NGV Australia announces new exhibition exploring how technology is shaping the future
Featuring 3D printed coral, robotically fabricated architecture, and more.
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia has announced a new exhibition, launching on Friday August 27.
Titled Sampling the Future, the exhibition explores how technology is shaping the future.
What you need to know
- Sampling the Future runs from August 27 until February 6 at NGV Australia
- Entry to the exhibition is free
- The exhibition will feature never-before-seen projects and selected works from the NGV Collection
Keep up with all the latest arts news, reviews and interviews here.
Showcasing works by leading experimental designers whose practices sit within the intersection of design, technology, science and philosophy, Sampling the Future questions how and why objects and structures are made.
The exhibition is split into two thematic sections: the near future, unpacking issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and the distant future, focusing on our reliance on natural resources and the central role they’ve played in human civilisation throughout history.
Featuring works by the likes of speculative architects Roland Snooks and Leanne Zilka, Alice Springs-based designer Elliat Rich, Sydney-based duo Kyoko Hashimoto and Guy Keulemans, and Melbourne duo Georgia Nowak and Eugene Peripletchikov, the exhibition spans large-scale installations, design objects, and sound and video works.
‘Through the work of leading designers and architects, this exhibition gives audiences an exciting glimpse our many possible futures – both real and imagined,” said NGV Director, Tony Ellwood AM.
“The designers in this exhibition are using their ideas and skills to create objects, environments and images that expand our understanding of design, as well as to raise philosophical questions about how people in a distant future might make sense of today,” he said.
Sampling the Future runs from August 27 until February 6 at NGV Australia. Head to the NGV website for more information.
The best (and worst) new singles: Mess Esque, Dry Cleaning and covers from Alex Cameron and Sasami
There’s some great tracks and one not so good.
Our singles column fires up for another fortnight with spots for Mess Esque, Sasami, Dry Cleaning, Alex Cameron and Roan Yellowthorn. We’ll let you decide which artists hit the spot and which ones didn’t.
Best
Mess Esque – ‘Take it outside’
Dirty Three guitarist and painter Mick Turner teams up with vocalist Helen Franzmann of McKisko in this Drag City and Milk! Records endorsed duo. As far as introductions go, ‘Take it outside’ is both enchanting and titillating, like swigging a bottle of top-shelf sparkling red in the backseat of a cab with a guy you just met.
It’s perhaps not as aurally intense as that description suggests, but ‘Take it outside’ has a sensuous momentum, with Turner’s guitars enveloping the pendulum swing of Franzmann’s vocal melodies.
Franzmann’s lyrics are equal parts impressionistic and corporeal, running lines like “Jumping, leaping, there will be no sleeping; laughing on the floor” into the mantric, “Skin and cells and arms and shoulders.” Her vocals are multi-tracked and cheekily animated, evoking all sorts of curious emotions irrespective of the literal substance. The October release of Mess Esque’s debut album couldn’t come soon enough.
Worst
Sasami – ‘Sorry Entertainer’
LA musician Sasami took an unexpected detour into early-aughts alt-metal last year with a cover of System of a Down’s ‘Toxicity’. Though, the source material was near unrecognisable as Sasami rendered ‘Toxicity’ a disheartened acoustic ballad.
She flips the formula on her latest single, turning Daniel Johnston’s characteristically bare-bones ‘Sorry Entertainer’ into a fully-fledged nu metal song, double-kick and all.
It’s not exactly sacrilege as the late Johnston would routinely switch up the arrangements of his best-known tracks, often with help from bands like Built to Spill and Wilco. But it’s hard to take Sasami’s arrangement of ‘Sorry Entertainer’ seriously.
She sounds like she’s having a heckload of fun, but it feels more like a YouTube “in the style of” parody than something you’d put out as an official single. All that said, the pimp-my-ride approach to cover versions is gutsy, so full marks to Sasami on that front.
Making it look easy
Dry Cleaning – ‘Tony Speaks!’
Dry Cleaning’s New Long Leg is one of the current decade’s standout debuts. And now, mere months after its release, the South London post-punk surrealists are back with a new double A-side. Track two, ‘Tony Speaks!’, is essentially more of the same from Dry Cleaning; i.e. a gripping blend of kraut- and shoegaze-infused post-punk and utterly singular spoken vocals.
Narrative lyricism isn’t vocalist Florence Shaw’s standard register, but with several European cities getting a taste of the very real effects of climate change in recent weeks, lines such as “Coal gets dug up, then piled up, then it falls, on top of us” gain particular resonance.
The ecocidal late-capitalist nightmare is upon us and we shouldn’t sit on our hands a moment longer. But, with Lewis Maynard’s unremitting bass playing and Shaw’s curious deadpan, Dry Cleaning are apt to soundtrack our collection action.
Taste of things to come
Alex Cameron & Roan Yellowthorn – ‘Islands in the Stream’
When Alex Cameron transitioned from post-dubstep electronic outfit Seekae into a solo career, his work had an understated, lo-fi quality. On his 2013 solo debut, Jumping the Shark, he proved a masterful character-builder with a sly penchant for soft rock melodicism.
Even so, you wouldn’t have guessed he was plotting a future as an MOR crooner, but that’s the direction in which he’s gradually moved on his two latest albums.
Cameron is now in the soft rock graduation phase. Here he partners with New York vocalist Roan Yellowthorn on a picture-perfect cover of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ ‘Islands in the Stream’. You could just listen to the original, of course, but Cameron’s decision to release his own version feels like a harbinger of what’s to come. He’s got something going on, all right.
Win a double pass to Bill Bailey’s brand new comedy show, ‘En Route To Normal’
Bill Bailey is heading to Australia for the first time since 2018.
Later this year, UK comedy icon Bill Bailey will return to Australia to tour his brand-new show, En Route To Normal.
Exploring these strange times, how to navigate them and how they’ve impacted our sense of identity, the show looks to be a hilarious, heart-warming melting pot of music, history, memories and storytelling.
Keep up with the fresh comedy news, reviews and interviews here.
The whopping 22-date tour will see Bailey stopping in Melbourne for three back-to-back shows and marks his first Australian shows since 2018.
To celebrate the beloved comedian’s highly-anticipated return to our shores, we’re giving away two double passes to En Route To Normal on Wednesday November 17 at Palais Theatre.
All you have to do to go in the running is enter your details below.
Good luck!
Competition closes on Friday October 15. By entering, you agree to receive promotional collateral from Beat and competition partners. For more info, check out our privacy policy.
Patricia Piccinini’s ‘A Miracle Constantly Repeated’ exhibition has been extended until 2022
The immersive exhibition will continue its Flinders Street Station Ballroom takeover until January 16.
Patricia Piccinini’s immersive exhibition A Miracle Constantly Repeated has been extended until January 16 2022 following multiple disruptions due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Launched as part of RISING festival, the landmark exhibition was slated to finish up on August 31.
What you need to know
- Tickets are on sale from 10am on Friday July 30
- The exhibition will now run until January 16 2022
- Ticketholders who missed out due to lockdown will be contacted to reschedule
Keep up with all the latest arts news, reviews and interviews here.
Piccinini’s first extensive hometown show in almost two decades, A Miracle Constantly Repeated explores humanity’s relationship to technology and the environment through hyper-real sculptures and video and sound installations.
Taking over Flinders Street Station’s mysterious ballroom, a venue which had previously been closed to the public for over 30 years, the exhibition has continually sold-out sessions since opening in May, welcoming almost 20,000 visitors so far.
“In an era marked by cancellations, shortened seasons and sudden ends, we are so delighted by the degree to which audiences have embraced this stunning exhibition by one of Australia’s foremost artists,” said RISING co-artistic director Hannah Fox.
“That we are able to extend the season for A Miracle Constantly Repeated, ensuring more people get to experience this incredible space, while continuing to draw visitors back to the CBD as the city continues to recover and rebuild, is all the more gratifying,” she said.
A Miracle Constantly Repeated will run until January 16 2022. Tickets are on sale from 10am on Friday July 30 via the RISING website.