Active Interfaces
Curated by SensiLab
A collaboration with Experimenta and Now or Never.
17 August – 2 September 2023
A free exhibition and living lab of live generative artworks, along with the artists, engineers, designers, and technologists behind them.
Over 17 days, the Library at the Dock Gallery space will be brought to life with live, generative artworks, and the artists, engineers, designers, and technologists who have created it.
Members of Monash Uni’s SensiLab will be resident in the space during the festival – actively making, developing, and refining artworks on display. This exhibition and living lab illuminates the human labour, conceptual and design processes, and material engagements that create generative and autonomous artwork.
Four generative works will be presented, and two SensiLab artists will be ‘live’ and making work in the gallery at various times during Now or Never.
VISIT
17 August – 2 September 2023
Library at the Doc, Level 1 Gallery
During library opening hours | Free entry
ARTIST LIVE SCHEDULE
- Monika Schwarz | Mon – Thur, 2-6pm
Monika will be making a generative quilt in-gallery - Lucija Ivšić | Fri 18 Aug, 1-6pm & Friday 24 August, 1-6pm
Lucija will take visitors through her VR work, What Homes Are Made of
Works included in exhibition:
Lucija Ivšić, What Homes Are Made of
Monika Schwarz and Jon McCormack, cosiness::cosinus
Elliot Wilson and Jon McCormack, Development of Drawbots (Drawing Robots)
Nina Rajcic, Mirror Ritual
Curated by:
Exhibiting artists
Monika Schwarz
Dr Monika Schwarz is a research fellow at Monash University’s SensiLab, where she focuses on data analysis, interactive data visualisation as well as data physicalisation.
Monika SchwarzVIC
Dr Monika Schwarz is a research fellow at Monash University’s SensiLab, where she focuses on data analysis, interactive data visualisation as well as data physicalisation. Monika holds a PhD in archaeology, with over 15 years of experience in that field, and a Masters degree in Information Technology. Currently she combines skills from her two careers in archaeology and information technology by turning 19th century convict records into interactive data visualisations. She also draws on her private passion for sewing and fabrics to create ‘data embroideries’, with a particular focus on female narratives. In her work she tries to reconcile predominantly male subjects, like mathematics and algorithms, with the traditionally more female spheres of embroidery and crafting.
Lucija Ivšić
Lucija Ivšić, also known as ŽIVA is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, and performer based in Melbourne.
Lucija IvšićVIC
Lucija Ivšić, also known as ŽIVA is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, and performer based in Melbourne. Currently pursuing a practice-based PhD at SensiLab, Monash University, her work lies at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Through her installations and live performances, ŽIVA challenges traditional approaches to musical shows, blurring the lines between performer and listener. She explores non-human entities during her shows, pushing the boundaries of live musical experiences.
Beginning her music career at a young age as the frontwoman of the Croatian post-punk band Punčke, ŽIVA performed over 400 shows worldwide from 2007 to 2019. In late 2021, she embarked on her new bilingual music project, fusing Slavic-pop, electronica, and darkwave influences to create an experimental sound that reflects her Slavic heritage.
Aside from live performances, Lucija gained recognition for her debut VR work titled “What homes are made of.” The piece was exhibited at prestigious art festivals globally, including Melbourne Design Week, ADAF in Greece, and Current New Media in the US.
Elliott Wilson
Elliott Wilson’s research interests include Mobile and Wearable Technology, 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication, Emerging Interfaces and Interactions, Robotics and Electronics and real-time 3D Graphics and Games (including Virtual Reality).
Elliott WilsonVIC
Elliott Wilson’s research interests include Mobile and Wearable Technology, 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication, Emerging Interfaces and Interactions, Robotics and Electronics and real-time 3D Graphics and Games (including Virtual Reality).
He is the Lab Manager for SensiLab and is responsible for the day to day running of the research space. He also collaborates on a number of SensiLab projects and develops prototypes for research.
Nina Rajcic
Nina Rajcic is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and developer exploring new possibilities of human-machine relationships.
Nina RajcicVIC
Nina Rajcic is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and developer exploring new possibilities of human-machine relationships. Her recent works draw inspiration from the link between language and the self, exploring the role of narrative in the synthesising of meaning and the constructing of identity. Her broader research investigates the nature of human-machine relationships in an increasingly post-human world, ultimately seeking to offer new rituals that produce shared meaning in the human and non-human assemblages of today.
Nina holds a doctoral degree at Monash University. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science, and a Masters of Physics (Theoretical Particle Physics) from The University of Melbourne.
Jon McCormack
Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist working at the nexus of art, technology and society. His experimental practice is driven by an enduring interest and research in computing.
Jon McCormackBoonwurrung Country
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Jon McCormack is an artist based in Boonwurrung Country, Melbourne, Australia who works at the nexus of art, technology and society.
McCormack’s experimental practice is driven by an enduring interest in computing and incorporates generative art, music and sound art, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, physical computing and artificial intelligence. Inspired by the complexity and wonder of the natural world, his work is concerned with electronic ‘after natures’: alternate forms of artificial life which, due to unfettered human progress and development, may one day replace a lost biological nature.
Jon is also the founder and director of SensiLab, a creative technologies research laboratory based at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
CONNECT
