the Arts, San Francisco; Konsthall C, Sweden; David Dale, Glasgow; European Media Art Festival, Germany; Alchemy Film and Arts Festival, Scotland. Over the past ten years, his critically incisive writings on contemporary art, aesthetics and their socio-political contexts, have featured in publications including Art Monthly, the Wire, and the Guardian, and helped shape the landscape of discourse and debate in the UK.   The Process The creative process is inspired by worlds beyond itself.  The Somerset House podcast series 'The Process' brings those worlds together, platforming the big conversations which go on to inspire new work.   Drawing on our creative community on site and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows one artist as they explore an idea from their practice to see where it ends up.  We hear their journey from the studio on, as they invite other thinkers to discuss an idea that has come out of a work in progress and help shape where it might go next.   Producer: Alannah Chance   Series Presenter: Laurent John   Theme music: Ka Baird   Additional music: Harry Murdoch    Mastered by: Nick Ryan   Produced as part of the Creators Programme 2022   Supported by The Rothschild Foundation