Bendigo Art Gallery: Josh Muir

What’s on your mind? was a collaborative project with Bendigo Art Gallery, Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara artist Josh Muir and digital animator Isobel Knowles. 

Art Processors combined augmented reality (AR) with a soundscape of music and Muir’s own narration to add new dimensions to the artwork and build on the artist’s exploration of being young and Indigenous in a technologically modern world. 

Muir is a proud Indigenous artist with a broad contemporary visual language, his fun and playful aesthetic drawing inspiration from pop culture and street art as he explores his own journey through mental illness.

Challenge

Bendigo Art Gallery engaged Art Processors to create visitor experiences and pathways that would encourage more people—particularly younger audiences—to engage with Muir’s artwork and his key themes of mental health and connection to Country.

Approach

Art Processors designed the AR and soundscape elements alongside Muir and Knowles as they developed their own creative direction for the exhibition. This made the immersive experience an integral part of telling Muir’s personal stories.

Solution

The final eight-piece exhibition combined audio, animation and graphic design, taking the viewer on an augmented reality journey through the artist’s mind. When the visitor holds an iPad up to an artwork, the artist’s illustrations become animated, transitioning into AR images of Country integrated with narration, music and nature sounds. The immersive experience allowed the visitor to view the works in a more culturally engaged and dynamic way.