Melbourne’s Federation Square has undergone a multi-million-dollar technological refurbishment to create what is thought to be the world’s first digital canvas.
The designer, Melbourne-based art studio Ramus, sought to transform the traditional media screen into an immersive, expressive canvas. The result is a part-physical, part-digital architectural façade. According to Ramus, it offers the public a platform to express their own civic voice, and gives communities and visitors a new sense of agency over their environment, representing the future of meaningfully integrated digital media and architecture.
The canvas consists of a curated content program, an LED multiscreen platform and a custom control system, forming one powerfully responsive digital experience.
The digital canvas serves as a public platform for creative and artistic expression, hosting a curated gallery of works by emerging and established artists.
Ramus has set the foundational content with a programme called Textures of Melbourne’ to reflect the natural rhythm of peoples’ collective pace and energy. The content highlights simple moments that Victorians often experience, from light shimmering off buildings of the Southbank and Yarra River, to children running their hands through streaming water down the National Gallery of Victoria's iconic water wall.
Ramus consciously integrated and infiltrated Federation Square’s iconic architectural landscape with an enormous digital platform that offers a reconnection and expansion to Federation Square’s cultural and civic charter.
