The International Triennial of Media Art returns to Latrobe Regional Gallery from 6 April to 30 June with an array of artists in the group exhibition ‘Experimenta Make Sense’. Centring on the advent of disembodied communication, where language and behaviour are predicted algorithmically and relayed by an artificial mind, the show asks – what does it mean to ‘do’ today? Twenty Australian and international artists approach this dilemma with a variety of creative tactics, overall reminding us that the answer to authenticity lies within ourselves.
Briony Barr, Drawing on Complexity, The Experimenta Series, 2017. Photograph: Theresa Harrison© the artist. Courtesy the artist and Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
Robert Andrew presents ‘Moving from the Binary’, an installation that is critical of colonisation and the disruption to traditional culture it represents. For this work, English text translations of the Yawuru language are given a new aural and physical presence as a machine moves two rocks across stone in response to the words. Similarly, Ella Barclay is interested in the ephemeral nature of thought and how we remember, from ancient Mesopotamia to the server-farms of today. She visualises this with tanks of water in which a human form appears to occupy the ‘in-between’ space of memory, as both concept and hardware.
Another strong theme is how we cast our identity in the age of gaming and social media. Steve Berrick shares ‘Hello Future Self’ a participatory drawing project which transforms hand-drawn artworks into digital animations allowing us to create Avatars – what would your optimal self be like? Lauren Edmonds’ interactive work demonstrates how social media does not replace real-world action but co-ordinates it, a timely meditation in our current global political climate.
