Get acquainted with Somerset House’s new digital platform, unearthing all things artistic process

Art centre Somerset House is taking its output further into the digital realm. Having in the past created the playful interactive toolkit Decentralise with its Young Producers collective – allowing users to draw with objects of Black British art – the institution is no stranger to finding new ways to connect more audiences with creativity. Now, launching a new online platform exploring art, ideas and the artistic process, Somerset House introduces Channel. The online space will present newly commissioned works from “artists who are defining the cultural zeitgeist”, a press release from Somerset House explains. It will also dive into the processes that drive them through documentaries, podcasts, talks, further interactive works and editorial content.

Some of the artists and creatives to feature in Channel’s rolling programme of content include menswear designer and choreographer Saul Nash, film curator, writer and founder of Shasha, Róisín Tapponi, and artist Rene Matić – who was featured in It’s Nice That’s 2020 edition of The Graduates with their exploration into the Skinhead movement. Kicking off the new programme at Channel is multimedia artist Sin Wai Kin, who has delivered its first commission: The Story Cycle.

Shot entirely in Somerset House, The Story Cycle is a short film rooted in Sin Wai Kin’s practice as an artist “who uses drag as a way to bring fantasy to life and to challenge identity, binary and objectification”, the release states. The film follows two clowns searching for their place among strange infrastructures in an increasingly hallucinatory space. Further artist commissions are to follow on the platform later this year.

Channel has also announced its Artists in Focus, a film series demystifying the creative practice by tracing it from original idea to final form. The first set of films will focus on Somerset House Studios residents Rene Matić, Saul Nash, Agnes Cameron and Sam Williams. Channel will also curate an evolving series of podcasts. Becoming home to the six-part podcast series The Process produced by Alannah Chance (which goes behind the scenes with Gary Zhexi Zhang, Anna Meredith and Tyreis Holder), the platform will also host Echoic Archive by Weyland McKenzie – a podcast all about the role of the artist in archiving.

From 8 September, an array of existing documentaries are available to stream on Channel, including titles such as We Are History: Race, Colonialism and Climate Change by Rob Akin. Meanwhile, Somerset House unveils its very own talk series, In Conversation, plus editorial content that engages with its artist commissions. The first editorial feature is an open letter by Imani Mason Jordan to Sin Wai Kin.