Adelaide Fringe 2022 explores intersection of art and technology

January 29, 2022

Adelaide Fringe 2022 has shared its program of immersive and interactive shows, featuring local and international works that explore the intersection of art and technology.

Taking place from 18th February – 20th March 2022, Adelaide Fringe features a suite of multidimensional shows that offer participants the ability to explore multilayered worlds through VR; listen to the impact of climate change with the sonification of data; engage in interactive artworks and be moved by powerful First Nations stories and songlines at the world’s first feature length drone show.

The immersive journey begins as SAM x Electric Dreams present Night Lab: Bedtime Stories on Friday 18th February – involves spending a night at the South Australian Museum as it joins forces with Electric Dreams to bring alternate realities, imagined worlds and unique experiences to life.

Electric Dreams conference and exhibition celebrates the art of immersive storytelling. Taking place on Monday 21st February and supported by British Council, Electric Dreams Conference will feature sessions from leading British artists and creative technologists. If you’re an artist or technologist, a film-maker or performer, a programmer or curator, Electric Dreams is for you.

Learn from the best as co-founder and Chief Executive of Meow Wolf, Vince Kadlubek, delivers the conference’s keynote. Meow Wolf is an award winning arts production company that create immersive and interactive experiences that transport audiences into fantastic new realms. Kadlubek will share his invaluable learnings on co-creating alternative realities and bringing unique, transformative art to the world, revealing how a willingness to venture courageously into the unknown created an unprecedented success.

Electric Dreams Exhibition accompanies the conference and invites you to take part in some of the best virtual, augmented and extended reality experiences in the world throughout February and March…

Soar sky high with virtual reality flying machines, Volo: Dreams of Flight presented by Electric Dreams. Designed and produced by Studio Go Go, Volo celebrates the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s creations and is inspired by his famous flying contraptions, studies of flight and pioneering work on perspective. Wearing a VR headset as they swing, riders are transported into an exhilarating dreamscape of their choice.

Rocket skyward to reach the edge of space with Chute, weave trails across a futuristic desertscape with Glider, fly like a bird over a tempestuous sea, city streets and mountain passes with Thopter or propel yourself in a swirling aerial ballet, painting psychedelic patterns with Copter. Volo: Dreams of Flight will take place outdoors on the beautiful front lawns of South Australian Museum.

Deep dive into the limits of reality and the power of gaming communities with Goliath: Playing with Reality presented by Electric Dreams. Created by Anagram and winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Immersive Work at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, Goliath is a 25 minute VR experience about schizophrenia, gaming and connection. Narrated by Tilda Swinton, Goliath combines heartfelt dialogue, mesmerising visuals and symbolic interactions to weave through multiple worlds to uncover a poignant story.

Move through history with Anthropocene in C Major presented by Electric Dreams. Feel the way humans have impacted nature as data is turned into sound – a climate change symphony that travels from 12,000 years ago to the present. Hear human breakthroughs along with inescapable data trends that tell of our exploitation of the planet. With music composed, produced and performed by Jamie Perera, Anthropocene in C Major invites us to confront and understand our own ecological grief, through the form of sonification and within scale of our modern existence on Earth.

Want to get moving? Explore Adelaide on wheels as you cycle through the city alone with a smartphone on your handlebars and a voice in your ear with Rider Spoke by Blast Theory. Reflect as you’re gently asked questions about life, searching your surrounds for a place to hide your answers to each one. As you cycle you get to choose – answer another question or hunt for the hiding places of others and hear what strangers had to say. Guided by Ju Row Farr’s narration and a delicate score by Blanket, see why Metro calls Rider Spoke “a gloriously enlivening piece of theatre”. Fresh after Adelaide Fringe, Rider Spoke will be presented by ACMI for the very first time in Melbourne from 2nd – 6^th March.

Visitors can immerse themselves in a monumental experience of First Nations stories with Adelaide Fringe’s 2022 centrepiece performance, Sky Song. A collaboration between First Nations artists and drone art specialists, Celestial, Sky Song is the world’s first feature length drone show and combines state of the art technology with ancient storytelling and songlines. Hundreds of drones will take to the night sky with dramatic haze and lighting, hyperreal sound, poetry, iconic anthems and newly commissioned music to tell the stories of First Nations artists.

Narrated by Archie Roach, Sky Song features a soundtrack of many of the country’s most acclaimed First Nations artists including cultural icons Roach and Kev Carmody plus celebrated musicians Electric Fields, Iwiri Choir and Nancy Bates; storytellers Major ‘Moogy’

Sumner and Jack Buckskin; poet Ali Cobby Eckermann; dance group Dusty Feet Mob and visual art by Electric Fields’ Zaachariaha Fielding. Sky Song is rich in meaning, immense in scale and unlike anything Australian audiences have seen before.

For programming and ticketing details head to adelaidefringe.com.au.

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21st December 2020 - Adelaide Fringe launches innovative and creative 2021 festival program

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18th March 2019 - 2019 Adelaide Fringe ticket sales set new box office record

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