The relationship between IRL and URL at Arts House

As part of the next edition of BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital), running until September 28, Arts House presents two new and free commissions: love.exe and Finding Pathways to Temahahoi. 

love.exe

Digital love is in the air-a with love.exe: a geek fusion between the gaming culture and kitsch romance turning into a playful installation. 

Within Arts House at the North Melbourne Town Hall, meet fandom, gaming and companion characters in a temple inspired by iconic video games. The exhibition explores how we seek solace, connection, validation and love in the tech realm.

Creator Jarra Karalinar Steel said that love.exe was a shrine to finding love in a world of digital romance.

“I grew up in the 1990s, I loved playing video games that featured romance mechanics that allowed players to form in-game relationships,” Jarra said.

The artwork is also interactive – on the BLEED website, fans can write a tribute to their favourite characters to create a digital bank and repository of love letters, celebrating the intersection of fandom, fantasy and romantic exploration.

According to Jarra, it’s a way for viewers to personify the feelings that move from the screen to the real realm: “The well-crafted, mature characters inspired me to explore the emotions behind fictional romances and the communities they foster.”

Finding Pathways to Temahahoi 

Created by Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos), this multimedia installation connects Ciwas's queer and Atayal identities, and through that process, conjures a place safe from heteronormativity.

“Finding Pathways to Temahahoi aims to connect queer communities beyond borders,” Ciwas said. 

“Using motifs of bees and wind, the commission blends video works, drawings, performances and more than 20 bespoke ceramic instruments made in Melbourne and Taipei.”

“In the Atayal oral story, Temahahoi is a fluid location hidden deep in the Taiwanese mountains where only women live. As keepers of traditional knowledge and powers, these women communicate with bees, sustain themselves on smoke and steam and are impregnated by the wind.”

Interactive through the BLEED website, Ciwas aims to create a queer cultural space into an evolving net art project. Participants can contribute with their audio stories and soundscapes that blend the ancestral and digital realms.

The digital installation will include two durational activations by Ciwas, Natalie Tso and Kori Miles alongside live-coding sound by Fetle Wondimu. It is a response to the cyberland of Temahahoi, expanding knowledge and connections beyond the soil and into the air.

“We are thrilled to present the works created by Jarra and Ciwas for BLEED. These new installations, alongside their digital counterparts, will create unforgettable and transportive experiences for audiences and participants,” Arts House acting artistic director Olivia Anderson said. 

Examining and exploring the relationship between the digital and the live, BLEED engages hyperconnected communities and virtual networks to create and experience cutting-edge art, culture and ideas.

BLEED exhibitions at Arts House are open to the public from Monday to Friday, 10.30am to 4.30pm (closed Sunday and public holidays), and Saturdays from 11am to 4pm. •