n-Space Fellowship Open Call: London-based Fellows

The n-Space fellowship is an 18-month programme for a cross-disciplinary cohort of practitioners. Extending the Studios’ artist-led, community-driven ethos, the fellowship connects artists, academics, designers, and technologists – bringing together practitioners from different fields to support new thinking, collaborative research and early-stage ideas.

This fellowship convenes a dynamic cohort of researchers and practitioners who are reimagining sociotechnical systems through hybrid, experimental, and cross-disciplinary approaches. Together, the cohort will be supported, individually and collectively, to explore methods, tools, and participatory processes that question dominant ways of producing knowledge and intervene critically in technology discourse. We are looking for propositions on how we might organise and imagine alternative futures in art, technology, and society. We believe these futures can only be built together, and welcome applicants who see collaboration as central to their practice.

n-Space fellows are part of the wider Somerset House Studios community, which consists of 70+ artists at any one time. Somerset House Studios is a space for experimentation, connecting artists, makers and thinkers with audiences. The Studios supports artists across disciplines to push bold ideas, engage with urgent issues and experiment with new technologies. We expect all Studios residents to actively engage with the community by:

• Using the studio as their primary workspace, committing to being present a minimum of two days per week.
• Being open to connecting with others in the Studios community.
• Being open to participating in internal talks, salons, and surgeries.
• Being open to contributing ideas to internal and public-facing programmes.
• At the start of the fellowship, we work with each resident to set goals and explore how they can contribute to the community in a way that feels right for them.

Fellows are expected to actively participate in the programme and be at Somerset House Studios at least two days a week for the duration of the fellowship, with one of those days being the Friday in-person sessions running fortnightly from 11 am - 4 pm from 12 April –18 June and 4 October –10 December 2027.

Fellows are expected to be able to attend c.80% of the programme sessions, in-person when possible, but we understand there will need to be some flexibility around existing commitments and other work.

It is expected that Fellows will use n-Space as their primary workspace a minimum of two days a week, in order to get the full benefit of being based at Somerset House Studios and part of this cohort. Fellows will have 24/7 access to n-Space and are free to use n-Space for working on other projects during the programme.

The 18-month programme runs through cycles, combining design-led sessions with artist mentoring, followed by a consolidation phase and final presentation. The cohort will be supported, individually and collectively, to explore methods, tools, and participatory processes that question dominant ways of producing knowledge and intervene critically in technology discourse.

• April 2027: Fellowship commences
• April-June 2027: Creative Computing Institute (CCI) lead fortnightly collaborative, in-person workshops focused on interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and experimental design methods, facilitated by researchers at the Experimental Infrastructures research hub. Held on Fridays.
• May 2027: n-Space community welcome event at Somerset House Studios
• July-September 2027: Fortnightly Artist mentor sessions (Hybrid)
• October 2027: n-Space open studio for wider Somerset House Studios community
• October-December 2027: Fortnightly in-person CCI sessions, held on Fridays
• January-March 2028: Fortnightly Artist mentor sessions (Hybrid)
• April-August 2028: Crits, adjustment and consolidation
• September 2028: Final presentation. Fellowship concludes.

Who are the Artist mentors on the fellowship?

The Artist mentors are Stephanie Dinkins, Constant Dullaart, and Somerset House Studios artists Gary Zhexi Zhang and Xin Liu.

Stephanie Dinkins is a transdisciplinary artist exploring the intersections of emerging technology, artificial intelligence, and collective storytelling. Through participatory installations, dialogue with large language models, and grassroots data ecosystems, she challenges standard paradigms of tech development in favor of equitable, care-centered digital futures. Dinkins holds the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University, is a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow and Lincoln Center Collider Fellow, and was the inaugural recipient of the LG-Guggenheim Award. She was recognized on the TIME100 AI list and has exhibited globally, including at the Guggenheim, the New Museum, and ZKM Karlsruhe.

Constant Dullaart (b. 1979, the Netherlands) is an artist whose practice examines how social and cultural values are embedded in tools, platforms and technologies. Working across installation, software, online environments and institutional forms, he creates an enjoyable friction between the manual and the automated, the real and the artificial, and the contemporary and the obsolete. His work critically engages the infrastructures and power structures shaping life online, including social media, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Dullaart lives and works between Amsterdam and Berlin and is professor of Networked Materialities at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg. He also runs the artist-led platform common.garden and the online exhibition foundation distant.gallery. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at MCA Chicago, Whitechapel Gallery, ZKM Karlsruhe, the Victoria and Albert Museum and MAAT Lisbon. In 2015 he received the Prix Net-Art from Rhizome, TASML and Chronus Art Center

Gary Zhexi Zhang is a Somerset House Studios artist and writer, whose work draws connections between cosmology, technology and economy. His recent work examines how geopolitical imagination is shaped and mediated. He recently edited a book about finance and time, Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023). In 2026, Zhang leads a programme at TBA21-Academy researching West Mediterranean climate futures. He is currently writing a book about technoculture in a multipolar world, under contract with Berggruen Press

Xin Liu is a Somerset House Studios artist and engineer. Her practice works within the entropic aftermath of scientific and industrial ambition, foregrounding exhaust as a generative state: rocket fragments falling back to Earth; cryogenic vessels suspending organic matter; genomic code rendered as unreadable scripture; plastics dissolving under enzymatic digestion; satellites logging their own obsolescence. Her work operates across material and algorithmic systems. On the material level, she traces how matter is extracted, transformed, and degraded through processes of accumulation, decay, and redistribution. In parallel, she develops computational systems that enact these dynamics algorithmically, generating patterns of growth, erosion, and emergence through local rules and distributed interactions. Across both domains, Liu treats matter and computation as continuous substrates through which metabolic processes unfold.

Fellows will have access to a shared £30k R&D fund that can be used to support projects and research that emerge from n-Space. Fellows will produce at least one research output during the fellowship for the final n-Space presentation in September 2028. This output is not expected to be a finished artwork but could take the form of a prototype, software, model, writing, process-based work, project or research proposals, etc.

Six cross-disciplinary practitioners will join the n-Space Fellowship at Somerset House Studios. Five of the fellows will be London-based, with one selected through a dedicated open call in partnership with the National Arts Council, Singapore.

n-Space is a shared workspace at Somerset House Studios offering desk and meeting space with a small amount of storage. There are wider facilities available at Somerset House Studios, including a rehearsal space, recording studio (engineer can be provided at cost), and meeting space. Access to Makerversity workshops and facilities can also be accommodated (inductions and an allocation of workshop time will be allocated on a case-by-case basis).

A curated event every c.6 months (September 2027, March 2028, September 2028 tbc) will provide an accessible entry point for audiences to engage with ideas emerging from n-Space, increasing public engagement with innovative research.

Applications will be reviewed against the specific opportunity criteria by a selection panel consisting of:

• Marie McPartlin, Director, Somerset House Studios
• Linda Rocco, PhD, Curator (Arts & Technology), Somerset House Studios
• Murad Khan, Course leader and Senior Lecturer, Creative Computing Institute
• Constant Dullaart, artist and professor of Networked Materialities at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg
• Ruby Justice Thelot, designer, cyberethnographer and professor of Design and Media Theory at NYU

We are looking for:

• An interdisciplinary cohort representing a diversity of backgrounds - a maximum of 3 fellows will be artists.
• A dynamic group who are enthusiastic about the brief, who understand the programme is an experiment and are happy to enter into it in that spirit.
• Participants with a clear interest in and engagement with technological questions — whether through their practice, research, or critical inquiry.
• Those not in full-time education or PhD programmes.
• A maximum of 1 participant can be a member or alumni or an existing partner programme.
• If a collective, a willingness to nominate a maximum of two individuals to participate as one fellow, though please note the fee available is the same

Somerset House Studios is a space for experimentation in the centre of London connecting artists, makers and thinkers with audiences. The Studios supports artists across disciplines to push bold ideas, engage with urgent issues and experiment with new technologies. At the heart of Somerset House, the home of cultural innovators, up to 70 artists are resident at any one time for a period of between one and seven years, with a number of shorter term national and international residency programmes running alongside. The Studios develops ambitious cross disciplinary projects and creative collaborations on a range of scales, and powers Channel, Somerset House’s online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.

UAL's Creative Computing Institute (CCI) Experimental Infrastructures is a UAL research hub reorienting investigative methods and computational practices to generate insights and interventions into emerging sociotechnical systems. We develop auditable forms of practice-led design research that interrogate the micro and macroscalar dynamics of more-than-computational infrastructures. From explorations of the materiality and ecological impact of infrastructure, to the cognitive models we develop in their wake (HAIID) we develop interfaces, installations, diagrams and prototypes that lead to public forms of knowledge dissemination..

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a radical arts organisation situated in the North of England, working globally. We curate experiences, commission and incubate new art, cinema and sound, often through collaborations with emerging technology and science. AND are embarking on a two year curatorial partnership with SODA at Manchester Metropolitan University. As the first of its kind at the University, the creative partnership will produce a programme of public facing events and exhibitions that reflect AND’s unexpected and radically disruptive curatorial style.

National Arts Council, Singapore is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth that champions the arts in Singapore. The Council promotes artistic excellence by providing diverse opportunities for artists and arts organisations while expanding access for audiences to appreciate the impact of the arts in enriching lives. By working closely with the arts community and partners, the Council seeks to build a connected society, creative economy and distinctive city through the arts.

For the second fellowship cohort, six cross-disciplinary practitioners will join n-Space at Somerset House Studios. Five of the fellows will be London-based, with one selected through a dedicated open call in partnership with the National Arts Council, Singapore.

Yes, duos and collectives can apply, but would need to split the fee for participation. Collectives will need to appoint up to two representatives to participate in the fellowship.

We are committed to making our opportunities as accessible and user-friendly as we can as part of our ongoing work to welcome and encourage those facing barriers. We can contribute up to £200 towards a fee for an Access Support Worker for those who need support to complete the Response Proposal. Applicants can submit applications in written, audio or video format. Please contact harry.leek@somersethouse.org.uk if you would like to discuss how we can help, or if you would like to receive this information in a more accessible format for you.

Invited fellows will be provided with an access document at the start of the programme to let us know what you need to fully participate in the programme, including communication methods and engagement in both digital and real-life elements. n-Space is a shared space on the mid-basement of the New Wing of Somerset House and is accessible via lift access. There is an access budget to support reasonable adjustments to assist with access requirements for this programme, and we will work with individuals to understand their specific needs.