Trick or Treat

A black blob of viscous bodily material. An unknown organism of undifferentiated tissue. The dark web and dark tech as an internet based contagion and a new species of dark matter.

ASTROTURF is a 3D computer animation which tells the story of how humans are devolving through their interaction with technology. ASTROTURF presents a number of test cases which explore the themes of technological dystopia and devolution.

A hazmat-suited researcher in a bathroom/toilet, credited only as the slime narrator, talks about discovering a new kind of parasite that attempts to complete its life cycle within various contemporary media platforms. It quickly emerges that our narrator has possibly started to lose his mind or has been affected by the parasite as he explores topics such as Virtual Reality worm simulations, our symbiotic relationship to 7-11s, AI censorship parasites, to the appearance of programmable dark matter, slime TV game shows, parasite pornography and mutant YouTube cat videos.

Inspired by Tom Roston's oral history ‘I Lost it at the Video Store’, this playful feature length documentary uses a deep local focus to show how VHS changed art forever. As the video shop era fades to black, Rainbow Video delves into the eclectic personal collections and practices of some of Melbourne's most renowned contemporary media artists. Through lively interviews and site studies of many legendary, now defunct video shops, Rainbow Video uncovers a secret history of a brief but impactful era.

24 hr fake news of visceral simulation. Everything now exists in a heightened state of simulation, from TV news broadcasts to internal human bodies, nothing is real, everything is constructed.

A mad scientist, a techno-nerd and a deadly computer virus form an ultra vivid hyper-reali­ty in this computer generated comic strip.

The idealized cosmetically augmented bodies and selfies of instagram are depicted in all their visceral surgical reality

Ian Haig’s The Foaming Node essays the discovery and emergence of new bodily organs in meticulous and captivating detail. We follow the last remaining observers, members of a cult of sorts, who have experienced both the transmissions of The Foaming Node, and their own personal and strange bodily transformations. They discuss exactly how the changes associated with The Foaming Node have affected them, telling fascinating, visceral, detailed tales that reach beyond science, alternative medicine, and corporeality.