Experimenta Make Sense: International Triennial of Media Art is Experimenta’s 7th large-scale exhibition and touring program (2017 – 2021), and the first in the shift to a triennial cycle in response to high levels of demand from regional galleries and venues.

Experimenta Make Sense featured 19 artworks, films and installations that express the disconcerting and delightful world of the digital age. As we grapple with the rapid pace of change shaped by technological transformation, political uncertainty and global challenges, Experimenta Make Sense invited audiences to reflect on the still fundamental role of our biological senses for making sense of the world around us. The exhibition asks: How do we, or indeed can we, make sense in our age of technological acceleration? Many of the works are designed to draw attention to the way we use our senses while other works speak to the rise of maker cultures and the ways we make sense by doing.

Experimenta partnered with ANAT (Australian Network for Art and Technology) to commission 5 new works by Australian artists, which included:
Antoinette J. Citizen’s wearable technology devices Apparatus and Method for Time Displacement (VIC); Michele Barker and Anna Munster’s large-scale immersive film work pull (NSW); Gail Priest’s sound installation SonoLexic (NSW); Robert Andrew’s sculptural piece Moving from the Binary (QLD); Steve Berrick’s participatory animation Hello Future Self (WA); Scale Free Network’s A Hierarchy of Eddies (VIC).

Experimenta Make Sense: International Triennial of Media Art was launched at RMIT Gallery in 2017, with public programs held across Melbourne and was featured as a part of the 2017 Melbourne Festival program. As it toured, Experimenta continued to offer public programs that included interactive activities, artist talks, workshops and seminars allowing a diverse range of audiences to get up close and personal with artists, hear how they “make sense” of the world around them, and take part in critical discussions.