Experimenta Life Forms

Exhibition Tour

A touring exhibition featuring interactive and generative, audio-visual and sculptural works that grapple with questions of sentience.

Showcasing twenty contemporary artworks as it toured to museums and galleries across Australia, Experimenta Life Forms revealed how artists were exploring notions of life, at a time when technological change and new research were making definitions increasingly difficult to pin down.

The exhibition invited audiences to contemplate a multi-faceted understanding of human and non-human beings based on scientific invention, biological discoveries, technology and First Nations epistemologies.

Featuring screen-based works, bio-art, robotics, installations, interactive and generative art, Experimenta Life Forms presented commissioned and existing works by twenty-six Australian and international artists. Throughout 2021 - 2023, the exhibition travelled to seven venues and presented twenty-four public events.

Artists

  • Commissions by Brad Darkson, Dominic Redfern, Thomas Marcusson, Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer (PluginHUMAN), as well as Uyen Nguyen, Mas Piantoni and Matthew Riley.
  • Existing works by Daniel Boyd, Michael Candy, Donna Davis, Justine Emard, Anton Hasell, Floris Kaayk, Helen Pynor, Theresa Schubert, Rebecca Selleck, Agat Sharma, Miranda Smitheram, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (The Tissue Culture and Art Project), Lynn Mowson and Bruce Mowson (M0wson&MOwson), Laura Woodward, Suzanne Kite and Devin Ronneberg.

Tour Installation Views










Venues


Noosa Regional Gallery, Tewantin (QLD)
New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale (NSW)
The Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre, Mount Gambier (SA)
Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, (NSW)
Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah (NSW)
The Lock-Up, Newcastle (NSW)
Plimsoll Gallery UTAS, Hobart (TAS)



Exhibited Artworks


Daniel Boyd
History is Made at Night (2013) was an immersive video installation engaging in the history and influence of stars, in particular our sun, and the formation of life on earth.

Michael Candy
Little Sunfish (2019) was a speculative story about a robot that escapes its human masters to roam the Pacific Ocean.

Brad Darkson
Smart Object (2020) combined traditional carving and animation to explore cultural knowledge transfer, time, and the life force of and within things. An Experimenta & ANAT co-commission.

Donna Davis
TRANSplant (becoming Kin) (2019-20) was a multi-media work inspired by research conducted at the Australian Tropical Herbarium, imagining the adaptations required by flora to survive climate change.

Justine Emard
Soul Shift (2018) was a video work depicting two generations of the same ground-breaking robot design meeting for the first time. Developed in collaboration with Japanese roboticists.

Anton Hasell
3D Printed Difference - Tone Bell (2017) was an interactive installation that reinvented the tradition of bell making through 3D printing.

Floris Kaayk
The Modular Body (2016) was a multi-channel video installation realised as a speculative fiction asking audiences to consider the ethical questions involved in biotechnology research.

Thomas Marcusson
DJ Moss (2020) was an installation that brought an alternative type of living entity to the DJ role – living, breathing moss. An Experimenta commission.

Uyen Nguyen, Max Piantoni and Matthew Riley
You, Me, Things (2020) was a playable sound installation where different entities were brought into existence to create an evolving ecosystem. An Experimenta commission.

Helen Pynor
Habitation (2020) explored how animate and inanimate boundaries are collapsing due to the widespread use of medical prosthetics. An Experimenta and SymbioticA co-commission.

Dominic Redfern
first forms (2020) was a multi-screen installation exploring cyanobacteria, the single-celled life form that created the conditions for complex life. An Experimenta commission.

Theresa Schubert
Sound for Fungi. Homage to Indeterminacy (2020) was an interactive installation where participants were invited to manipulate a sound wave modulating the growth of fungi.

Rebecca Selleck
Snow Rabbits (2018-20) was an installation featuring rabbit-like forms which deliberated on introduced species and our human culpability in environmental changes.

Agat Sharma
Brachiation on the Phylogenetic Tree (2020) is a speculative fiction work that adapted automated call centre technologies to explore the entanglement of human beings and micoorganisms.

Miranda Smitheram
Macro/Micro_Whakapapa (2019) was an installation that spoke to First Nation’s perspectives of the world, where all matter is understood as lively, relational and interconnected.

PluginHUMAN
PULSE: The Life Force of Trees (2020) was a sculptural installation with light and sound driven by environmental data collected from significant trees across the world. An Experimenta commission.

The Tissue Culture & Art Project
Biomess (2018) celebrated the diversity and strangeness of natural and designed life, while challenging our perception of bio-tech ethics.

m0wson&MOwson
feeler (2019-20) was an installation of dismembered octopus tentacles which explored motherhood and the reproductive manipulation and control of non-human life forms.

Laura Woodward
Planet (2019) was a sculptural installation that focused on the interplay of water, air and light – the fundamental building blocks of life.

Suzanne Kite and Devin Ronneberg
Itówapi Čík'ala (Little Picture) (2019) was an interactive installation that revealed an Oglala Lakhota world view of the relationships between human and non-human entities and intelligences.



Exhibition Credits


Curators: Jonathan Parsons and Lubi Thomas
Creative Producers: Kelli Alred and Nicki Parsons



Image Credits


Various venues:
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, Noosa Regional Gallery, Tewantin, 2023. Photos: Warwick Gow.
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre, Mount Gambier, 2023. Photos: Santana Sandow.
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, 2022. Photos: Zenio Lapka.
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah, 2021-22. Photos: Kate Holmes.
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, The Lock Up, Newcastle, 2021. Photos: Ben Adams.
Experimenta Life Forms, 2021-23, installation view, Plimsol Gallery, Hobart, 2023. Photos: Remi Chauvin and Eden Meure.


Interspecies & Other Others

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