Dr Matthew Riley

Riley has created numerous creative works including augmented and mixed realities that have been situated in natural and urban contexts where game worlds, digital technologies and physical places have been connected and simultaneously engaged with.

His research examines how mobile platforms and location-based technologies shape people's interactions with place - it’s built and natural environments, communities, geography, urban design and infrastructure, through forms of play. Riley’s practice-based PhD investigated how digital augmentation and systems can alter our relationship and experience of natural and forest settings, ecologies and environments via affective and contemplative forms of interaction, the research recently published in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art (2020).

Riley’s work has been commissioned and exhibited by government, industry and cultural organisations including Experimenta, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Creative Victoria, Playable City, Shire of Yarra Ranges, Monash University Museum of Art, Bunjil Place and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Additionally, Matthew has been invited to speak at numerous conferences, festivals and institutions including the University of the Arts London (United Kingdom), Kajanni University of Applied Sciences (Finland), The Society for Animation Studies (Melbourne), xCoAx (Portugal), Freeplay Independent Games Festival (Melbourne), GamiFin (Finland), ISEA (Dubai and Hong Kong), Milia Conference (France), EVA London (UK) and DiGRA (Japan).

Riley has collaborated with numerous artists, designers, producers and directors including Troy Innocent (Playable City Melbourne, 64 Ways of Being) and Ryan Reynolds (Gap Filler NZ) and is currently a member of the collective YOMECIPLAY with Uyen Nguyen and Max Piantoni developing experimental games, installations and artworks that combine play, sound and interaction. Riley was previously a member of Drome, a Melbourne-based studio led by acclaimed artists Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hennessey.

He is currently a member of the Future Play Lab at RMIT University working across speculative design, creative placemaking and urban play.

Matthew Riley is a lecturer and researcher in the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity program in the School of Design, RMIT.

He has been a co-ordinator, studio lead, lecturer and assessor in courses including Research Strategies, Animation, Games and Interactivity Studio, Major Project, Advanced Play Design, Collaborative Studio Practice and Professional Research Project and has been an Industry Tour Coordinator, Staff-Student Committee Coordinator, Study Tour Collaborator, Graduate Exhibition Curator and Academic Workload Model Representative.

Matthew has also been invited as a guest speaker and external assessor for animation, games and digital media programs at RMIT University, Swinburne University and Victoria University.

• Bachelor of Education (Visual Art) - University of Melbourne
• Advanced Diploma of Electronic Design and Interactive Media - RMIT University
• Graduate Diploma in Animation and Interactive Media - RMIT University
• Master of Creative Media (Animation and Interactive Media) - RMIT University
• Doctor of Philosophy - Swinburne University of Technology

Matthew Riley’s self-initiated and commissioned projects in digital media, public art, animation and pervasive games have been recognised in international and national exhibitions, publications, festivals and events.

He has collaborated with artists including Troy Innocent (Playable City Melbourne) and Ryan Rynolds (Gap Filler NZ) and has worked with cultural, educational and arts organizations including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Bunjil Place, The University of Melbourne, Creative Victoria, Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, Chunky Move and Friends of the Earth.

Riley was a member of Drome, a Melbourne-based studio led by acclaimed artists Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hennessey.    

Riley's PhD research investigated location-based augmented reality in 'natural' settings, developing a pervasive game Epiphyte staged in bushland and forest locations within the Dandenong Ranges National Park, Australia. Epiphyte was analysed as a case study for exploring relationships between two complex systems - the 'naturally' occurring system of a bushland, and the artificially constructed system of a digital intervention. Dr Riley's PhD can be accessed here. 

Riley has published on interactive, mobile and mixed reality art and games and has been invited to share his research at numerous international and national conferences, events and institutions. 

Research interests include:

• Mixed Reality
• Interactivity
• Play
• Animation
• Augmented Reality
• Art
• Mobile media
• Games
• Virtual environments

Conferences and Presentations    

Djaara Lights: Location-based Game Design Workshop
Hosted by Bendigo Tech with ACMI Education, 2021
Co-presenters: Uyen Nguyen, Vincent Trundle and Kate Ficai
Bendigo Tech School, Australia

Artist Talk - You, Me, Things
Hosted by Experimenta Life Forms and UTAS
Presented at Plimsoll Gallery, School of Creative Arts, 2021
Co-presenter: Uyen Nguyen
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.

Artist Talk - YOMECIPLAY
Presented at MAGI Lecture Series, 2021
Co-presenters: Uyen Nguyen and Max Piantoni
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Cultivating Artificial Life Forms: Bringing Real-Time Environmental Data to your Virtual Plant
Presented at GamiFIN Conference, 2021
Co-presenter and co-author: Yeunji Kim
Livestream, Tampere, Finland.

YomeciLand x Bunjil Place: The Sounding Body as Play
Presented at EVA London Conference: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination, 2020
Co-presenter and co-author: Uyen Nguyen
Livestream, London, United Kingdom.

Artist Talk - Hyperlocal Play in the Dandenong Ranges
Hosted by Dr Troy Innocent
Presented at Restart the World, Melbourne International Games Week, 2020
Video, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk - Playable City Brunswick
Kerr-boo-on-ool: A DSC Reconciliation and Belonging Event, 2020
Livestream, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Yomeci - You, Me & the City 
Presented at Urban Play Symposium; Playable City Melbourne 2019
Co-author and presenter: Uyen Nguyen
The Capitol, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented at Design Research Colloquium, School of Design, 2019
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

YomeciLand: Found Sound as Play
Presented at DiGRA 2019 - Game, Play and the Ludo Mix
Co-author and presenter: Uyen Nguyen|
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Augmenting Natural Environments
Presented at The Future of Location-based Gaming Research Workshop: DiGRA 2019  - Game, Play and the Ludo Mix
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Play and Placemaking in Natural and Regional Settings
Presented at OpenLAB October, 2018
ACMI X, Melbourne, Australia.

Experimental Game Design at MAGI
Presented at International Games Concept Challenge, 2017
Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

Let’s Play the Forest
Presented at Burrinja Black Box with Dr Troy Innocent, 2017
Burrinja Cultural Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

Designing for Domelab: Responsiveness
Presented at Design and Play Exhibition, 2016
Design Hub RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

Aria (Hong Kong): Planting Play in Public Space
Presented at ISEA2016: Cultural Revolution
Co-authors: Jason Cheung Yi Kai and Trent Fealy
City University, Hong Kong.

Playful Studio Practice at MAGI
Presented at ISEA2016: Cultural Revolution
City University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Contemplative Interaction in Mixed Reality Artworks
Presented at ISEA2014: Location
Co-author: Dr Adam Nash
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Augmented Bushwalk: Adaptation in Crossmedia Ecologies
Presented at xCoAx Conference, 2014
Co-author: Dr Troy Innocent
University of Porto, Portugal.

Epiphyte
Presented at Exertion Games Lab, 2014
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented at School of Art, 2014
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Epiphyte: Mixed Reality Artworks in Non-Urban Environments
Presented at Digital Interventions Symposium, 2013
Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.

Interactive Animation: Post-Digital and Pre-Digital Play
Presented at ‘The Animation Machine’ Animation Studies Conference, 2012
Storey Hall RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

The Games That Made Me
Presented at Freeplay Independent Games Festival, 2011
Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented at School of Creative Media, 2007
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented at Visual Communication Department, 2006
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented at the College of Arts and Education, 2005
Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.

Artist Talk
Presented to Interaction Design Arts Faculty, 2002
University of Arts London, UK

Artist Talk
Presented at ACMI: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2002
Melbourne, Australia

Assemblage, Contemplation and Affect
Presented at Fusion: St Kilda Film Festival, 2002
The George Ballroom, Melbourne, Australia

Artist Talk
Presented to NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation, 2001
Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France.

Playing with Word, Image, Signs and Sound
Presented at MILIA Net Zapping Festival 2001
Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France.

Artist Talk
Presented at MILIA New Talent Pavilion 2001
Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France.