LONDON.- Serpentine is presenting processing… an open-access archive display, sharing the experimental methodologies and creative research and development (R&D) that has shaped its pioneering work at the intersection of art and advanced technologies. The display is presented in the Education Space, Serpentine South, from 20 July to 6 September 2026.
This summer, Serpentine’s Education Space has been transformed into an active archive, listening room and research space. This display marks a significant moment in the preservation and activation of Serpentine’s pioneering work with art and advanced technologies - which today includes artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and game engines.
processing… takes its name from the familiar message shown during an in-progress computation, evoking a state of continual activity and change. Bringing together audio recordings, photographs, publications, digital commissions and other materials from across Serpentine’s art and advanced technologies programming, the display reflects ongoing processes of exchange and experimentation.
The display references early exhibitions such as The Video Show (1975), a festival of independent video, and Take Me [I'm Yours] (1995), featuring Absolut Access, an early internet-based installation, alongside selected editions of the multi-disciplinary Serpentine Marathons (89Plus (2013), GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! (2017) and Work (2018), which explored and anticipated timely questions such as the impact of networked society, AI, and automation, and share Serpentine’s initial forays and dialogue with technology.
Bettina Korek, CEO, Serpentine, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine, say: “For over a decade, Serpentine has worked at the frontier of art and advanced technologies, not only exhibiting this work but pioneering how institutions, artists and society engage with it. processing... reflects on the achievements of this innovative research. As these technologies reshape culture and civic life, understanding where we have been has never been more important to imagining where we go next. This display is both a reflection and a beginning: we will soon announce a new initiative to support the artists defining this field's future.”
Originally founded by Ben Vickers, the gallery’s now dedicated Serpentine’s Arts Technologies department has since established a sustained and long-term commitment to exploring the intersection of art and advanced technologies. Commencing with its first online commission Cecile B Evans’ AGNES (2014), a benevolent spambot, alongside Ian Cheng’s two-part exhibition BOB (2018) and Emissaries (2018) exploring artificial life and consciousness. Through to major recent commissions namely, Gabriel Massan Third World: The Bottom Dimension (2023), and Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley’s, The Delusion (2025). As well as providing sector guidance and organisational innovation through the Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) publications.
Reconfiguring many times over its history, the department maintains a recursive sensibility that acknowledges the critical role of the past in shaping the future. In recognition of this, the display will grow as further materials and reflections are processed alongside our audiences over the summer.
Visitors are invited to begin their journey at the computer terminal and explore the forthcoming Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) website; Serpentine’s initiative to support organisational innovation in the arts, which focuses on new cultural and institutional models for art and advanced technologies.
An intervention by Artdao, in collaboration with writer Henry Bruce-Jones will transform participants’ digital journeys into a personalised, receipt-style printout. Part data-poem, part divination, this printout can guide the rest of their experience or contribute to a growing archive of audience-generated materials.
Alternatively, visitors can gather materials from the archive unit; a mobile framework temporarily tethered to the gallery through suspended cables. The unit is fabricated from clear and blue-light-tinted Perspex with interchangeable mirrored facias reflecting views of the surrounding park.
Visitors can explore these materials; publications, dedicated readers and ephemera, at the communal table while listening to a curated playlist of archival recordings. Here, selected projects are also accessible on mobile through QR codes, and the department’s latest commission; Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley's digital game I DIDN’T REALISE YOU THOUGHT LIKE THAT (2026) on iPads.
processing… is the first public programme of Activating Serpentine’s Archive, an ongoing initiative supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Dedicated to preserving and sharing Serpentine’s archive and institutional memory, the initiative enables new modes of audience access, future-oriented research and keeps the archive open to new questions.
The Serpentine’s Arts Technologies department was founded by Ben Vickers (Serpentine CTO, 2013-20). Its establishment was critical in shaping and cementing the gallery’s present-day commitments and pioneering work at the intersection of art and advanced technologies. For over a decade, the department has championed artist-led experimentation through groundbreaking commissions, experimental cultural projects, and research.
Building on this legacy, today’s team has expanded to enable a sustained and increasingly ambitious programme of artist-led commissions, creative research and development (R&D), and collaborative projects supporting an unwavering commitment to the continued exploration of this discipline.
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 world-building and critical inquiry. Working with technology in real time, the department asks and tests the urgent questions of our era.
