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Interactive experiences at ACMI

Immerse yourself in new experiences that continue long after you’ve left the building, in our centrepiece exhibition The Story of the Moving Image.


The Lens

From the moment you enter our new exhibition, The Story of the Moving Image, you’ll receive a free Lens. The Lens allows you to collect everything you see when you visit, from objects and artworks to interactive experiences. When you get home, just login to the ACMI website with your Lens code to access a personally-curated online collection featuring rich content, surprising insights and deeper context, as well as new films, TV shows, videogames and art to watch and play.

See how it works
The Lens device being tapped on an exhibition label - photograph by Gareth Sobey

Constellations

A large-scale digital experience awaits you at the end of The Story of the Moving Image. Your Lens activates one of the many touchscreens where you can discover interesting and unusual connections between what you have collected, and other films, movies, videogames and objects in the screen culture universe.

Explore a selection of Constellations
Interacting with the Constellation at ACMI - photograph by Gareth Sobey

Edit Line

Edit your own story in real time! Move physical story-board blocks around to trigger an iconic TV or film clip played on a large screen. Moving the blocks means moving the clips to another section of the story. You can save the story at any stage with your Lens so you can take it home and share with others.

This experience combines physically editing film and digital editing on screen.

What are the iconic clips of Edit Line?
The blocks used in the Edit Line at ACMI - photograph by Gareth Sobey

Foley Studio

Foley is the art of sound. Since radio days, Foley artists have used unique methods and materials, like crumpled celluloid for forest floors, to create the soundscapes of films, TV shows and videogames. Now you'll get the same chance to add strange and wonderful sound effects to memorable scenes from Round the Twist and Li’l Elvis and the Truckstoppers. You can save your video with your Lens so you can take it home and share with others.

Read about the strangest Foley sounds in cinema
The various sounds objects used in the Foley Room - Gareth Sobey

Games Lab presented by Big Ant Studios

Play classic and modern games from local and international indie developers and AAA publishers in an arcade experience that puts consoles, creativity and gaming culture at your fingertips.

Read our articles on videogames
Interactive Experiences at The Story of the Moving Image, ACMI: Games Lab. Image credit: Shannon McGrath

Memory Garden

Take a stroll through this beautiful interactive and immersive display of Australian home videos from the ACMI collection. Beams of light are projected from the ceiling that animate when you hold out your hands. These digitised home movies from the 1930s connect stories from our past to our present.

Watch our weird and wonderful digitised home movies
Memory Garden at ACMI

Shadow Play

Shadow Play mirrors your own movements to demonstrate how these elemental building blocks can shape fables, myths and legends. Remember making shadow puppets as a kid? Just like that. Drawing on the history of shadow play and puppetry, your shadows morph to form fantastical creatures and characters like monsters, spirits, royalty, knights and clowns in mysterious locations from the natural world and antiquity.

Discover more about this interactive
Wayang shadow puppet

Flip Book

Creating your very own Flip Book has never been this fun! The Flip Book is one of the most simple and popular early forms of moving image animation, but we've made it a bit easier since then. When you enter the booth, the camera records your movements to make your very own Flip Book which you can save to your Lens.

Head to the ACMI shop with your Lens to have it printed and log in online with your Lens to share the digital version.

Discover one of the earlier forms of the Flip Book
Flip Book at ACMI  - photograph by Gareth Sobey

The Story of the Moving Image

Visit our free centrepiece exhibition

Journey through the past, present and future of the moving image through interactive experiences, digital innovation and captivating stories.

About the exhibition
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