LONDON.- The Southbank Centre today announces further programming for the inaugural edition of Creative Intelligence, a brand new weekend-long takeover exploring the future of art, technology and creativity. The weekend is a highlight of the Southbank Centre’s 75th year, and celebrates the same spirit of innovation and curiosity which launched the 1951 Festival of Britain, the first chapter in the Southbank Centre’s story.
Creative Intelligence will take over the Southbank Centre’s iconic 11-acre site from Friday 11 – Sunday 13 September, transforming it into a playground of human imagination: an open and democratic space for learning, play and technological experimentation. The three day programme is packed with art, performance, music, and debate, alongside plenty of opportunities to get hands-on with creative tech. Centred on innovation and discovery for everyone, Creative Intelligence brings together artists, writers, experts and the public to explore creativity in an age where our understanding of both human and artificial intelligence is rapidly shifting.
The programme for Creative Intelligence, which is supported by UKRI, is structured across six interconnected programme strands. The first, Algorithmic Ecosystems, sees three major outdoor installations unfurl across the Southbank Centre site. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Pollinator Pathmaker blooms along the Riverside Terrace, whilst in the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler’s large-scale map work, Anatomy of an AI, sits alongside a mesmeric new soundscape by Katie Paterson, developed in collaboration with Mary Anne Hobbs.
The second strand, the Creative Intelligence Summit, is an event that brings together curators, makers, creatives, thinkers and experts to unpick some of the knottiest questions around how we live, how we work, and how we create, and how we want to move into the future. The Creative Intelligence Summit takes place on Friday 11 September in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and concludes with a Deep Listening Session from pioneering artist Holly Herndon.
Across Saturday 12 and Sunday 13, the Clore Ballroom hosts the third strand of programming: the Exploration Bazaar, a free, hands-on showcase curated and co-led by Justin Spooner and Professor Rose Luckin CBE. Representatives from Goldsmiths, the Royal College of Art, the University of the Arts London, and City St George’s present live experiments and public debates. Alongside this sit an array of interactive experiments from Google Arts & Culture, available for the public to engage, play, and learn.
Across the weekend, the fourth strand, Generative Spirit & Live Worlds presents dynamic and interactive artworks which explore new forms of presence. Artists including Julianknxx and Kevin Peter He exhibit works which ask how deeply human notions such as physical touch and heritage might be mediated through technology in the not-so-distant future. Elsewhere, Jeanette Winterson CBE and Jack Thorne will discuss the complex interplay between creativity and AI, and the issue of authorship in the age of generative technology. This strand concludes with the UK premiere of VIVE Arts and Atlas V's Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang, which opens on 9 September 2026 and runs to 3 January 2027.
Living Mythologies, the fifth strand, stretches across the site and the weekend, creating and navigating new worlds within the architecture of the Southbank Centre’s public spaces. Ayoung Kim, Andrew Thomas Huang, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, and Liam Young present immersive and innovative works which tackle world- and future-building, and ask how society might move together through uncertain futures.
The final strand is the Peckham Digital Takeover, which runs in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer throughout the duration of Creative Intelligence as a showcase and gathering spot for London’s grassroots creative computing community. The takeover includes workshops, interactive artworks, performances, live-coded music, robot combat, and a zine library. On Saturday night, the space will transform into an Algorave, with performances from AlgoRythms, Lady Ludd, MUSICxCODE, Ubeboobey (Annike Tan) and more.
Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, said: ‘Creative Intelligence captures the very essence of what the Southbank Centre aims to be in our 75th anniversary year: a democratic space where the public encounter radical ideas and new technologies. Just as the 1951 Festival of Britain used science, design and new technologies to imagine a brighter future, this event is for both the curious and the creative, bringing the public, technologists and creatives together to explore the future. We’re thrilled to partner with PACT to turn our site into a creative playground, leaping into the world-changing possibilities of the next 75 years.’
Keri Elmsly, Founder of PACT and Curator of Creative Intelligence, said: ‘As a global capital city, it is time for London to have a major annual festival and platform for future-facing artistic, cultural, and creative practices that drive and challenge technology - where human agency, embodiment, and process are center stage. The Southbank Centre was born of 'art for all' and built as a site of optimism and invention. Creative Intelligence is an experimental three-day takeover and public prototype for arts and technology where everyone is invited.’
UKRI Creative Industries Sector Champion Professor Christopher Smith said: ‘Creative Intelligence exemplifies the remarkable ingenuity, boldness and collaborative spirit of our creative industries, illustrating how art and technology can fuse harmoniously and productively to enrich the public experience of art.
“This is why UK Research and Innovation, with its record investment in creative industries R&D, is supporting the festival to showcase our creative industries’ remarkable performance and potential for innovation.’
Also part of Creative Intelligence weekend is Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang (9 September 2026 - 3 January 2027). Playing with Fire is a multisensory, mixed-reality concert charting the world-renowned pianist’s artistic journey and featuring a digital avatar of the artist performing within an immersive environment. Playing With Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang is produced by VIVE Arts and Atlas V, in collaboration with production partner Lightroom, and is supported by Steinway & Sons, the CNC (Centre National du Cinma et de l’image anime) and Pictanovo.
Creative Intelligence weekend joins a landmark 2026 season at the Southbank Centre. Channelling the founding spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain, a moment of national renewal and optimistic energy, the 75th anniversary season includes London Literature Festival (21 October - 1 November) curated by Dua Lipa, Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest (4 - 6 September) and Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery (until 18 October). The Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary also features a national programme of art, literature and music – aiming to reach one million people in over 40 towns and cities across all four nations of the UK.
