Experimenta is Australia’s leading media arts organisation, dedicated to commissioning, exhibiting and touring the world’s best contemporary media art. pp. 52 illusts #0221

Escape into Experimenta Playground, an exhibition of art that begs to be touched and invites your interaction.

interactive artworks :: video installations :: short films :: extreme art on screen

Experience some of the most innovative and playful artworks by Australian and international artists. With interactive artworks, video installations, short films and extreme art on screen this is art that steps out from the shadows of computer games and leaves mouse, keyboard and joystick behind.

Immerse yourself in an underwater world and play with sea creatures in Immersion, and interrupt the inhabitants of a table-top city in Charmed. Take a ride in giant coloured teacups beside cloned plastic babies that croon and remix love songs in Baby Love. Shadow Monsters are a monstrous delight as you see your shadow grow scales, teeth, eyes and horns. Tiny fantasies become big dreams in Double Fantasy a sculptural film set in which miniature realities take on cinematic proportions. In The Way Things Go, objects, fire, water, elemental junk and the laws of physics combine in a spell-binding chain-reaction that will have you teetering on the edge of your seat.

In Experimenta Playground, media artists invite us to play and consider social behaviour, identity, the real/imagined, material/ immaterial, and the role of play in life. The artworks reinvent old games and our known environment, reveal narratives in the most unexpected places and push the boundaries of cinematic language.

After its Melbourne premiere, the exhibition will tour nationally including to Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Bendigo. Experimenta, Australia’s powerhouse of media art, has been delighting audiences in Australia and overseas for 21 years. Previous touring exhibitions, centred on the themes of illusions and futuristic lifestyles, have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people across Australia.

Artists featured: Shaun Gladwell (Australia):: Daniel Crooks (Australia):: Stelarc (Australia)::Jaki Middleton & David Lawrey (Australia) :: Priscilla Bracks, Gavin Sade, Matt Dwyer, (Australia) :: Narinda Reeders (Australia):: Angela Barnett, Andrew Buchanan, Darren Ballingall, Christian Rubino, Chris Mackellar (Australia) :: Tim Humphrey, Madeleine Flynn & Jessie Stevens (Australia):: Simon Green (UK):: Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan/France):: Jennifer & Kevin McCoy (USA) :: Hiraki Sawa & Tomoyuki Washio (Japan/UK) :: June Bum Park (Korea)::Peter Fischli & David Weiss (Switzerland) :: Marina Abramovic (Netherlands) :: Eugenio Ampudia (Spain):: Guy Ben-Ner (Israel) :: Julie C. Fortier (France) :: Naoto Fukasawa (Japan) :: Guillaume Reymond (Switzerland) :: Roman Signer (Switzerland) :: Kuang-Yu Tsui (Taiwan) :: Roderick Buchanan (UK):: Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman (USA):: PES (USA):: Donna Conlon (USA):: Yu Seock Hyun (Korea)::Irene Iborra, Jossie Malis (Spain):: Philip Worthington (UK).