Australia’s biggest multi-arts precinct is preparing to switch on the mainframe and set sail into the digital horizon.
The Abbotsford Convent is one of Melbourne’s greatest not-so-hidden treasures. The 16-acre ex-monastic site sprawls out next to the Yarra River and the Collingwood Children’s Farm. It’s such a quirky sanctuary that it’s not uncommon to see a peacock on the roof of one of the historic buildings.
These days the Convent is home to restaurants, cafes, a radio station, a school, plenty of green space and over 100 artist studios. In the middle of it all sits Sacred Heart: a two-storey, 2000 sqm building that used to be a dormitory, laundry and hospital. In 2018, after more than four years of planning, Sacred Heart will be restored and ready for a new wave of tenants.
And the proposed vision for the newly restored building? To embrace our digital future and provide a space for people working in the digital industry.
Before any organisation goes digital it’s important that they share an understanding of what “going digital” means to them and how it relates to their core mission. For some, it means designing new interfaces or immersive experiences, whereas for others it means embracing an entirely new way of thinking.
To assist the digital transformation, future ensemble facilitated a dialogue with key stakeholders, including current and potential tenants, uncovering fruitful insights that enabled us to create a strategy for Sacred Heart’s digital future.
We identified that the Melbourne–based throng of digital artists and creative technologists is quite small — and that they all pretty much know each other. We also found out that digital artists have very similar needs to their analogue colleagues; they need to be heard and seen in an environment that is conducive to good work (i.e., they need adequate infrastructure).
Could this be Australia’s first Centre for Digital Art?
