Are you procrastinating right now? Do you tend to doom scroll when you should be trying to sleep, or do you prefer watching a good cat video, or twenty? If you tend to get lost in the digital world, then this exhibition is for you. Explore the ways that we escape online with interactive experiences and more in DISTRACTION at Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne. This free exhibition invites you to participate in your own way, focusing on play, attention and technology. It’s open from Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm, from now until May 2, 2026.
DISTRACTION at Science Gallery Melbourne
All of the art and science projects in this exhibition reflect on the different ways that our attention can be captured. DISTRACTION was curated by Bern Hall and Tilly Boleyn, with input from a team of academics and young people.
“The exhibition highlights our incalculable capacity to surprise and invites visitors to delight in their own sense of curiosity and play,” said Hall. “The time you spend in the exhibition is wholly your own – what do you want to do with it?”
Highlights include:
- Pledge Drive for Attention by Laura Allcorn – in this fun spoof of a TV pledge drive, visitors are encouraged to give back time that they’ve spent distracted online.
- Cat Island by Jen Valender – this installation combines animal colour perception research with technology. See how the cats on Ainoshima Island respond to digital stimuli, and interact with the projections to simulate ‘cat vision’.
- Arcade by Freeplay – have plenty of fun with five games on custom arcade machines.
- Deviation Game by Tomo Kihara and Playfool – draw something that humans can understand, but an image-recognition AI can’t.
Keen to check it out? Learn more about the exhibition here.