EXPERIMENTA UTOPIA NOW Launch at Black Box, Southbank, Melbourne

David Kousemaker - interactive designer - Amsterdam at Experimenta Launch,. Photograph: Julie Clarke, 2010

David Kousemaker interacting with Touch Me, 2004 (collaboration with Tim Olden, Amsterdam). Photo: Julie Clarke, 2010

At 4.00 pm today the sky over North Melbourne turned dark, almost as black as night and within minutes nature put on an amazing show of lightning that would equal any fireworks display. Rain was thrashing against the windows and the 32 degree temperature had dropped dramatically. I was annoyed not only because I'm terrified of thunder storms but because, as a user of public transport I thought that the storm would prohibit me from travelling to the Experimenta Launch. As it happened, the storm subsided forty-five minutes later and I headed off to join the large crowd that had already assembled under a large marquee set up outside the EQ bar. I caught up with Troy Innocent (Artist), Alessio Cavallaro (Curator/ACMI), Lyndal Jones (Artist/RMIT) and Ian Haig (Media Artist/RMIT), however I was delighted to meet and speak with David Kousemaker from Amsterdam, one of the thirty Australian and International artists whose works are in the exhibition. Touch Me, 2004 a collaboration between David Kousemaker and another Amsterdam designer Tim Olden involves the user (audience member) touching the white button and then pressing his or her body against the surface of the interface, which scans their image. The image remains until the next person interacts with the screen. David asked me if I wanted to participate, but I was too interested in trying to take a photograph. However, every time I tried, all I got was stark white light. Eventually I managed to get one of David interacting with his own installation. In order to achieve this I stood at the side of the screen, rather than in front. Interactivity, indeed an incorporation of the body image of the audience member directly into the artwork appeared to be a feature of a number of the works, including Shilpa Gupta's (India) Shadow 3 (2007), which captures the shadow of participants who walk into the space and Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine's (Melbourne) You Were in My Dream (2010) that captures a person's facial expressions, whilst they are sitting at a desk and live feeds their facial image into the on-screen animation. There are many other engaging artworks in this exhibition, but I particularly liked Patrick Bernatchez (Canada), I Feel Cold Today (2007), a film that shows an almost empty interior office space consistently showered with snowflakes. And, talking about showers, at around 8pm the sky opened up again, the top of Rialto Tower in the distance was obliterated by a soft white cloud and those attending the launch huddled underneath the tent and absolutely anywhere they could remain dry. The Experimenta Launch was a total wash-out, but the champagne and beer kept flowing and everyone, including myself really enjoyed it. Experimenta Utopia Now is showing at Black Box, Southbank in Melbourne until 14 March 2010. More details at: http://www.experimenta.org/