This October we invite you to come and spend time with SAFE; a collection of ten new speculative works by our team and our collaborators, that come together in an immersive showcase of collaborative ambition in the face of uncertainty.

Ten newly commissioned speculative works by Superflux and collaborators offer an imaginative perspective on large-scale engineering projects underway around the world.

New Wing, Somerset House, London | 21 October – 1 November | Open Daily 10:00 – 18:00

www.eventbrite.com/safe | www.superflux.in | instagram.com/superfluxstudio

This October we invite you to come and spend time with SAFE; a collection of ten new speculative works by our team and our collaborators, that come together in an immersive showcase of collaborative ambition in the face of uncertainty.

About SAFE

SAFE draws upon ten global research and infrastructure projects funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Now in its tenth year, Lloyd’s Register Foundation has long supported pioneering research that engineers safer worlds. 

Infrastructure projects that tackle issues on a systems level often remain hidden from plain sight for what they unearth muddies dominant narratives that separate and divide. The systems and processes that these ten projects grapple with are tangled and interdependent.

Take the perilous Bangladesh fishing industry where economic systems, weather systems, education, employment, resources, mortality and, consequently, safety are deeply interconnected. What is revealed is that safety is a systemic issue, and at present, afforded to some over others. Safety however should be a fundamental right for all species within our planetary boundaries.

In SAFE we address the systems that prohibit that right, exposing breaks and blockages, and cast a poetic lens on the collectives who are engineering safer futures through the radical rerooting of complex systems.

The collection of works on view cover diverse thematic terrain, from the synergetic harvesting of rainwater in Mexico City to abundant seaweed farms thriving beneath the water surface; choreographed explosions and cryogenic testing of sea-based architectures in South Korea to shadow dances between physical worlds and their digital twins. 

To translate such specific and data heavy initiatives into evocative narratives involved a prolonged period of thick research. Before our artistic process could begin we had to analyse, synthesise and deeply understand each project – its implications and potential.

Working with a team of international experts on the ground we wanted to not only demonstrate the positive tangible opportunities granted by such initiatives, but enrich them with our own expertise, extending the reach of their potential into mythic worlds yet known. Through immersive storytelling we open up this dense research and imbue it with emotional reality, in doing so we invite our audience to truly feel the importance of such work.

Only on view for under two weeks, our process for SAFE was far from ‘light-touch’ so don’t expect a superficial overview of the ten chosen projects. And keep an eye out for further blog posts where we share a glimpse into our process and the imaginative thinking behind these pieces.

This richly complex and multi-layered immersion into safer futures proves a vital resource for our troubled times. 

For those in London between 21st October to Tuesday 1st November, we look forward to welcoming you to SAFE at Somerset House New Wing Entrance. Let’s explore safer futures together.

Press

For more information and interviews please contact: Anab Jain: anab@superflux.in or Nicola Ferrao at nicola@superflux.in.