Program

Two visionaries. One stage. Infinite dimensions.

Melbourne Town Hall

Thu 28 Aug

Radical Latin rhythms and club flexes with a serious low-end focus.

Melbourne Town Hall

Fri 29 Aug

An homage to the healing powers of the dance floor.

Melbourne Town Hall

Sat 30 Aug

Ecstatic encounters with sardonic, sensual techno-pop; hypnotic live electronica; and euphoric movement, music and light.

Melbourne Town Hall

Sun 31 Aug

Moritz von Oswald, Sleep D, Kia

Announcing the Now or Never opening night party. A free winter rave, live at Fed Square.

Fed Square – Main Square

Thurs 21 Aug

Penique Productions

MATRIA transforms the Royal Exhibition Building with a towering, undulating pink membrane that envelops the audience in a breathing organic bubble.

Royal Exhibition Building

Thu 21 Aug — Sun 24 Aug

Julia Busuttil Nishimura, Boris Acket

Julia Busuttil Nishimura crafts a feast set beneath the striking installation Einder by Boris Acket.

Melbourne Town Hall

Fri 22 Aug

Boris Acket

Look up, the roaring sea meets the sky in an aerial dance.

Melbourne Town Hall

Thu 21 Aug
Sat 23 Aug — Sun 24 Aug
Mon 25 Aug
Wed 27 Aug

Hamill Industries

State Library Victoria morphs with an algorithm-driven audio-visual hallucination.

State Library Victoria

Thu 21 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Plunge beneath the surface of sound and expand the boundaries of perception.

Melbourne Recital Centre – Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

Fri 22 Aug

A deep listening experience of another dimension. Silencio is a minimalist masterpiece from the master of electronic composition.

Melbourne Recital Centre – Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

Sat 23 Aug

Eek, Tina Stefanou, and Kirby Casilli pres. 'Hearsay' / Team Rolfes & The Mustang Speedrun

Dismantle the traditional cinema experience with two world premiere works of mixed-reality cinema where fiction, image, and bodies fracture in real time.

ACMI – Cinema 1

Tues 26 Aug

Hosted by Hilary Harper

Award-winning scientist and former Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, explores the transformations humankind must make to a regenerative future.

The Capitol

Fri 29 Aug

Rashaad Newsome, Johnny Symons

Black queer paradise: art, AI, and performance gloriously entwined.

ACMI – Cinema 2

Wed 27 Aug
Fri 29 Aug
Sun 31 Aug

WANTA JAMPIJINPA PAWU-KURLPURLURNU, JERRY JANGALA PATRICK OAM, MARC "MONKEY" PECKHAM, JAMES GILLOT

Step into a world of vast desert landscapes and extraordinary ceremonial knowledge in this groundbreaking First Nations film.

The Capitol

Fri 29 Aug

Vidya Rajan, Sam Mcgilp, Andrew Sutherland

The crisis is coming. Bring your phone.

Arts House

Wed 27 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Dr Christian Thompson AO

A sonic installation of Bidjara language, memory and resilience.

Evan Walker Bridge

Thurs 21 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston

Neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston offers a compelling argument for why human life could – and should – be eternal.

The Wheeler Centre

Wed 27 Aug

Hosted by Lauren Taylor

Mood. Brand. Data. Repeat. Music in the age of algorithms.

The Wheeler Centre

Thu 28 Aug

Jessica Russ-Smith, Michelle D. Lazarus

How can First Nations knowledges help shape the future of artificial intelligence?

The Wheeler Centre

Tue 26 Aug

Hosted by Dr Robin Fox

Boundary-defying composer and producer Laurel Halo joins MESS co-founder Robin Fox to explore a soundworld that drifts between ambient, jazz and avant-pop.

State Library Victoria Theatrette

Sat 23 Aug

Hosted by Dr Robin Fox

Electronic music legend Moritz von Oswald joins MESS co-founder Robin Fox for an exclusive artist talk.

State Library Victoria Theatrette

Sun 24 Aug

Ambient electronics meets post-club workouts that will leave you wanting more.

Royal Exhibition Building

Fri 22 Aug

Experience the ritualistic sound worlds of Alex Zhang Hungtai within MATRIA.

Royal Exhibition Building

Thu 21 Aug

An intense sensory journey and an exploration of transformation in MATRIA.

Royal Exhibition Building

Sat 23 Aug

Biddy Connor, Aviva Endean, Alexandra Spence

Three sonic rituals: a medical machine sings with human breath, bones channel whispered secrets, and vibrating forms transmute the ordinary into sublime performance.

Melbourne Recital Centre – Primrose Potter Salon

Fri 22 Aug — Sat 23 Aug

Rebecca Bracewell, Hannah de Feyter, Anna Liebzeit, Monica Lim, Tamara Saulwick with Peter Knight, Thembi Soddell

How do technologies mediate and transform our experience of sound?

Melbourne Recital Centre

Fri 22 — Sun 24 Aug

Hosted by Dr Solange Glasser

What does it mean to listen deeply, and what are we listening with?

Melbourne Recital Centre – Primrose Potter Salon

Sat 23 Aug

Hosted by Dr Robin Fox

A deep dive into sonic revolutions.

Melbourne Recital Centre – Primrose Potter Salon

Thu 28 Aug

Encor Studio

An optical illusion of light and sound that questions the concept of isolation, reflects on the mutation of spaces, and looks beyond appearances.

Melbourne Town Hall Forecourt

Thurs 14 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Namazu

Sound becomes ceremony and terrain becomes score in this site-responsive work by Narrm-based ambient duo Namazu.

Federation Bells

Thurs 21 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Team Rolfes, Hamill Industries

Two pioneering studios converge to reimagine the boundaries of screen-based performance, technological expression, and sensory experience.

ACMI – Cinema 2

Wed 27 August

Katherine Bennell-Pegg, hosted by Dr Tanya Hill

The choices we make up there will define us down here.

Melbourne Museum

Sat 23 Aug

Xanthe Dobbie, Harriet Gillies, Thom Smyth

Witness queer artists transform Microsoft's most mundane medium into a funny riot of hot takes, cooked theories, and gloriously gay revelations.

Fed Square – The Edge

Fri 29 Aug

Isobel Knowles, Van Sowerwine

A house is never the same after a river runs through it. Memories of flooded homes are reimagined through groundbreaking storytelling technologies.

ACMI – Swinburne Studio

Thu 21 Aug — Sun 24 Aug

Where does creativity come from? This timeless question is at the heart of the State Library’s latest exhibition.

State Library Victoria – Victoria Gallery

15 August 2025 – 31 May 2026

Party late into the night at State Library Victoria with an evening of dancing, art and creativity after dark.

State Library Victoria

Fri 22 Aug

Queen Asher & Rehema Tajiri, Essendon Airport, s280f, Drone String Orchestra w/ Sachin de Silva, Jungist, Stacey Collee, Solsa, Crisis Bangers, Louis Cooper, Zourry

A night of experimental live performance and untethered club music.

Miscellania

Fri 22 Aug

Culture, rhythm and story converge – curated by Music in Exile.

The Curtin

Fri 22 Aug

Tayhana, Anita B Queen, Zalina, Tina Disco, Sin Nubes

Ready yourselves for a party brimming with sobeteo, zapateo, freseo, aleteo Y todo lo rico.

Miscellania

Fri 29 Aug

Coki (UK / DMZ), Mumn Norm (DJ Mum b2b Stormn Norm), Yunzero, Emily Arenas Zarate & Secret International Guest (TBA)

A deep dive into bass and rhythm that stretches from daylight into distortion.

Miscellania

Sun 31 Aug

Centre for Projection Art

Moving image works that blur the boundaries between species, bodies, and technologies.

Fed Square – Big Screen

Mon 25 Aug — Sun 31 Aug

Take a breath. Reset your nervous system, elevate your energy, and shift your state from the inside out - a breathwork experience like no other.

Royal Exhibition Building

Sat 23 Aug — Sun 24 Aug

STATHIS//DAVEY//KIM, Nū with live visuals by Mel Huang, noom, Melody Woodnutt, ButohOUT!

For one night only, DISTRACTION goes late for Now or Never, with live art, sonic serenity and a free party built for your short attention span.

Science Gallery Melbourne

Fri 29 Aug

Focusing on interactive games, play and human-centred technologies, this new exhibition explores the ways we might harness the cacophony of digital content and find meaning within it.

Science Gallery Melbourne

26 Jul — 20 Dec 2025

Aviva Endean with Justin Marshall & children at ArtPlay

Discover hidden sounds and cosmic hums in an immersive installation designed for explorers aged 5-13.

ArtPlay

Thu 21 — Sun 24 Aug
Thu 28 — Sun 31 Aug