ACMI screen partnership delivers visitor experience pushing world-building boundaries

Australia’s national museum of screen culture, ACMI, has partnered with experience design agency Art Processors for its impressive exhibition, ‘The Future & Other Fictions’ which features over 180 works and showcases speculative visions of the future.

The Future & Other Fictions is the first collaboration between the ACMI and Art Processors teams, where skilled Art Processors team members complemented the ACMI team to design and produce a visitor experience that pushes the boundaries of world-building.

Drawing on aesthetics like cyberpunk and solarpunk, the exhibition boasts spaces that aren’t just visually stunning, but also provoke meaningful engagement with the work on display.

Through their expert exhibition and experience design, development and production services, the Art Processors team enabled ACMI to present an exhibition that will change the way visitors think about the future, showcasing the storytelling craft of leading creatives from film, videogames and screen-based art.

Tara McDonough, Exhibition Design Director at Art Processors noted “featuring more than 180 works, The Future & Other Fictions showcases speculative visions of the future from cyberpunk cities to rewilded landscapes and solarpunk utopias. At the heart of the exhibition is the visitor, with a thoughtfully choreographed journey that enhances the emotional and intellectual connection with the artworks, props, costumes and film clips on display.

“Every design choice was made with the visitor in mind. We have crafted an experience where they can step into a story where they’re not just a spectator, but part of the narrative. The exhibition has a cinematic quality, inviting visitors to interact, reflect, and even shape their own vision for the future in small but meaningful ways.”

Seb Chan, ACMI Director and Chief Executive added “The Future & Other Fictions is an expansive mix of physical objects – intricate costumes, delicate props, digital and interactive media and large scale screen-based art – about complex and contested subject matter: our future. The Art Processors team have skillfully delivered a vibrant and bold exhibition design, creating a captivating and coherent visitor experience full of hope, colour, optimism and potential that has wide appeal across ages and cultural backgrounds.”

Art Processors, part of the Moorilla Group which includes the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, is known for creating innovative cultural destinations around the world. It approaches experience design by deeply understanding the visitor experience—their needs, motivations, behaviours, and challenges—and strategically using design elements to elicit an emotional connection and immerse the audience in narratives.

Vanda Nemeth, Exhibition Designer, Art Processors added “our challenge was to design a space that explores imagined futures through the journey of the creative process. We aimed to showcase a diverse range of themes and perspectives, and also offer a cohesive, digestible journey for visitors to engage with, and, hopefully, reflect on after leaving.

“To achieve this we worked closely with ACMI, combining their expertise in content curation, with Art Processors' design, technology and experiential knowledge to craft a singular, novel experience that still celebrated ACMI's distinct flavour. The result is a vibrant space, with each turn revealing something unique.”

The Future & Other Fictions celebrates screen culture’s role in shaping a more optimistic world, and is running from 28th November 2024 to 27th April 2025 at Melbourne’s ACMI in Gallery 4.

Art Processors is a team of leading experience designers, who partner with cultural, tourism and built environment professionals to attract and engage large audiences. Art Processors combine the most inventive technical and creative skills and ideas to design compelling exhibitions, events, attractions and places. Since its inception in 2011, Art Processors’ reputation has been built on its success working with and transforming cultural spaces including the Sydney Opera House, Mona, The Getty, Bob Dylan Centre Tulsa, ACMI, USS Midway and more.

ACMI attracts millions of visitors through a vibrant offer of exhibitions, screenings, commissions and festivals. ACMI’s industry, education and creative incubator programs inspire and develop the next generation of screen creatives.

Images. The Future & Other Fictions ACMI 2024. Credit: Eugene Hyland