This Hideous Replica

Lifting its title from a misheard line in a 1980 song by The Fall about a reclusive dog breeder whose 'hideous replica' haunts industrial Manchester, this experimental project—a concoction of artworks, performances, screenings, workshops, a 'replica school' and other uncanny encounters—adopts monstrous replication as a tactic, condition and curatorial framework for exploring algorithmic culture, simultaneously alienating, seductive and out-of-control.

Exhibition includes works by Amy May Stuart, Angie Waller, Anna Vasof, Debris Facility, Diego Ramírez, Emile Zile, Joshua Citarella, Liang Luscombe, Loren Adams, Masato Takasaka, Matthew Griffin & Heath Franco and Mochu.

Performances, talks and workshops by Catherine Ryan, Chloë Sobek, Darcy Wedd, Holly Childs, Jennifer Walshe, Joel Sherwood Spring, Machine Listening, McKenzie Wark, Panda Wong, Roslyn Orlando, Tomomi Adachi and more.

Curated by Joel Stern and Sean Dockray.

This Hideous Replica has been produced by RMIT Culture and supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), the RMIT Design and Creative Practice Enabling Impact Platforms and Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA). This project is a part of the City of Melbourne’s Now or Never festival. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. With hosts Miscellanea, Dogmilk, Omniversal Hum, Make it Up Club, Melbourne Law School.

Mochu, GROTESKKBASILISKK! MINERAL MIXTAPE, 2022 Image: Mochu, GROTESKKBASILISKK! MINERAL MIXTAPE, 2022, digital video (still), Image courtesy of the artist.

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Upcoming events

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PREMSTEM Conference: Research into neonatal brain repair

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 13 May 2025 - 15 May 2025
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Discover PREMSTEM's research into stem cells from umbilical cord tissue as a therapy for preterm brain injury and share your own research.

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Small steps, big change: designing superblocks and resilience in Barcelona and Melbourne

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 15 May 2025
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In this special event for Melbourne Design Week, Salvador Rueda Palenzuela – international urban ecologist, placemaking expert and one of the pioneers of the Barcelona Superblocks – will join RMIT Professor Marco Amati in conversation.

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Trebor Scholz – From Vibe to Viability: A Methodology for Building Transformative Alternatives in the Digital Economy

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 16 May 2025
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At a special event hear New York author, scholar, activist and digital economies expert Professor Trebor Scholz explain how global communities across 60 countries are building alternatives to unaccountable algorithms and covert technology.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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