RMIT Gallery dazzles at White Night Melbourne

Located in the heart of the Northern Lights precinct, the gallery’s façade will come alive this Saturday from 7pm to 7am with a dazzling light show.

The show will morph throughout the evening thanks to “Architectonics”, a custom projection mapping technology by RMIT alumni Joshua Batty and Mitchell Nordine, from MindBuffer.

With the aid of custom visual granular synthesis software developed by Batty as part of his PhD at RMIT, the architectural features of Storey Hall (home of RMIT Gallery) will be disintegrated and rebuilt into an evolving generative form throughout the duration of the night.

Batty showcased an earlier version of the custom software at RMIT Gallery’s Music, Melbourne + Me exhibition, creating The Morphos, a large cubic projection-mapped sculpture that delighted crowds at White Night Melbourne in 2014.

This year, MindBuffer, whose innovative work sits at the intersection of science, architecture and digital media, promise a dazzling display of architectural perceptual tricks at the extreme level of detail.

Inside, RMIT Gallery throws open its doors to share its popular summer exhibition Geniale Dilletanten [Brilliant Dilletantes] Subculture in Germany in the 1980s + Australian Ingenious Amateurs.

From Nick Cave to Blixa Bargeld, Einstürzende Neubauten to Die Tödliche Doris, this international touring exhibition from the Goethe-Institut celebrates the radical movement and alternative artistic scene that exploded from Germany in the 1980s, with a taste of the alternative Australian art and music scene of the era.

Ride the Einstürzende Neubauten Klangbewegung Maschine by (((20Hz))) to really feel like you are in a 1980s Berlin club.

The audiokinetic jukebox was produced by Darrin Verhagen, RMIT researcher and senior lecturer in sound design and multisensory experience.

Using a six degrees of freedom motion simulator (and a reclaimed Audi passenger seat), the RMIT-based (((20Hz))) team provide an entertaining experience that takes audiences into the heart of German subculture music of the 1980s.

The Klang Maschine has been likened to being in a mosh pit (without the smell!).

But the fun for 80s fans doesn’t end there – head to the gallery during White Night for a chance to dress up in outrageous 1980s gear and get a photo from the Tag Snaps print booth as a souvenir.

From 7pm to 7am, the free 1980s German Subculture Film Festival at RMIT Kaleide Theatre next door will show a program of music, documentary and experimental films, presented by RMIT Gallery and the Goethe-Institut Australien.

Films include Flüstern und Schreien: ein Rock Report (Whisper & Shout – the East German Rock revolution, Berlin Super 80 (1978-1984), Einstürzende Neubauten live at Palast der Republik and B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin (Unclassified Strictly 18+).

All films are in German with English subtitles. (Some nudity and adult themes. No disabled access to Kaleide Theatre).

Story: Evelyn Tsitas