Somerset House Studios resident

Superflux

Critically acclaimed art and design studio imagining plural futures at the intersections of climate crisis, technology and more-than-human politics.

Somerset House Studios

New Wing

We live in extraordinary times, concurrently breathtaking and deeply precarious. Anab Jain and Jon Ardern co-founded the vanguard laboratory, design and film studio Superflux to parse uncertainties around our shared futures. From climate change and synthetic biology to the unprecedented power of algorithmic surveillance and the emergence of artificial intelligence, Superflux explores some of the biggest challenges of our times; investigating the potential and unintended consequences of these challenges.

Mitigation of Shock, Singapore, Superflux, 2019. ArtScience Museum, Singapore

Superflux’s past and current projects include Drone Aviary, a film that reveals fleeting glimpses of the city from the perspective of drones, Mitigation of Shock, a highly ambitious immersive experiment in living with climate change-induced food insecurity. Trigger Warning, a fast-paced journey through a city of memes that embodies our escalating culture clash in the digital age. These tangible and provocative experiences not only transport people into possible futures by emotionally connecting to future consequences but also influence behaviour and decision-making in the present.

A glimpse of the immersive installation ‘Mitigation of Shock’ conceived by Superflux and presented at CCCB.

“Mitigation of Shock will become a reference piece in the coming years, as the art world catches up with the physical universe.”

Julian Oliver, critical engineer and artist.

To date, Superflux has partnered and produced commissions for the V&A Museum, Google AI, DeepMind, Cabinet Office UK, United Nations Development Program, and Red Cross. Their work has been exhibited at MoMA New York, National Museum of China, Vitra Design Museum, Ars Electronica, V&A, Design Museum London, CCCB Barcelona and ArtScience Museum Singapore.

Anab Jain’s TED Talk

During their residency, Superflux has developed a series of new projects and artworks. The biggest one being Mitigation of Shock. For this project, they built an entire future apartment situated in the context of climate change and its consequences on food security. People could step inside this family home and directly experience for themselves what the restrictions of this future might feel like. Instead of leaving visitors scared and unprepared by the challenges of this world, Superflux shared methods and tools for not only surviving but thriving there. The work has been shown at the landmark exhibition ‘After The End of The World’ at the Centre for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona and at Singapore’s Bicentennial show 2219: Futures Imagined at the Arts Science Museum. Most recently, Superflux was awarded the prestigious European HORIZON 2020 grant in collaboration with several European Universities and organisations to develop large scale experiments that highlight how the arts can contribute to addressing climate change and associated effects.

“Trigger Warning by Superflux is an astonishing piece that captures the dizzying reality of the post-truth world we now live within with frightening accuracy.”

Honor Harger, Executive Director, Arts Science Museum, Singapore.