Digital Wall Exhibition: Locus Amoenus
The Digital Wall in the Bunjil Place foyer is a digital gallery space that exhibits video art and generative works from renowned artists and motion designers. Over the coming months we will present a video excerpt from John Power’s generative work Locus Amoenus.
Locus Amoenus will exhibit on the Digital Wall in the Bunjil Place Foyer 22 July – 2 September 2022.
Header image: Still of Locus Amoenus by John Power
Locus Amoenus
This feature length film was generated from an artwork that was installed as part of an ambient refuge for a hospital. Locus Amoenus (Place of Delight) is permanently installed in a hospital lounge in the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) in Parkville, Victoria. The screen depicts a perpetually changing, naturalistic view of a procedurally generated three-dimensional landscape, that draws on local real-time weather data and the diurnal passage of light. The window-like perspectival view of the landscape slowly roams in an indeterminate open-ended journey driven by generative algorithms. The terrains and biomes represented in the work are informed by natural environments in Victoria. The animated screen image uses biophilic patterns to support calm and attention restoration for those who pass by, work, or dwell near the screen. This work was the subject of PhD research that focused on ways that large public screens could be used as Calm Technologies; that is, technologies that foster sense of place and attention restoration.
About the Artist: John Power
John Power is an award-winning artist, director and producer working in visualisation, VFX, ambient screen media, and public media installations. He combines traditional media, CGI and generative processes in time-based art. Power has toured and exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent clients and exhibitions include State Library Victoria, Melbourne Arts Centre, ACMI Federation Square, Queensland Art Gallery, Tropfest Sydney. His recent PhD dissertation is entitled Calm Place: Understanding generative ambient screens in public space as encounters with Calm Technology. His Practice-Led research is into ways that public screens can be combined with new media technologies to foster calm and place-making. Power lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne in the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity (MAGI) in the School of Design.
