CV
Born 1980, Ballarat (Isobel Knowles) and 1975, Melbourne (Van Sowerwine).
Live and work in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia.
Education
2001 Bachelor of Media Arts, RMIT University. (Isobel Knowles)
2000 Bachelor of Media Arts, RMIT University. (Van Sowerwine)
Selected Exhibitions
2023 Night Creatures, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands
2022 Night Creatures, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne
2022 Passenger, M+ Museum, Hong Kong
2022 Serious Fun. Architecture and Games. Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria
2022 Take me with you, Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre, Mt Gambier SA
2021 STAGES: photography through the pandemic, MGA, Melbourne
2020 Take me with you, Artspace at Realm, Melbourne
2017 First Site turns 21 Birthday Show! First Site Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne
2017 Willoughby Visual Arts Biennial 2017, Sydney
2016 Public Art Melbourne Biennale Lab, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne. Part of the 2016 Melbourne Festival.
2015 Dwelling, site-specific performance, Footscray. Part of Big West Festival
2014 You Were In My Dream, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada.
2014 Journey To Fantastic Lands, QAGOMA, Brisbane.
2014 You Were In My Dream, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada.
2014 ANtIMATION, Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane.
2014 In Your Dreams, Counihan gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne.
2013 It’s a jungle in here, The Rocks, Sydney. Part of ISEA 2013.
2013 Experimenta at Powerhouse Museum for ISEA 2013, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
2013 Responsibility, Vogele Kultur Zentrum, Zurich, Switzerland.
2012 CyberArts 2012, OK Centrum, Linz, Austria. Part of Festival Ars Electronica.
2012 Cinekid, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012 Selectively Revealed Chulalongkorn University Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand
2012 Selectively Revealed National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan,
2011 Selectively Revealed, Aram Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea.
2011 It’s a jungle in here, Screen Space, Melbourne. Part of the 2011 Melbourne Festival.
2011 Experimenta Utopia Now, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Hobart, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington.
2010 Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
2010 Experimenta Utopia Now International Biennial of Media Art, BlackBox Melbourne, and Carriageworks, Sydney.
2008 International Digital Art, Songzhuang Art Museum and Beijing Film Academy Gallery, Beijing, China
2006 Experimenta Under The Radar , ICA, London, UK and FACT, Liverpool
2005 Basics Media Festival, Gallery 5020, Salzburg Austria.
2005 Move on Asia, Japanese tour: Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, remo, Osaka, +Gallery, Aichi.
2004 Anne Landa Award, Art Gallery of NSW
2004 Media City Seoul New Media Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art.
2003 Experimenta House of Tomorrow, Black Box, Melbourne.
2002 Play With Me, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne .
Selected Film Festival Screenings
2024 Fipadoc (France), Tricky Women/Tricky Realities (Austria), Reel Good Film Festival (Melbourne), DocEdge (New Zealand)
2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands), Nu:Reality, Amsterdam, (Netherlands), Kaboom Animation festival (Netherlands), FIVARS (Toronto), Narrarelfuturo: Festival de Cine & Nuevos Medios (Bogota)
2021 New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival (Japan), Linoleum International Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival (Ukraine) , Animatex Animation Festival (Egypte), 27th Kort Film Festival (Leuven), VR Days
2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand, Anima Brussels International Animation Film Festival, We Are One Film Festival, Anifilm, NewImages Festival, Taipei Film Festival, .
2019 76th Venice International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival 2019, Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux, Geneva International Film Festival, 34th Entrevues Belfort Festival International du Film, 41st Edition Cairo International Film Festival
2018 Tricky Women International Animation Filmfestival (Austria)
2017 Melbourne International Animation Festival, Puppet Is A Human Too Festival (Poland), New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival (Japan), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK), Craft Animation Festival (Indonesia), Sommets du cinéma d’animation (Canada)
2006 Sundance Film Festival, USA
2005 Chicago International Film Festival, AFI Fest (Los Angeles), Cinanima (Portugal), Stockholm international Film Festival, Anima Mundi (Brazil), KROK (Ukraine).
2005 Cannes Film Festival, in competition, France.
2005 Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane International Film Festivals.
Selected Awards
2024 Best Immersive Film, Tricky Women Festival (Austria)
2024 Best Immersive Project, CineMart, International Film Festival Rotterdam
2023 Winner, Best Immersive/Interactive Documentary, Australian International Documentary Conference Awards
2020 Best VR Film VRExperience Rome
2020 Special Jury Mention VR - Anifilm 2020
2020 Best Fiction – Laval Virtual Halo Awards, VRDays
2019 Virtual Reality Award – Best Film at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
2015 Nominated, Design & Realisation in Contemporary Performance, Green Room Awards.
2012 Award of Distinction, Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica.
2010 Winner, Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award.
2010 Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award People’s Choice Award.
2005 Golden Hugo for Best Animation, 2005 Chicago Film Festival.
2005 Special Distinction, Cannes Film Festival.
2004 Finalist, Anne Landa Award, Art Gallery of NSW
Selected Bibliography
2023 Kees, Driessen, “IFFR 2023: Immersive Media More XR next year, please”, Filmkrant, 01st Jan 2023
2022 Smith, Janet, “Cardboard, feathers, and street lights: a dreamlike 360-degree taxi ride from Australia's Film Camp“, Stir, May 11.
2020 Smith, Barnaby, “Experience the dislocation of migration in a wild VR taxi ride”, Art Guide Australia, 20 February 2020.
2020 Munro, Kim. “Envisioned Presences: FUTURE DREAMING, PASSENGER AND THE CONTINUING EVOLUTION OF VIRTUAL REALITY”, Metro Magazine, 4th May 2020 no. 204, pp. 68-73.
2020 Bailey, John, “Flag a ride in a surreal world” The Age EG,February 13th p 6 (online title “Strap on the ’empathy machine’ for a taxi ride like no other“).
2019 Reeves, Anna, “Birds of a Feather” filmfestivals.com, 4th August 2019
2018 Slack-Smith, Amanda, Chapter 32: Contemporary Arts, In The Routledge Companion to Media and Fairy-Tale Cultures, edited by Pauline Greenhill, et al., (pp. 679-690) Routledge.
2016 “New Rules For Public Art” and “New Rules For Public Art: Part 2” Art guide Australia. Articles written by Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine describing the processes of creating Out In The Open.
2015 Bailey, John, “House built at Big West festival for Dwelling, a show about homeless women and children“, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 12.
2015 Wilson, Clare, Freelancing in the Creative Industries,The Oxford University Press, pp 21-2, 49-50, 55, 228, 39, 138 2012
2014 Stapleton, Erin K, “BAD COPIES: The Experience of Simulacra in Interactive Art”, Rhizomes, Issue 26.
2014 Palmer, Daniel, Australian Video Art since 2000 In Video void : Australian video art, edited by Matthew Perkins, (pp. ), Australian Scholarly Publishing.
2012 Blair, Ulanda, “Interactivity, agency & the ethics of participation”, RealTime Apr/May 2012 #108 p22.
2012 Słodownik, Agnieszka, “Interaction Design“, dwutygodnik.com #92 2012 (Polish).
2012 Warren, Kate, “Animated Encounters with Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine”, Excerpt Magazine #03 2011 pp 59-62.
2011 Barrett, Estelle, Kristeva Reframed: Interpreting Key Thinks for the Arts (Contemporary Thinkers Reframed), I.B.Tauris, pp 5, 60, 83-5, 88, 90-1
2010 Walton, Saige, “The future with a foot in the past”, RealTime Apr/May 2010 #96 p27
2010 Slack-Smith, Amanda, “A World of Wild Things”. Catalogue essay for Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award 2010 catalogue, pp 20-23, published by Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.
2010 McKnight, Brendan, “You Were In My Dream” Desktop magazine online, March 4.
2009 Tofts, Darren, “Innocence Uncut” Photofile March-June 2009 No 86 pp 30-35.
2015 Flanagan, Mary, Critical Play: Radical Game Design The MIT Press, pp 44-47.
2005 Sullivan, Eve, “Anne Landa Award”, Art & Australia Vol 42 No 4 Winter 2005 p 599.
2005 Millner, Jacqueline, “Anne Landa Award”, Broadsheet Vol 34 #1 Mar-May 2005 p.56.
2005 Gallasch, Keith, “Who wins: video or new media art?”, RealTime #65 Feb/Mar 2005.
2004 Tunnicliffe, Wayne, Catalogue essay for Anne Landa Award catalogue, p. 35, published by Art Gallery of New South Wales.