In 2020, Serpentine launched the first ever edition of Future Art Ecosystems. That volume of the annual strategic briefing began with a mapping of the field of art and advanced technologies with a view to support the development of fellow public sector organisations working in this field. Since then, the project has grown significantly into a community of artists, technologists, policymakers, researchers and fellow organisations while impacting our own strategic vision. In 2022, Serpentine implemented the 'UX of Art', a concept developed in Future Art Ecosystems 2: Art x Metaverse that has been part of an audience-centred transformation of the way we develop and platform our work from education to exhibitions.
The briefings also support Serpentine Arts Technologies ongoing commitment to champion, support and produce work with artists whose work impacts how society understands and uses the technologies of the future. In 2024, the release of Future Art Ecosystems 4: Art x Public AI (FAE4) coincided with Serpentine's year of AI and the exhibition of Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive that was followed by Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst: The Call, the first major UK exhibition by the artists and musicians who developed new protocols and materials for the creation of choral AI models that also resulted in a Choral Data 'Trust' Experiment that was first proposed in FAE4. In 2025, Future Art Ecosystems 5: Art x Creative R&D coincides with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley's most ambitious public exhibition to date: a new collaborative video game, exhibition and R&D project that interrogates the civic potential of video game technologies. This is being supported by the Future Art Ecosystems team to ensure that the Creative R&D that forms part of the project is enabled and shared with the sector and beyond.
FAE5 would not have been possible without Artdao, Nicholas Houde, Lina Martin-Chan, Jack Murray-Brown, William Kherbek, Anja Yenken, and Roxy Zeiher. We also thank all of the artists, curators, technologists, policymakers, producers and researchers who contributed their time and expertise to the development of FAE5.
We would like to offer our continued gratitude to Bloomberg Philanthropies, in particular to our Chairman Michael R. Bloomberg, Patti Harris, and Jemma Read, for partnering with us on Serpentine's Bloomberg Connects App, which enables us to extend our audience reach.
The Serpentine International Council is an extraordinary group of individuals who provide ongoing and important assistance to enable us to deliver our ambitious Art, Architecture, Civic, Ecologies, Education, Live, and Technology Programmes. We are also sincerely appreciative for the support from the Corporate Members, the Americas Foundation, Patrons and Future Contemporaries of Serpentine.
The public funding Serpentine receives from Arts Council England provides an essential contribution to our work and we are grateful for their continued support.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategic Lead, Tommie Introna, R&D Producer and Kay Watson, Head of Arts Technologies for steering and leading FAE5. We would also like to thank the entire Serpentine Arts Technologies team: Tamar Clarke-Brown, Eva Jäger, Vi Trinh, and Ruth Waters.
Hans Ulrich Obrist and Bettina Korek London, 2025