Machines like us, cells like them

ANAT SPECTRA 2022 an artistic and discursive platform inspired by the intersection of art, science and technology on the theme of Multiplicity. The program will comprise an artistic offering of moving image, performance, visual and sound art in dialogue with a discursive program in symposium and assembly formats, presented online and IRL.

If, as some believe, we are moving towards a metaverse in which the natural and digital worlds are more integrated, becoming a new and unified world, then how might our relationships with machines operate to make these worlds better, fairer, and more sustainable?

The integration of the machine into the daily life of the human has rewired our behaviour patterns from the realms of work to sleep to courtship. Machines surveil our movements, track our habits of consumption, produce other machines to act on our behalf, and provide new ways of sensing, feeling and thinking. If we are not, as futurist Ray Kurzweil proposes, becoming one with the machine and evolving into a new species, then we are certainly becoming closer to something other than what we are now. These works explore this relationship, proposing a multiplicity of expressions of influence, interdependence, and integration.

Curated by David Pledger and Nina Sellars

The program foregrounds Australians working at the edge of experimental and anti-disciplinary practice. It will provide a space for the joy and pleasure of the contest of ideas, research and creation, deliberations of their impacts and meanings for future societies and the generation of new artworks that might help us get there. Our gathering will be intersectional, intergenerational, interdisciplinary and reciprocal.

ANAT SPECTRA 2022 is proudly presented by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) in partnership with the Science Gallery Melbourne, University of Melbourne, together with program partners The Things We Did Next (TTWDNext), Typecast Entertainment and Leonardo.