Exhibition Launch - Metazoa - RiAus at the Science Exchange_

Date 3rd February 2010 - 12nd February 2010
Tags exhibition, RiAus, evolution

Described as a world where Dr Who meets Darwin, Metazoa is a fabulous immersive interactive art installation that explores the evolutionary tree of life. Viewers participate in the artwork to move beyond their ordinary identities and become on-screen mirror images of themselves - first as protozoa (single celled organisms), then as more complex species, including plant animals, marine organisms, reptiles, birds, mammals and finally imaginary post-human forms.  Participants will see their creature move and make sounds within its own habitat, alongside other species that evolved in the same era. During the later stages, participants collaborate to fit together an onscreen jigsaw puzzle which then propels them into the next environment, thus mimicking the cataclysmic events that initiate ecological shifts. Eventually they find themselves back at the beginning of the evolutionary cycle.

This innovative art and technology project is produced by new media installation artist Angela Main, working with HITlabNZ, a world-leading Human-Computer Interface research laboratory based at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. It exploits the latest research in augmented reality (in which virtual objects exist in a physical space) to create a unique and interactive experience. Angela draws on her original studies in zoology and psychology to create her work, and has collaborated with HITlabNZ on a series of installations that have toured nationally and internationally.

The exhibition will be launched on Friday 12 February 2010 at 6:30 pm.  Entry is free but bookings for the launch are essential. 

For more information and to book online visit: www.riaus.org.au/whatson

The Metazoa exhibition will continue until May 2010.

 

Websites

http://www.riaus.org.au
http://www.metazoalive.com/
http://www.riaus.org.au/whatson

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