The RMIT Design Hub will host an exhibition this month that aims to explore the interdisciplinary and poetic role of play in everyday life through the eyes of designers and artists. The exhibition, Design and Play will run at the Design Hub from Friday 29 April to Saturday 14 May.

Presented through a diverse range of research projects, installations and artist works, this exhibition explores play as a creative, social, cultural and political act and mode of practice. One of the major highlights of the exhibition is a full-scale, experiential fulldome titled Dome Lab, a world-leading research project developed collaboratively by 15 investigators and 11 organisations worldwide, including RMIT.

To be housed in Design Hub’s main gallery (Project Room 1), Dome Lab is the first mobile, ultra-high resolution dome-based video projection environment in Australia, with its unique and low-cost display system integrating technical innovation, computing power and graphics capability with aesthetic innovation in content delivery.

Dome Lab will feature video, animation games and virtual art experiences including works by Jonathan Duckworth, James Hullick, Ross Eldridge, Bolt Ensemble, John Power, Adam Nash, Stefan Greuter, Sarah Kenderdine, Paul Burke, Tamara S. Clarke, Finger Candy, Jack Sinclair and Jadd Zayed.

The Design Hub’s Project Room 1 will also display the virtual art experience Out of Space, which will make use of the most recent virtual reality gaming technology.

Curated by Larissa Hjorth and Lisa Byrne, Project Rooms 2 and 3 will provide exhibition visitors an opportunity to respond to ideas of play via a series of interventions including works by renowned international artist Erwin Wurm. Visitors can also look forward to exhibits by Fleur Summers, Ronnie Van Hout, collaborators Arlo Mountford and Nick Selenitsch as well as Emily Floyd, Kate Rohde, Laresa Kosloff, Rohit Khot, Chad Toprak, Amani Naseem, Paul Wood and Michael Georgetti.

Associated Programs:

Public Lecture: Play in the Age of Computing Machinery by Associate Professor Miguel Sicart, ITU, Copenhagen; Thursday 28 April, 4.30pm - 5.30pm; Lecture Theatre, Level 3, RMIT Design Hub.

Dome Lab Masterclass: Monday 2 May, 10am – 5pm; Lecture Theatre, Level 3, RMIT Design Hub. Dome Lab is presented as part of Melbourne Knowledge Week 2 to 8 May, 2016.

The Design and Play exhibition will be held from Friday 29 April 2016 to Saturday 14 May 2016 at the RMIT Design Hub, Project Rooms 1, 2 & 3, RMIT Building 100, Corner of Victoria and Swanston Streets, Carlton, 3053.