The Barbican has announced ‘In Other Worlds’, the first UK solo exhibition by artist, director and BAFTA-nominated producer Liam Young. Opening May 2026, the immersive show will explore
radical visions of the future through film, sound, comics, costumes and large-scale installations.
Young, known for blending design, fiction and futurism, uses speculative storytelling to address climate urgency and the impact of rapidly advancing technology. Visitors will move through imagined future worlds built on real scientific possibility, forming a centrepiece of the Barbican’s 2026 summer season.
A major highlight will be the world premiere of ‘World Machine’ (2026), a Barbican commission combining live action and CGI to imagine a planet transformed into a vast AI supercomputer. The film interrogates how clean-energy infrastructure could power tech while coexisting with rewilded landscapes.
Other works include ‘Planet City’ (2021), a vision of the world’s population condensed into one mega-city; ‘The Great Endeavour’ (2023), mapping the colossal task of carbon removal; and ‘After the End’ (2024), a 50,000-year timelapse created with actor and activist Natasha Wanganeen, reimagining Australia beyond fossil fuels.
Graphic narratives and audio stories from leading writers will thread through the exhibition, expanding Young’s futuristic cityscapes.
Barbican curator Luke Kemp said the show arrives at a moment “to once again look for new stories, imagine different futures and create the worlds that we want to exist.” Arts Director Devyani Saltzman added that the exhibition reflects the Barbican’s commitment to exploring urgent global issues with “imagination, rigour and hope.”
Presented by Barbican Immersive, the show will tour internationally after its London run. Young, described by the BBC as “the man designing our futures,” has exhibited worldwide and consults for major global brands and technology companies. Photo by Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design from Moscow, Russia, Wikimedia commons.