What is the role of an art and technology organisation in 2026?

In 1996 I visited an Experimenta exhibition in the decaying La Trobe Street power station, a cavernous decommissioned industrial plant in the middle of Melbourne city. Walking through dark corridors to find otherworldly and futuristic installations felt dangerous, the show was charged with electricity as it attempted to define a vision of the future that was yet to emerge. Utopian, dystopian, the next five minutes…

I decided then and there that this is what I wanted to do. Artists like Ian Haig, Philip Samartzis, Martine Corompt, Philip Brophy were in this show and I found out that these people taught art at a place called RMIT Media Arts. I made it my mission to be there. After studying there, thirty years later, I count them as friends and mentors.

So it’s with sadness that I open my email in late June 2026 and see that Experimenta has gone into receivership and is no longer an active organisation. State and federal funding collapse? Same curator and curatorial vision for the last twelve years? Still hanging onto a model of expensive national touring? All potential factors for the decline.

The influential Experimenta magazine MESH, which I read avidly as a young man, pointed to a new world of interconnected nodes, memetic replication, always-on broadband consciousness and disruptive technological social upheaval. That infrastructure wave has now arrived and provided for uninterrupted doom/hope scrolling, GenAI Sloptivism, OnlyFans, LLM psychosis, facebook boomer radicalisation, pervasive data-mining and geo-tracking. The shadowy cyberpunk vision I fantasised about as a 17 year old surfing the mailing lists and forums has been embraced, made safe and sold back to me. Nothing is beyond capture.

Talking about mid to late 90s net.art culture feels like telling ‘Grandpas old war stories’, a far off place of adventure and mystery, a swashbuckling semiotic counter-culture where anonymous language agents such as Netochka Nezvanova stalked the discourse. Weaponised ciphers wielded as a attack vectors. Midnight coding, high on instant coffee, 28.8k modem chirping, eight hours of sleep is unnecessary. “Yeah yeah, Jodi, irrational.org, Nettime mailing list, Tactical Media — go back to sleep gramps”.

My small contribution to the legacy of this organisation was Experimenta Social, a series I devised, curated and hosted from 2016. An informal audiovisual salon where artists, audiences and *ultra-hobbyists* could meet each other, listen to presentations and ask questions. Produced alongside Nicky Pastore and hosted at ACMIX, I was happy with the program I developed to profile the work of Sean Dockray, Lara Thoms, Eugenia Lim, Philip Brophy, Holly Childs, Christopher LG Hill and Matthew Sleeth amongst others.

I hope there is an effort to create an online archive of the publications and activities produced by Experimenta and this Australian media art legacy doesn’t evaporate into landfill or e-waste recycling bins. It seems the credit cards have been seized, hosting bills haven’t been paid and the website is already down.

Experimenta needed one more shapeshift, one more shedding of skin, like it did when it left the name Modern Image Makers Association to become Experimenta in the mid-nineties… it missed that one last reinvention to stay relevant.

Dear friends and supporters of Experimenta,

We are writing with the sad news that after four decades at the forefront of media arts in Australia, the board of Experimenta has made the decision to wind down the organisation in 2026. Despite sustained efforts to diversify income and adapt our operating model, the reduction in public arts funding at both the federal and state levels has made it impossible to sustain operations at the level required by Experimenta’s mission.

On 18 June 2026, Garth O’Connor-Price of William Buck was appointed as Liquidator of Experimenta. Should you have any queries in relation to claims, we encourage you to contact his office on (03) 9824 8555 or via email at vic.creditorinfo@williambuck.com.

Founded in 1986, Experimenta has been a pioneering force in commissioning, exhibiting and touring contemporary art shaped by technology. From its origins as the Modern Image Makers Association to its evolution into a globally recognised arts organisation, it has consistently championed artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology, helping redefine the boundaries of contemporary practice. Across almost 40 years, Experimenta has built a remarkable legacy. It has supported generations of artists, from emerging voices to internationally recognised practitioners, while fostering ambitious, collaborative works that bring together technologists, scientists, researchers and creatives. Its triennials, which include a national touring program, have reached audiences across metropolitan and regional Australia, expanding public engagement with new and experimental art forms and contributing significantly to their development in this country.

Experimenta’s work has never been confined to traditional formats. It has embraced creative coding, robotics, bio art, virtual and augmented reality, and data-driven practices, encouraging audiences to explore complex contemporary issues and to reflect on what it means to be human in an age of rapid technological change.

We extend our deepest gratitude to the many supporters, both public funders and private donors, who have sustained Experimenta over its lifetime, to the organisation’s past and present staff, and to the extraordinary artists from across Australia and internationally who have worked with Experimenta over the last four decades.

Experimenta’s impact will endure in the artists it has supported, the audiences it has inspired, and the ideas it has brought into the world. While the organisation’s operations are drawing to a close, its influence will continue to shape the evolving landscape of art and technology for years to come.

Yours sincerely,

The Experimenta Board
Daniel Crooks, Kelly Gellatly, John Merakovsky, Emma Parker & Pinky Tang

The post Experimenta is dead appeared first on Emile Zile.

Each artist has delved deep into Public Record Office Victoria’s collection to examine local histories that resonate with them on a personal level. Through historic photographs, criminal inquest records, original artifacts and hand written documents, they’ve explored Victoria’s past and created works about the relevance of history on contemporary issues.

Comics journalist, and dock worker Sam Wallman has looked into the impact of automation on the docks. Textile artist Shannon Slee is highlighting the historical violence on women’s bodies due to state laws that prohibited access to safe reproductive health care. Graphic designer Susan Fitzgerald has immersed herself in the history of transport ticket design and the lost manufacturing processes. LUCIANO and George Keats, who work collectively as Queer-ways have brought to life the outfits that landed people in the courts for gender non-conformity in the early 20th century. And video and performance artist Emile Zile has discovered the traces his own family have left behind in the archives.

Opening night: 5-7pm Thursday 29 May 2025
99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, Australia

https://prov.vic.gov.au/whats/public-exhibitions/rewind-forward

The post Rewind Forward at Public Records Office Victoria appeared first on Emile Zile.

https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/artfilm/ukrainatv/

UKRAiNATV is an experimental media project and Internet TV station that blends real and virtual worlds through live audiovisual bridges, streaming and global networks. Based in Krakow, Poland, it brings together artists, activists, musicians and media enthusiasts from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and beyond – many of whom are refugees or nomadic creators unable to express themselves freely in their own countries. Founded in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, UKRAiNATV aims to create a space of solidarity and safety for marginalised communities.

Operating from #StreamArtStudio, the collective mixes new and used equipment to produce innovative, hybrid content, connecting people worldwide through transnational collaborations. Despite its instability, UKRAiNATV is a powerful hub that explores the intersection of art, politics, and media in times of conflict and change. It is one of the most experimental and resource-limited TV networks in the world, born out of a need for creative and humanitarian expression.

About Geert Lovink
Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of Sad by Design (2019) and Stuck on the Platform (2022) and Extinction Internet. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures (www.networkcultures.org) at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). In 2022 he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the University of Amsterdam Art History Department. Since early 2022 he has been involved in support campaigns for Ukranian artists, in particular UkrainaTV, a streaming art studio/network, operating out of Krakow.

About Emile Zile
Emile Zile is an artist, filmmaker and performer. Using the overlooked remnants of network culture to create his performances, films and exhibitions, Emile engages with the boundaries of language to explore contemporary digital selfhood.

The post ACMI ART+FILM: UKRAiNATV appeared first on Emile Zile.

Please join us for a drink to celebrate the launch of Philip Brophy’s new book Screenic. There will be a reading from Emile Zile, and more…

Conners Conners
Fitzroy Town Hall
201 Napier Street Fitzroy
Saturday, November 30, 4-6pm

https://www.connersconnersgallery.com

The post Melbourne Book Launch — Screenic: Politicised Writings on Being Screened by Philip Brophy appeared first on Emile Zile.

23 Aug — 16 Nov 2024
RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston St. Melbourne

Lifting its title from a misheard line in a 1980 song by The Fall about a reclusive dog breeder whose ‘hideous replica’ haunts industrial Manchester, this experimental project—an admixture of artworks, performances, screenings, workshops, a ‘replica school’ and other uncanny encounters—adopts monstrous replication as a tactic, condition and curatorial framework for exploring algorithmic culture, simultaneously alienating, seductive and out-of-control.
Exhibition includes works by Amy May Stuart, Angie Waller, Anna Vasof, Debris Facility, Diego Ramirez, Emile Zile, Joshua Citarella, Liang Luscombe, Loren Adams, Masato Takasaka, Matthew Griffin & Heath Franco and Mo Chu.
Performances, talks and workshops by Catherine Ryan, Chloe Sobek, Jennifer Walshe, Joel Sherwood Spring, Machine Listening, McKenzie Wark, Roslyn Helper, Tomomi Adachi and more.

Curated by Joel Stern and Sean Dockray.
This Hideous Replica has been produced by RMIT Culture and supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) and the RMIT Design and Creative Practice Enabling Impact Platforms. This project is a part of the City of Melbourne’s Now or Never festival. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Image: Mochu, GROTESKKBASILISKK! MINERAL MIXTAPE, 2022, digital video (still), Image courtesy of the artist.

The post This Hideous Replica appeared first on Emile Zile.

Discipline is pleased to announce its latest title, Screenic: Politicised Writings on Being Screened—an anthology of Philip Brophy’s writing on art over the last twenty-five years. The focus of the selection is on art that involves screens: projected as film in museums, digitised for installations in galleries, curated as documents within exhibitions, presented as outdoor illuminations on buildings, utilised for the production of VR and AI-generated content, and even wall murals derived from televisual screens. The driver for the writing of these articles is an interest in media literacy within fine art contexts. Together, the articles reinforce the view that ongoing changes taking place in the mediascape over the last two decades create challenges for artists, producers, curators, viewers, and critics—sometimes resulting in a rejuvenation of how media art can be imagined and presented, other times evidencing an anaemic grasp of the contemporary mediascape that whorls outside the white cube.

Screenic has been designed by James Vinciguerra and Duncan Blachford, and printed in Narrm/Melbourne by Documents on Call. It features a preface by Helen Hughes, an introduction by Emile Zile, and has been edited by Olga Bennett.

The post Philip Brophy — Screenic: Politicised Writings on Being Screened appeared first on Emile Zile.

The reader is the audience. The reader is the market. The reader is the critic. The reader is the buyer. The reader is the voice in your head.

Over the course of the Stallholder Fair, Emile Zile will read publicly, privately, obviously, convulsively, discreetly, silently, annoyingly, desperately, lazily.

https://artbookfair.melbourne

Melbourne Art Book Fair
23 May – 02 June
Great Hall, NGV International
180 Saint Kilda Road, Southbank Melbourne, VIC, Australia

The post The Reader appeared first on Emile Zile.

BAITHOUSE – Henry Lai-Pyne, Emile Zile, Audrey Pfister, Liam Wolfs, Babs Rapeport

https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/acmi-rmit-audience-lab/march-expo-2024/

BAITHOUSE is a 3D animated motion-capture livestream talk show. Using live motion capture, physical performance and animation, guests and hosts will be presented in a constructed digital world and in conversation with one another. As an expanded form of hybrid public programming, performance and critical discourse BAITHOUSE is a new digital and artistic platform that will host hyper-threaded conversations around networked technologies, contemporary aesthetics and new media. Accessible to view online and presented as a hybrid live event for local audiences BAITHOUSE invites guest artists, writers, academics, and designers from across Australia to engage in Q&As and discussion around swamp technology, digital life, and internet (sub-)cultures.

Session times: 11.30am, 1pm & 2.30pm
ACMI Fed Square 16/03/24

The post RMIT ACMI AudienceLab appeared first on Emile Zile.

Work commissioned through Gallery 5 will enter the ACMI collection.

Showing now online at ACMI; https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/emile-zile-we-are-as-gods/

At the end of 2022 I was approached by ACMI to make a new video. After my PhD graduation, the birth of our daughter, appearing on another gameshow and a dense year of projects and delays this project is now live online. Taking its title from a quote in the Whole Earth Catalogue by hippie-turned-futurist Stuart Brand in 1968 “We are as gods, and might as well get good at it…”, the video observes the speech of online gamers; internal yet externalised, alone and together. Gods in their own twitch streams, lords of all they survey in 4K resolution.

In this video I experimented with a form of disembodied directing, offering text missives via the cloud to the gamer as they surveyed multiple screens; an intentional provocation that may or may not get picked up within an improvisational daydream monologue. Utilising the distances of game streaming as a given, this remote prodding provided a form of live language play and the potential for remote speech over-clocking.

The post We Are As Gods appeared first on Emile Zile.

In July I wrote a few short stories about the individuals contained within CAPTCHA web authentication panes. Elaborating on the digitally-native and banal daily existence of these users, stories were told about mid-level DJ decks streaming to twitch, small claims disputes over stolen gaming computer property, checking job application CVs in the cloud via McDonalds carpark free wifi. Precarity and individuality, because you’re worth it®. Unrequited obscenities came across the sound system, because that is the internet.

These stories were delivered at an event called Logical Conclusions/Automation Effects, curated by Laura McLean, Joel Stern and Mark Andrejevic — presented by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society and Liquid Architecture.

Video shot by Kenneth Suico

20 July 2022

Miscellania
2/401 Swanston St.
Melbourne

The post Re:Capcha appeared first on Emile Zile.