Motion + Emotion follows last year’s highly successful Light + Shade exhibition. It’s an annual event where recent design graduates, emerging designers and industry leaders challenge themselves and showcase their talents without the constraints of commercial realities.

This year’s design brief was to explore the convergence of existing objects and re-interpret them to deepen our understanding of motion and movement. The designers have realised this through a variety of mediums – sculptural, graphic, multi-media and working model.

“We wanted to create an unrestricting environment where professional designers could freely utilise their skills and experience,” says DIA Victoria Councillor, Dominic Russo.

“Expect out of the ordinary interpretations that challenge the common paradigms of both Motion + Emotion.”

One such example is Emotion Machine, a collaboration between Edward Linacre, Marisa Taylor, Alice Hobday and Joshua Batty. In this experimental and interactive audio-visual project, music is powered by human energy, its tempo changing according to the user’s heart rate.

“In life, everything is connected,” Edward Linacre explains. 

“The Emotion Machine renders these connections both visible and audible in order to experience them directly.”

Other exhibitors at Motion + Emotion include Christina Fogale, Lauren Hepner, Robert Puksand, Sue Coles, ilan.el, Ross Gardam, Margaret Fulton and Marcia Liew, Julie Newton, Colleen Morris, David Walley and Jaime Calero.

Motion + Emotion is on display at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building as part of the State of Design Festival, from Thurday 21 – Sunday 24 July.

DIA Victoria
design.org.au/vic