Remember when arcade machines were the centre of the social universe? A new exhibition in St Kilda is bringing that feeling back (but with a contemporary art twist). Arca Arcade: Round One has landed at Carlisle Street Arts Space, turning the familiar arcade cabinet into a fully playable work of art.
Māori designer and artist Preston McNeil created the exhibition, which features handcrafted, wall-mounted arcade machines that encourage audiences to actually play them, instead of simply admiring them from a safe distance.
Following tours across Aotearoa New Zealand and regional Victoria, the exhibition is now making its Melbourne debut, running at Carlisle Street Arts Space from 6th August to 31st October.
From arcade machine to art object
McNeil is interested in what happens when an arcade cabinet becomes an artwork in its own right. “I saw an opportunity to treat the arcade cabinet as a canvas for artistic expression,” he says.
His works combine contemporary design with te ao Māori influences and draw on his Māori whakapapa. The machines feature details including pounamu (New Zealand greenstone) joystick ball tops, created by stone artist and jeweller Joe Sheehan.
The exhibition also features work by local Indigenous artist and game designer Jarra Karalinar Steel, the 2025 Rupert Bunny Fellow. Steel’s involvement marks the beginning of Arca’s ambition to collaborate with Indigenous artists from around the world.
“People remember chasing a high score, spending time with friends or discovering a place where they felt they belonged,” McNeil says. “For some, the arcade was a refuge.”
That sense of memory and connection is central to the exhibition, which asks visitors to look at the arcade cabinet as an art object as well as a gaming machine.
Yes, you can actually play them
Arca Arcade breaks with the usual gallery etiquette, since visitors are invited to touch, play and interact with the works. Every cabinet is fully playable, blending interactive gaming with sculpture, industrial design and contemporary art.
McNeil hopes that combination might challenge what visitors expect when they walk through the doors. “I hope people leave thinking, ‘That wasn’t what I expected’,” he says. “Even if they have no connection to arcade games, I want them to see the cabinets as beautifully crafted contemporary objects first, and gaming machines second.”
The exhibition arrives in a city with a particularly strong gaming culture. More than 80% of Australians now play video games, while Melbourne International Games Week attracts more than 125,000 visitors each year.
City of Port Phillip Mayor Alex Makin says the exhibition also highlights the area’s creative industries. “We’re proud to bring this internationally acclaimed exhibition to St Kilda,” Makin says. “Port Phillip is a premiere arts and cultural hub, and we’re excited that our community has the opportunity to engage with art, culture and creative technology through this exhibition.”
The nostalgia of arcades
Arca Arcade looks to the past for inspiration, but its take on arcade culture is firmly contemporary. McNeil says the years he has spent touring the exhibition have shown him how strongly arcade culture remains tied to people’s personal histories. “When people stand in front of an arcade cabinet today, they’re often reconnecting with a moment in their own story,” he says.
For those who want to take the experience home, each machine is available to purchase by commission, with limited numbers available.
The exhibition’s public program also gives visitors the chance to get behind the joystick. On Saturday 3rd October, creator Preston McNeil will lead a hands-on workshop where participants can build their own arcade-style joystick controller using a plug-and-play kit, before testing it with DIY arcade software and taking it home. No technical experience is required, and the workshop is open to teams of two, with limited places available.
The arcade action continues on Saturday 31st October, when McNeil will host a Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting tournament at Carlisle Street Arts Space. Players will go head-to-head in classic side-by-side arcade style, starting with a round-robin stage before moving into a double-elimination finals bracket. The tournament is recommended for ages 16 and over, with limited places available.
Arca Arcade: Round One is on at Carlisle Street Arts Space, 99A Carlisle Street, St Kilda, until 31st October. Entry is free, with artist talks, workshops and other public programming scheduled throughout the exhibition. The gallery is open 8.30am–5pm, Monday to Friday.
