Review: The Guardian "Experimenta Recharge biennial of media art gives new insights into old stories"

Read the full Age article here.

Review by Anna Madeleine
Wednesday 26 November 2014

Experimenta’s biennial model provides a snapshot of media art practice from Australian and international artists every two years. “With this particular biennal, the title is Recharge,” says Parsons, “and we were very interested in looking at the way artists were using technologies to tell old stories, refresh them and retell them.”

Artists are often the first to play with new technologies and Recharge shows that futuristic ideas are often formed by reimagining the past. 3D printing, for instance, was invented 20 years ago, but it is only just having a cultural impact now as the price point comes down to a more accessible level. Artists have been quick to experiment with its possibilities.

Parsons emphasises the role of art in these art-science hybrid projects. “None of those works are about communicating a scientific discovery. It’s more what artists are good at, which is imagining possible futures [and] possible directions rather than simply communicating a fact.”

Experimenta Recharge: 6th International Biennial of Media Art toured Australia in 2014–2016.