Neal White

Watching the “Fire-watchers” followed a day exploring Londons edge-lands, marshes and tidal estuary at Erith. This fire performance and bonfire event in Bexley, last Saturday, at Hurst Community Centre was commissioned by Three Rivers Bexley, the bonfire sculpture by artist Tom James was created with local Scouts, marking the end of the Night Visions Festival. Thanks to @scottwburrell and folks for the invitation to linger.

Reflecting on the recent success of the Soil Assembly #3. A couple of weeks on and the quote below says it all - a huge undertaking - wonderfully supported by @kochibiennale team led by Mario D’Souza. “The four-day Soil Assembly conference was packed with talks, film screenings and performances, reframing soil not just as material but as collaborator and teacher. Open assemblies, keynotes, and screenings explored regenerative practices and hydro-politics, transforming the Pavilion into a laboratory of collective imagination for a different, eco-sensitive future.”  Kochi Muziris Biennale - Editorial Team A huge thanks to my colleagues Meena Vari, Ewen Chardronnet, Maya Minder - and all of the speakers for their presentations and to our workshop leads - Sonal Jain, Dharmendra Prasad of @angaartcollective , and Forgotten Greens, for their fascinating workshops. We look forward to greeting you at a one of the trans local future Soil Assembly events situated across the EU culminating in Soil Assembly #4 in Berlin in January 2027 - for more information on the next 12 months activities, follow us @soilassembly

I have just returned from the amazing Kochi Muziris Biennale @kochibiennale where we have been coordinating Soil Assembly #3. @soilassembly . More available there… As part of our thread exploring perspectives on Biodiversity, we invited Sonal Jain to hold a deep field workshop. Following some initial reconnaissance, the participants gathered at Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary - a short ferry ride from Fort Kochi. Anahata Nada (Unstruck Sound). The workshop invited participants to listen beyond the audible, tuning into breath, rhythm, and the subtle soundscapes of the mangroves. Surrounded by birds, water, and wind, sound became a way of sensing place rather than performing it. As we live through the sixth mass extinction, listening deeply emerges as a radical act. Through somatic, cognitive, and conceptual practices, participants explored connections with the more-than-human world, co-creating a shared space rooted in embodied attention and presence. Thanks to all those who made it, we enjoyed the critical excursion.

Call for PhD Applicants: Mapping Creative R&D in Art-Technology Ecosystems An AHRC Funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at University of Westminster with Serpentine Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) innovation hub. Supervised by Dr Tony Bennett (Westminster - Media & Comms), Victoria Ivanova - Serpentine FAE @vivanova101 and Neal White - Artist & Professor @uow_cream . /study/postgraduate/research-degrees/studentships/ahrc-doctoral-landscape-award/mapping-creative-rd-in-art-technology-ecosystems

We are delighted to announce that Soil Assembly 3 will return to the Kochi Muziris Biennale as part of its official programme in January 2026. Outline schedule is online with a full detailed programme of speakers, workshops and events to follow. You can also find out more about previous iterations there. With thanks to @kochibiennale and our best wishes for the opening. On behalf of Groundmakers - coordinators of @soilassembly @varimeena @e.chardronnet @gasthaus_kitchenlab @officeofexperiments Supported by @uow_cream

Applications are invited for University of Westminster QHT Doctoral Studentships, deadline Feb 6th. Link for more info in bio and at t.ly/zBdNO. Westminster School of Arts is open to PhD projects that explore wide-ranging issues. You can find out more about our research expertise at cream.ac.uk. For questions please email Ozlem Koksal: [email protected].

Full proceedings of the third chapter of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes: The British East India Company on Trial that took place April 5-6 at Ambika P3 in London, are now available on Serpentine's Youtube channel. Link in bio or: /@SerpentineGalleriesUK /videos @dsouzaradha @luciapietroiusti_ @serpentineuk @framerframed @ldc.lawdevconflict @ambika_p3 @uniwestminster @creativescots @immaireland @createcollaborativearts @jessicasweidan @you_found_isobel @daisymgould @paul_kuipers_at_work @studio_remcovanbladel @officeofexperiments @mkispert @roshinikempadoo Photos and videos by @rubenhamelink

Amazing to see so many of Tina’s @maudbankhead seen and unseen sculptures, prints and video works, as part of Sean Lynch’s @seanlynch31 ‘Dreamtime Ireland’ project at Visual in Carlow Ireland. @visual_carlow Slide # 1 is my time lapse of a 24 hr cctv time lapse of a work made with a 1 tonne sphere of bitumen placed in a disused pub in 1999 - Unseen, In Dublin 2025 (2 channel video from unseen cctv). Other works include; Peckham Pothole 2025 (Edition of 5 prints), A Horses Tale 2025 (Victorian horse trough and bitumen), Peckham Pothole 2004 (Acrylic block, mirrored steel and walnut plinth). Meanwhile… an original print (2004) is now also on show in Limerick City Gallery of Art as part of their new show of their collection. Dreamtime Ireland is a terrific project and I would say an important exhibition, that includes many extraordinary historic and contemporary pieces- with humour and fiercely intelligent eye by Sean working alongside Ben Stafford. And it is beautifully executed, and situated in a really impressive museum space that is worth a visit alone, I would highly recommend dropping by. It’s on until the end of August.

Image; The Sculpture - Vacant State, exhibition view between 6, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1971. Courtesy Barbara Steveni. I will be speaking at my old friend Barbara Steveni exhibition this Friday at Modern Art Oxford. I look forward to discussing our friendship, with the panel and will share some of my reflections on the Open Brief and APG / John Latham that led to my involvement in O+I and later establishing the Incidental Unit with Tina O’Connell, Gareth Bell Jones and Marsha Bradfield. The Sculpture: Revisiting the “Open Brief” 30 May 2025 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Free, no booking necessary

Join us at the final week of the CICC at @ambika_p3 , featuring: Tue 22 April 2–5pm: Imagining Otherwise: Decolonial study group (fully booked) Wed 23 April 2–5pm: Workshop: How Did We Get Here? Zine Making with Incidental Unit Thu 24 April 1–6pm: CICC exhibition, featuring extracts from the three London cases against the British East India Company Thu 24 April 6–9pm: Book Launch: Decolonizing Knowledge, edited by Radha D'Souza and Sunera Thobani Link to full info in bio or at t.ly/mbbGu. Many thanks to all participants and visitors who contributed to last week's programme, including @system.of.systems , @nadineelenany , @pollardingrid , @profcorinnefowler , @futureverything , @theotherwindrush and many others! @dsouzaradha @jonas_staal @serpentineuk @ldc.lawdevconflict @officeofexperiments @roshinikempadoo @framerframed @gloriousmuttley @chrisillena @incidental_unit Photos by @mkispert , @pedrourano , @roshinikempadoo , @slvrfshmetalwlf and Susan Ribeiro.

Delighted to share our event Unsensed: More than Human Rights, this week at CICC School with Lucy Hollitt @itsownlight Together we explored how artists, philosophers and arts organisations work internationally with more than human rights and address anthropogenic interference in ecologies from the land to the sea. An emerging partnership with @futureverything With thanks for contributions from barrister and environmental guardian Paul Powlesland, Alice Smits, Director @zone2source Artist, writer and coordinator of Bergen Assembly, Ravi Agarwal @ravig64 , artist and spiritual guide. Patricia Dominguez, and reflecting on Haudenosaunee teachings with Keith Williams. Thanks to all who came! CICC School is coordinated by Ecological Futurism @uow_cream and is part of the project - The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes by Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal. It’s been an amazing journey over the last two years. For more see @serpentineuk @framerframed We look forward to continuing to build solidarity with discussion at the next Soil Assembly #2 - Tinku uku Pachu in Ecuador in May. @soilassembly

Last week's CICC School saw a series of talks, screenings, workshops, walking tours and performances. Many thanks to all participants and visitors who helped make this a week of incredibly inspiring and provocative encounters, including @sarabdelgalil , @more.than.non.human , @ros_l_gray , @ramonveraherrera , @daisymgould , @guzmanvisualdiary , @johnimonlydancingagain and many others! This week's programme at @ambika_p3 features: Tue 15 April 6–8pm System of Systems presents: What is Rwanda? In conversation with Nadine El-Enany and Daniel Trilling Wed 16 April 6–8pm Discussion – Ingrid Pollard and Corinne Fowler: Colonial Countryside: Empire, Country Houses and Landscape Thu 17 April 2–5pm Workshop – Deep Field and Future Everything: Unsensed: More Than Human Rights Thu 17 April 6–8pm Panel – Indian Indenture: Histories, Continuities, with Diamond Ashiagbor, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, Gitanjali Pyndiah, chaired by Kingsley Abbott Concurrently, the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes exhibition will be open Thursday – Sunday, 1–6pm. @dsouzaradha @jonas_staal @serpentineuk @ldc.lawdevconflict @officeofexperiments @roshinikempadoo @framerframed @iniva_arts @system.of.systems @nadineelenany @pollardingrid @profcorinnefowler @futureverything @theotherwindrush Link to full info in bio or at t.ly/mbbGu. Photos by Matthias Kispert and Kin Chui.