Screening for the first time on the entire north-facing wall of the museum will be The Art of Constant Change — a giant video artwork by Melbourne-based digital media artists Dr Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer — known as PluginHUMAN.
The duo, which has contributed to Melbourne's White Night and other massive digital projection events, uses light, moving images and music to create immersive and interactive art installations.
Dr Sargeant said The Art of Constant Change was created using an electroencephalogram or EEG — to monitor the artists’ brain patterns as they adapted to social changes brought on by COVID-19.
“We have all been in a state of constant change and adaptation through the pandemic. This artwork reflects upon and responds to these extraordinary contemporary conditions,” she said.
Dr Sargeant said the artists wore headsets that recorded their brain's electrical signals, which were then converted into images using a computer program.
“The brain reacts in different ways to stress or relaxation in the body or the environment. We're changing all the time. So this artwork is a combination of neural functions and computer generated visuals,” she said.
Dr Sargeant said the new work was created specifically for the SAM building as a replacement for the digital projection due to illuminate the cancelled Shepparton Festival event Unify the Senses at the multi-storey car park on Stewart St.
“We had two weeks to make an entirely new artwork. We sat for a moment, and thought — the whole world is going mad, but it's exciting and human at the same time,” she said.
The Art of Constant Change will be shown at SAM on Victoria Park Lake from Friday, June 25, until Sunday night as part of the festival's re-worked 25th anniversary program.
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