22 July 2017 to 17 September 2017
Image: Wade Marynowsky, Robot Opera (detail), 2015, s* steel frames 2300 x 900 x 90mm, electronics, motors, sensors, light, sound, code. Original performance 35mins, Performace Space, Liveworks2015. Photo by Heidrun Lohr.
A solar powered and time-based drawing instrument; a remote controlled mutant power tool that paints; a theoretical communication device; three automatons powered by vintage gramophone motors, and eight custom built autonomous robots.
Dream Machines brought together five artists and collaboratives who were simultaneously artist, scientist, engineer and inventor. At the core of this project were ideas centred on DIY aesthetics, backyard inventors and the suburban shed, the adaptation of existing and utilitarian objects, the machine aesthetic, hacking and re-purposing, and how creativity is integral to innovation.
The artists, James Dodd, Wade Marynowsky, David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton, Cameron Robbins, and Tricky Walsh, were at the forefront of contemporary art practice in Australia. They produced functional artworks and imagined machines which audiences could engage and interact with. For Dream Machines, the artists were commissioned to develop new works, or reconfigure and redevelop an existing work specifically for the exhibition.
Artists: James Dodd | Wade Marynowsky | David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton | Cameron Robbins | Tricky Walsh
View the exhibition catalogue below.
Dream Machines was a National Science Week and Sydney Science Festival event.