Image: Serpentine Galleries, London
Serpentine has announced 'The Delusion', a multimedia project by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley that runs at Serpentine North Gallery in London from 30 September 2025 to 18 January 2026. The project is presented as a video game commission, multiplayer immersive exhibition and online game, and it is described by the gallery as exploring themes of polarisation, censorship and social connection. The exhibition version is an immersive installation focused on the real-world impacts of societal division.
The project sits within Serpentine Arts Technologies, the gallery’s programme for work that explores the impact of technology through art, research and experimental projects. Serpentine says the programme brings together people working across art, technology, law, policy and academia, with areas of focus including blockchain, artificial intelligence, video games and life sciences. 'The Delusion' is part of that broader remit, using game engines and participatory formats to frame questions about how communities fracture and how people might still speak across difference.
According to Serpentine, 'The Delusion' combines satire and absurd humour with cooperative gaming and participatory theatre. The work invites visitors into a post-apocalyptic world shaped by a single catastrophic event, the Day of Division, after which society has broken into closed, dogmatic factions, each attached to its own version of truth, community and survival. Serpentine describes the project as a “live community play” and meeting space intended to rehumanise debates and create space for players to pause, discuss and reconnect.
The gallery says the commission is Brathwaite-Shirley’s most ambitious work to date and was developed over the course of a year with a team of artists, researchers, technologists and members of the artist’s Black Trans and Queer community. The project is credited as commissioned and produced by Serpentine Arts Technologies, with curation and leadership by Tamar Clarke-Brown, Arts Technologies Curator, alongside Ruth Waters and Vi Trinh, and additional support from Liz Stumpf. Research and development are also credited to Serpentine Arts Technologies and the Future Art Ecosystems initiative.
Serpentine has also released 'I DIDNT REALISE YOU THOUGHT LIKE THAT', an online game and shareable tool for critical thinking developed by Brathwaite-Shirley in partnership with Beyond Code Collective and supported by Glass Castle Foundation. Available on web and mobile, the game marks the next chapter of 'The Delusion' and extends the project beyond the gallery. Serpentine says the online version allows more people to engage with the work wherever they are, while aligning with Beyond Code’s mission to expand access to technological literacy and tools for future technologists and learners of all backgrounds.
The game was recently featured in the Games Arcade at the Games for Change Festival in New York City, whose 2026 theme was 'Reimagining Play'. Serpentine notes that the festival gathered participants ranging from game developers and students to mental health experts and global humanitarian leaders, and that Mica le John of Beyond Code Collective presented the work in a talk titled 'Play as Public Forum'. Another upcoming presentation of 'The Delusion' is scheduled for 12–13 September at the Creative Intelligence Festival at Southbank Centre in London, before the Serpentine North Gallery run begins on 30 September 2025.
