The Southbank Centre will launch Creative Intelligence, a three-day festival examining the intersection of art and technology, in September 2026.
The event runs from Friday, September 11 to Sunday, September 13 across the center’s 11-acre site in central London. Organizers describe it as a “playground of art, technology, and ideas,” bringing together artists, writers, technologists, and the public for installations, performances, talks, and hands-on experiments.
Artists and installations shaping the festival
Major works include Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Pollinator Pathmaker, an algorithmically designed garden that prioritizes pollinator species, and Anatomy of an AI System by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, a visual breakdown of the hidden labor and environmental costs behind artificial intelligence.
The festival opens with the Creative Intelligence Summit on September 11. Speakers include musician and AI researcher Holly Herndon, novelist Jeanette Winterson, and artist Sougwen Chung, whose work explores human-machine collaboration. The day concludes with a Deep Listening Session led by Herndon, a practice developed by composer Pauline Oliveros to heighten auditory awareness.
Other highlights include the Peckham Digital Takeover, which showcases London’s grassroots creative computing scene. The event features robot combat, live coding performances, and an Algorave—a party where music is generated in real time through algorithms.
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Why this festival stands out
London’s cultural calendar is already crowded, but Creative Intelligence carves out a distinct space. Unlike traditional art fairs or tech conferences, it treats art and technology as equal partners, not separate disciplines. The festival’s hands-on experiments and public workshops suggest a deliberate effort to move beyond passive observation, inviting visitors to engage with the ideas shaping digital creativity.
That approach mirrors the spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain, which used design and innovation to reimagine post-war society. Creative Intelligence seems to ask a similar question: How can art and technology help us handle an increasingly automated world?
The Southbank Centre’s location adds another layer. Situated along the Thames, the site is steps from the London Eye, Tate Modern, and Borough Market. The festival coincides with Playing With Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang, a mixed-reality concert experience running through January 2027, making it part of a broader cultural moment in the city.
Tickets and full programming details will be available on the Southbank Centre’s website. For now, the festival’s lineup suggests a rare opportunity to see how artists and technologists are redefining creativity—and what that might mean for the rest of us.
