Handmade Universe
From Craft to Spaces In Between
State Library Victoria, 2022
Making takes many forms. Handmade Universe celebrated the human impulse to make across craft, code, astronomy and botany, pairing contemporary commissions with rare objects from SLV's collection. At its heart, a hacked knitting machine became a living star map with a memory of its own.
The centrepiece of the exhibition was Stargazing, an interactive developed in close collaboration with artist and software engineer Sarah Spencer. Spencer hacked a knitting machine to produce a large-scale star map embedded with LEDs, and the interactive concept was developed to give visitors multiple ways in. A kiosk with tablets let visitors explore constellations and read about individual stars as they lit up on the physical map. A drawing mode let visitors draw on the tablet and watch the stars respond with matching colours and motion. When no one was using it, the map entered a dreaming state, quietly replaying fragments of past interactions. A large padded wedge invited visitors to lie down and look up.
The interactive was tested with visitors in the library during development to refine the concept and catch bugs before opening.
.jpeg)
- Curator: Linda Short
- Exhibitions Manager: Michelle Moo
- Exhibition Experience Design: Jorge Arreola
- Producer: Kate McHugh
- 3D Design: Studio Peter King
- 2-D Design: Forde+Nicol