OPEN CALL
Selected Programme Documentation
(2022–2026)
LAKE is an artist-run curatorial and research platform dedicated to the development of sound-led, spatial, and durational practices.
Operating as a site for research, testing, and process-based work, LAKE supports artists working across installation, performance, listening, and experimentation. Activity prioritises extended engagement with sound, space, and time, rather than fixed-outcome exhibition formats.
The space is equipped with a multi-channel sound system and is used for development periods, listening sessions, performances, and small public sharings, depending on the project and programme.
From time to time, LAKE invites proposals through open calls and other programme opportunities. Details are shared via LAKE’s channels as and when they are announced.
Activity since first opening (November 2022 – April 2026)
- 11 LAKE-curated exhibitions, including one international presentation
- 4 partner or supported exhibitions hosted at LAKE
- 6 artist development and research periods
- 29 performances, talks, and live events
- 3 listening rooms
- Approximately 80 artists supported
- Audience engagements:
– approx. 4,000 at LAKE (Deptford)
– over 5,000 through one international presentation
Curatorial & Research Approach
LAKE operates between gallery exhibition formats and music-led performance contexts.
Activity is structured as research rather than fixed presentation, allowing work to evolve publicly through extended installation periods, testing, and live experimentation.
Sound is treated not as an accessory to visual work, but as an organising force that shapes space, movement, and attention.
Research-Led Installations & Performances
These examples demonstrate LAKE’s research-led approach, where installation, performance, and public engagement are treated as ongoing processes rather than final outcomes.
Projects are developed through extended installation periods and activated through live research events, allowing works to be tested, reconfigured, and iterated publicly over time.
Research-led installation evolving through public testing and live performance, developed across installation, rehearsal, and presentation rather than as a fixed outcome.
Installation and live performance, LAKE (2023–24)
Programme structured as connected research phases rather than standalone events.
Installations, performances, and talks functioned as successive stages within a single curatorial framework.
Photography, collage, book-based installation, performance and collaborative work, Various Artists, LAKE (2022–23)
LAKE developed a sound work by scanning and responding to pages from the publication, subsequently inviting the publisher to respond through a live performance (see video below).
Work developed at LAKE later presented internationally in a different spatial and technical context, demonstrating how research supported at LAKE extends beyond the local site.
Nishant Shukla
Photography, responsive spatial sound, film
LAKE (2022) and Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India (2024)
Documentation of a research-led work activated through multiple live formats across different contexts.
Listening-Based & Participatory Formats
Group listening sessions, talks, and participatory formats form a core part of LAKE’s research methodology, supporting shared attention, dialogue, and collective interpretation.
HZ-0, Lisa Chang Lee, LAKE (2022)
Two-day audio-visual live performances responding to a 8.1 surround sound system
Artist Development & Process
LAKE supports artists through development periods that prioritise testing, iteration, and technical exploration rather than predetermined outcomes.
Sync — Unsync, Philip Ebeling, Nimzo Studio, Maggie Nichols, LAKE (2024)
Four Mothers & The Disappearing Sun, Aliya Orr, LAKE (2024)
Artists and practitioners
LAKE has supported emerging and established artists working across sound, moving image, sculpture, performance, and installation, often through collaborative and interdisciplinary processes.
The programme prioritises sustained engagement, technical experimentation, and public interaction over short-term presentation.
© LAKE, Deptford, London