This week, first-ever UK solo show by filmmaker and speculative architect Liam Young, In Other Worlds, arrives at London’s Barbican Centre. It’s running from May 21 to September 6, 2026.
The immersive experience has an impressive roster of voices narrating six future worlds that unfold around the visitors. The opening prologue and closing epilogue are given and played by Rogue One and Andor star, Diego Luna.
Other Narrators
Other narrators include American Fiction and Casino Royale star Jeffrey Wright, alongside Shameless star Maxine Peake. The cast also features The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Anson Young. Andor star Denise Gough and Finnish actress Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) also provide narration. They are joined by Australian actress Natasha Wanganeen (Rabbit Proof Fence) and space scientist Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Finally, BAFTA-winning actor-director Richard Ayoade rounds out the narrators.
Wright’s voice tells a story about a blind man stranded in a cave with an ageing AI. The AI wants to hear whale song before its parts fail to function. Ayoade, Gough and Peake each voice their own vignettes with the gravitas and pathos that reviewers have described.
At every gallery, visitors witness audio stories, films projected onto LED walls, tapestries, costumes, installations, soundscapes, large-scale projections, set designs, movie miniatures, and imagined artifacts. A truly immersive art installation that really makes you think about the world around you.
The exhibition is located in three separate locations at the Barbican complex. They are in the Silk Street Entrance, The Curve gallery, and Car Park 5.
The Centerpiece
The centerpiece is World Machine (2026), a new film combining real, and CGI footage to imagine a planetary-size supercomputer. In this film, Earth’s entire surface is woven into circuits of power and calculation. With it is Planet City (2021) imagining the global population walled together in a single hyper-dense metropolis. Meanwhile, the rest of the world returns to the wild.
Speaking to the intent of the show at a press preview, Young says he and his collaborators wanted to exhibit “speculative worlds that act as rehearsals for future, for the world to come.” He also described In Other Worlds as “an attempt to create a collection of visions for a hopeful future.”
In In Other Worlds, the exhibition creates a shared narrative of imagined futures. These futures are rooted in contemporary technology and climate-driven realities. It is the first major solo exhibition in the UK for the filmmaker and speculative architect. The show tours nationally and abroad after its run in London as part of Barbican Immersive’s wider program.
