Superflux to present SAFE, a collection of works exploring a safer world, opening this October.
SAFE brings together 10 projects, based on engineering and collaborative research trying to solve some of the world’s biggest safety challenges, to offer a glimpse of a safer future as a result of these interventions.
With SAFE, we are foregrounding the poetic potential of large-scale engineering and infrastructure projects from around the world, where people are collaborating to build a world where fewer lives are torn apart by the hand of fate. To paraphrase the thinking of the influential pacifist Dr. Ursula Franklin: safety is not just the absence of fear, but it’s also the absence of grief.
Anab Jain, co-founder, Superflux
A showcase conceived by Superflux (Somerset House Studios residents), SAFE is rooted in real-world test cases and near-future trends. From phone footage that highlights the overlooked death toll of global trade to video game simulations of food farms under the ocean, the showcase champions on-going projects that are making the world a better place, and shares tangible solutions from industry experts.
The collection of works was commissioned by Lloyd’s Register Foundation as part of their 10 year anniversary celebrations. Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a global charity with a unique social purpose engineering a safer world. The 10 Lloyd’s Register Foundation-funded projects that are featured in SAFE have harnessed science and engineering to provide innovative solutions to the world’s greatest safety challenges, from food scarcity and water infrastructure to big data and the future of automation.
As a distinct thematic journey across five intimate rooms, the showcase begins with a focus on real and perceived risks around technology, before moving to questions of environmental responsibility, and ending on an optimistic note by focusing on how practical ideas can tangibly change the future.
SAFE is a private showcase initiated by Superflux, and is independent of the official Somerset House Cultural Programme.
Tackling urgent threats – now
At the heart of SAFE is a concern for the needless loss of human life. From sea disasters to precarious working conditions, avoidable deaths and life-changing injuries are the reality for many around the world – and this will only intensify due to the climate crisis.
We wanted to start a conversation across a different set of timescales – from direct interventions, and present-day case studies to positive visions of the future. It’s our contention that truly transformative change requires action at all levels.
– Jon Ardern, co-founder, Superflux
Superflux, a design studio that has pioneered conversations around the role design plays in imagining new visions for the future, draws threads of connection that tie mythology and large-scale ideas to tangible changes that can transform people’s lives in a direct way. SAFE gives visitors a poetic glimpse into work that is often hidden from view – large-scale engineering, material innovation research, scientific advancement, collaborations where people are working to reduce risk to human life – essentially, making the world a safe place.
Rooted in 10 years of world-changing expertise
When Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a charity committed to engineering a safer world, wanted to celebrate their 10 year anniversary, they needed someone who could grapple with the complexities of their work, while also showing to the public how such complexity embodies poetry, resilience, imagination.
With a track-record of head-turning speculative design work, Superflux were the perfect fit. And for Superflux co-founders Anab Jain and Jon Ardern, they were immediately attracted by the rich scientific and engineering research the projects and the scale of impactful work being carried out. Driven by their research interests in climate change and resilient futures, this was an opportunity to team up with experts to tell world-changing stories they couldn’t pass up.
Safety is an often overlooked value. But as a multitude of crises threaten ways of life across the world, Superflux sought to offer a poetic glimpse into a series of long-term research projects and collaborated with Lloyd’s Register Foundation to make a selection from their extensive archive of projects.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a global charity that supports engineering, research, and skills to try and address some of the world’s biggest safety challenges and save lives all around the world. This collaboration with Superflux celebrates the impact we have had in the past 10 years, but also explores possible future worlds, how they are safer, and enables us to better understand the societal impact of our work.
David Reid, director of strategic communications, Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Pulling it all together wasn’t easy. The challenges centred around developing, conceptualising, and completing multiple projects simultaneously, a logistical task with required communication and collaboration with engineers, data scientists, and ethnographers from around the world.
The 10 Projects on view:
The Resilience Shift, film and physical model by Superflux, based on Mexico City Urban Water Resilience, Mexico
FISHSafe 2025, found footage montage by Superflux and poster, in partnership with the FISH Safety Foundation (FSF)
Seaweed Coalition, multi-screen film installation by Superflux, in partnership with Safe Seaweed Coalition
Engineering Fire Safety, photography by Justin Sullivan, in partnership Fire Safety Engineering Program at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Discovering Safety, robotic installation by Superflux, in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Data Centric Engineering, interactive installation by Superflux, in partnership with Alan Turing Institute
KOSORI, sound installation by Superflux and David Vélez, in partnership with The International Centre for Advanced Safety Studies (ICASS), South Korea
HiLo, multi channel film by Superflux, in partnership with HiLo
AAIP, film by Superflux, in partnership with the University of York in the Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP), United Kingdom
World Risk Poll, graphic prints by Superflux, Poll by The Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Superflux SAFE Private view, 6pm-9pm, Thursday 20th October
Visit between Friday 21st October until Tuesday 1st November.
Booking essential via Eventbrite: eventbrite.co.uk/e/418945686827
MORE: safe-showcase.lrfoundation.org.uk
Superflux Founded by Anab Jain and Jon Ardern in 2009, Superflux is a boundary-defying experiential futures company. Their work aims to confront diverse audiences with the complex and deeply interconnected nature of today’s challenges and invites us to navigate precarity with active hope. Superflux is the recipient of the HORIZON2020 European Union Grant (CreaTures Project) and the 2021 Design Studio of the Year for its contribution to speculative design with a committed social mission. The studio has worked with international organisations, cultural institutions and government offices including Google Al, DeepMind, Microsoft Research, Cabinet Office UK and the Government of the UAE.
@superfluxstudio
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global safety charity that supports research, innovation, and education to make the world a safer place. Its mission is to use the best evidence and insight, such as the World Risk Poll, to help the global community focus on tackling the world’s most pressing safety and risk challenges. For more information about Lloyd’s Register Foundation, visit lrfoundation.org.uk.
