Electric Dreams Conference

Electric Dreams is a 1 day conference investigating and celebrating of the art of immersive storytelling. The program will feature sessions from leading artists and creative technologists whose work is presented at Adelaide Fringe, as well as a keynote by Vince Kadlubek, co-founder & CEO of Meow Wolf, an award-winning immersive arts production company in the US. If you’re an artist or technologist, a film-maker or performer, a programmer or curator, Electric Dreams is for you. It’s for people who want to keep on top of the creative and commercial opportunities of emerging technologies. It’s for people who want to shape society, encourage debate and connect with audiences in new ways.
Talks include:

9:00 - Storytelling with Drones - The Making of Sky Song 
John Hopkins, Co-Founder, Celestial; Heather Croall, CEO & Artistic Director, Adelaide Fringe; Nancy Bates, Soundtrack supervisor & musician. Deadly Management.
Celestial is an artist-led drone display company that creates immersive experiences & innovative installations through LED storytelling. Over the last year, Celestial have collaborated with First Nations Artists to create Sky Song for Adelaide Fringe.  It is an astounding work, featuring hundreds of drones flying in majestic formation to a soundtrack of First Nations storytelling through poetry and song.
A panel featuring some of the collaborators behind Sky Song talk about the making of this incredible project and how it was created from inception to delivery.  John is the co-founder of Celestial and has been a key creative on Sky Song. Nancy Bates is a Barkindji Woman, originating from Far Western NSW, and now residing on Kaurna Country in Adelaide. Nancy is an accomplished singer songwriter and has been the soundtrack supervisor on Sky Song.
(Sky Song will be presented at the Adelaide Fringe from 18 Feb – 20 March)

10:00 - Blast Theory: Nick Tandavanitj (online) in conversation with Sarah Tutton, Chief Curator, ACMI
Blast Theory are an award-winning studio who have been making interactive art to explore social and political questions since 1991.  The group’s work places the public at the centre of unusual and sometimes unsettling experiences, to create new perspectives and open up the possibility of change. The group draw on popular culture and new technologies to make performances, games, films, apps and installations for the likes of the Venice Biennale, Tribeca Film Festival, ICC in Tokyo, Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, the Barbican, Tate Britain, Sundance Film Festival and the Royal Opera House.
Rider Spoke is an interactive project for cyclists that has toured to over 20 cities is returning to Adelaide Fringe this year. The work continues the Blast Theory's fascination with how games and new communication technologies create novel social spaces where the private and the public intertwine. Blast Theory artist, Nick Tandavanitj, will talk about the development of the project and their approach to making work in digital public spaces.
(Rider Spoke will be presented at the Adelaide Fringe from 18-22 Feb)

10:30 – Everything You Feel is Real
May Abdalla, Immersive Experience Creator, Anagram.
How can navigating the real and the imaginary in immersive storytelling bring us closer to unexplored sides of ourselves? May Abdalla a co-founder of Anagram, an award-winning creative studio, charts their innovative work with an emphasis on designing for intimate moments and the power of combining technology with physical experience.
May will track Anagram’s development of award-winning productions from Door into the Dark, a blindfolded immersive journey into what it means to be lost in an age of infinite information to the Grand Jury Prize winning ‘Goliath: Playing with Reality’, their most recent work, a stunning VR experience about schizophrenia, gaming and connection. She will share her learnings on how technology, physicality and storytelling can combine to elicit emotion and connection.
(Goliath: Playing with Reality will be presented as part of Electric Dreams from 19-23 Feb)

12:00 –  Art, Hope and Climate: How Artists Can Empower Us to Tackle the Climate Emergency?
Jamie Perera, Arist & Musician, in conversation with Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray, Joint Deputy Dean of Research, Faculty of Arts, Adelaide University.
How can art empower us to tackle the climate emergency? Jamie Perera uses sound to deconstruct objects and data in ways that create provoking experiences for listeners, and Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray, a researcher from the University of Adelaide, focusses on connecting community to environmental issues. They discuss how art and knowledge can converge to create pathways of awareness and deconstruction as we share the global challenge of how to face climate, colonisation and social justice crises. The conversation springs from Jamie's work, the immersive "Anthropocene in  C major", a score that sonifies data from the Holocene to create a live experience of human impact on earth. Jamie works at the intersection of sound art and human impact issues such as climate change, social justice and decolonisation, and he and Melissa will discuss their journeys through the Anthropocene, and their experience of art, climate and hope. 

(Anthropocene in C Major will be presented as part of Electric Dreams from 19-23 Feb)

14:30 – The Art and Science of Thrill
Brendan Walker, Director, StudioGoGo
Why did the world's earliest loop-the-loop coasters have nurses on permanent standby? Exactly how far do you need to be dropped in the pitch black for it to become terrifying? And why do you (maybe) enjoy it? This talk explores the art and science to creating thrilling adventures in real life, with examples from over the last fifteen years, which include his latest virtual reality swings at Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Join thrill engineer Brendan Walker as he explores everything from the psychophysiology to the theatrical set design needed to stage these intricate ride experiences.
(VR Swings: Volo - Dreams of Flight will be presented as part of Electric Dreams from 18 Feb – 20 March)

15:30 – Keynote: 'Meow Wolf: Unleashing the Power of The Imagination'
Vince Kadlubek, Founder & CEO, Meow Wolf
Vince Kadlubek is a co-founder and the CEO of Meow Wolf, an art collective that has transformed into an award-winning arts production company who create immersive and interactive experiences that transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration at sites across the USA.
Vince will tell the incredible story of the the origins of Meow Wolf, the company's rise in popularity, sharing his invaluable learnings on co-creating alternative realities and bringing unique, indescribable, transformative immersive art experiences to the world. He will reveal how a willingness to venture courageously into the unknown created an unprecedented success, leading us on a deep dive into the transformative experience that guests are having at Meow Wolf. He will explore how this relates to a greater transformation of the self in the world and how unlocking the power of the imagination has the ability to transform reality.

16:30 - Networking Drinks supported by The UK Government
Presented by:
Electric Dreams
Electric Dreams is curated by Crossover Labs: award-winning producers of immersive and interactive work, Immersive Curators at CPH:DOX Copenhagen, Silbersalz Science and Media Festival Germany, and Electric Dreams Adelaide and London. Through an international programme of labs and workshops, they develop the next generation of global immersive producers.

Please Note: This event has had a lineup change as of 9/02