| Summary: | Child of Now is a mixed-reality artwork that calls on citizens to co-create, shape, and nurture an indigenized, sustainable, and fairer vision of the next century for an imagined child born in 2023. Jury Statement: What will we pass on to the next generation? For those of us living in the present, it is crucial to have a future-oriented mindset that considers those who will live in the next era. The Child of Now project has the potential to bring about a significant social impact by addressing global challenges based on unique linguistic and environmental history, starting from the Australian experience with a possibility for further regional development. Referring to the concept of ‘everywhen’ and collaborating with the First Nations and author Claire G. Coleman for creating the storytelling, the artists built an immersive experience. Through the use of the volumetric capture system, the “digital holograms” created can be experienced in a VR environment. In this way, the project enables people to know the past and see the future through an installation, providing an important opportunity for individuals to think about their personal situation. Experienced as an immersive tactile audio-visual installation, Child of Now invites visitors to enter the Aboriginal concept of the ‘everywhen,’ a place where all time is present, to observe the last 10,000 years of life on the Birrarung river and acknowledge the resilience of First Nations peoples who survived climate emergencies and settler invasion. The experience continues by inviting visitors to imagine all the children being born in the present moment, now. It then accelerates time to the year in the future that the Child of Now is the visitor’s age. In this moment the artwork asks the visitor to imagine themselves as, and to become, the Child of Now in the future. It creates a portrait of their performance as audio and ‘digital hologram’ (volumetric video) recordings. Each holographic portrait of the visitor as the Child of Now is replayed in the final section of ...
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