Feeling weighed down by your phone? DISTRACTION at Science Gallery Melbourne, opening 26 July, offers a playful escape from digital overload. The free exhibition explores how interactive games, technology, and art help us wrestle back control of our attention in an age of endless scrolling.
Dr Ryan Jefferies, Director at Science Gallery, explains: “We are all aware of the constant push and pull for our attention…doom‑scrolling and rising rates of ADHD are the new normal, so how do we stay-focused?”
Curator Bern Hall adds: “How do we let algorithms define us?…The exhibition highlights our incalculable capacity to surprise and invites visitors to delight in their own sense of curiosity and play”
DISTRACTION features hit works like Laura Allcorn’s comedic Pledge Drive for Attention, where you’ll steal back lost hours from the digital abyss. Melbourne artist Xanthe Dobbie’s Unoriginal_Sin dives into the internet’s image overload and Jen Valender’s Cat Island lets you experience feline visual perception in an interactive display.
Then there’s Deviation Game by Studio Playfool—challenging you to draw human concepts that flummox AI—plus a playable arcade created in partnership with Freeplay and University of Melbourne’s MAGPIE initiative.
Running until December, DISTRACTION encourages a rethink of how we spend our time—and whether in a world of thousand open tabs, we’re losing ourselves or finding something new. Free and fascinating, your attention is all that’s required.
