Expect augmented reality tours, escape rooms and more!
The State Library of Victoria has announced an inaugural Alchemy program that will reimagine the Library’s spaces and collections. Fourteen successful participants will each have $20,000 to develop a creative idea and push the boundaries of what a library can be.
The Alchemy program will support the recovery of the creative industry and enhance the experience of visitors at the State Library. Fourteen applicants were chosen out of over 300. These creative participants will breathe a new life into Australia’s oldest public library. So, what can we expect?
Escape room
Owen Spear, from Escape Room Melbourne, will create an escape room experience across the Library. Spear is a passionate designer with a PhD in psychology, so expect something challenging. He’ll be inspired by the State Library’s history and the many stories it has to tell.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality is popular these days, and two separate participants will create different experiences. One team will create ‘Hyperrealia’, an AR experience using stop-motion animation. Another team, True Crime Games, will create an AR app, with a little game focusing on historic true crime stories.
Radical Dining Experiences
Experimental art organisation APHIDS and artistic food practice Long Prawn will join forces and create ‘Radical Chow’. You can certainly expect an artistic dining experience, as well as performance lectures reflecting on radical histories collected by the Library.
Immersive and interactive experiences
There’ll be a range of immersive and interactive experiences to keep visitors of all ages entertained.
Inspired by children’s books, Grumpy Sailor Creative will create ‘Spellbound’. It’ll be an immersive exhibition experience that celebrates Australian children’s books.
Similarly, Helen Kwok and Chad Toprak will create a game called ‘Night at the Library: the book detective’. This game will be played on-site and is both interactive and immersive.
Meanwhile, the Threshold team will target tweens and their parents with a ‘Guest Book’ interactive experience.
To sum up, there’s going to be a lot of things happening at the State Library. If all goes well, the development process will finish in September so keep an eye out after that for the Library’s transformation.
Click here for the full list of participants and their projects.