SensiLab @ Now or Never

Jon McCormack’s HOLON is a large scale installation of 130 solar-powered cybernetic “creatures” that listen to the sounds of their environment and use sound and light to communicate with each other. Part of the Now or Never Art Trail, the work was commissioned for the festival by the Now or Never Festival, City of Melbourne in collaboration with Experimenta. Located at Melbourne’s Docklands precinct, the work runs until September 2.

Nina Rajcic’s “This is Not Your Breaking Point” is a machine-writing system that is tasked with generating an endless list of rationalisations, excuses, affirmations, delusions; a list of reasons why this is not your breaking point. Using AI text generation the machine’s writing slowly changes from legible to illegible as the list progresses. The work is on display at the forecourt, Melbourne Town Hall from 17 August – 2 September 2023.

The exhibition “Active Interfaces” takes over Library at the Dock Gallery during Now or Never. Over 17 days, the gallery space will be brought to life with live, generative artworks, and the artists, engineers, designers, and technologists who have created it. SensiLab members will be resident in the space during the festival – actively making, developing, and refining artworks on display. This exhibition and living lab will illuminate the human labour, conceptual and design processes, and material engagements that create generative and autonomous artwork. Curated by Ana Tiquia, with works by Lucija Ivšić, Jon McCormack, Monika Schwarz, Nina Rajcic & Elliott Wilson. Location: First floor, Library at the Dock. A collaboration with Experimenta and Now or Never. The exhibition runs from 17 August – 2 September 2023, during library opening hours.

And lastly, Jon McCormack will be speaking about HOLON at “Future Nature, Future City”, also at the Library at the Dock on Sunday, 20 August from 5-6:30pm. Through the lenses of art, technology, and architecture, this conversation reimagines our relationship with sustainability and place. The discussion places emphasis on the relationship between human beings, non-human intelligence, natural habitats, and the built environment. Presented by Experimenta Social and Melbourne Conversations, in collaboration with Library at the Dock.