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Experience Lab

This is a past event

Dates

Daily
24 Hours

Access

Lift access
Wheelchair accessible

Getting There

Thanks for your interest in the Experience Lab. The EOI is now closed.  

Calling all current and aspiring experience designers! Got an idea for a truly immersive, interactive, next-level experience that could transform Fed Square? Then read on…

We’re turning 20. And to celebrate this significant milestone, we’re calling all entrepreneurs, artists, creative producers and experience developers to submit ideas for transformative and original experiences that have the potential to reimagine Fed Square.

To develop the experience concept, we’re offering $10,000 in funding grants to successful applicants, along with expert support.

So pop your thinking caps on and get in quick! Applications close Sunday 7 August 2022.

Why are we doing this? 

A kaleidoscope of experiences, Fed Square is a place of colourful and constantly shifting activity where art, sports, events and ideas are brought together in new, unique and wonderful ways, and where visitors are immersed in unique experiences that celebrate who we are. 

Research shows that some of our most unforgettable memories come from experiences; we love to capture them and share them. In fact, 78% of Millennials and Gen Z would choose to spend money on a desirable experience or event over buying something desirable. 

Our brand ethos is ‘Anything but Square’ and through our search to discover these new experience concepts we hope to challenge established notions of what it is to visit Fed Square for both visitors and locals alike. 

In 2022, Fed Square became part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, a $1.7 billion redevelopment, the biggest cultural infrastructure development in Australian history. The development will feature contemporary art galleries, parklands, restaurants and bars and public space for outdoor art and performances, linking two already lively precincts across St Kilda Road, Fed Square and Southbank, to create the most dynamic and concentrated arts precinct in the world. 

Our vision for the program is also to support and grow the industry, through supporting creative entrepreneurs, after an incredibly tough period. However, with the long-term growth of the experience economy we hope the Experience Lab can kickstart new sustainable creative enterprises with the potential to grow, with our support. We will support you to explore a business model and we hope that through a partnership with Fed Square this will help develop a self-sustaining concept by tapping into the growing consumer demand for experiences.

This time of great renewal and development in our arts and cultural spaces, together with the important Fed Square 20th Anniversary milestone, provides a perfect opportunity to invest in and support our creative community. And by doing so, reimagine how Fed Square – and the future Melbourne Arts Precinct – can lead the way in developing thrilling, innovative and memorable experiences.

Fed Square wishes to acknowledge that parts of the Experience Lab project have been inspired by State Library Victoria’s Alchemy program. To find out more about State Library Victoria and the Alchemy project please visit The State Library Victoria Alchemy.

Experience Lab is an initiative of Fed Square co-created with the Experience Consortium, a collective of leading experience designers.

James Boyce

Founder Grumpy Sailor

James is the founder and creative visionary behind Grumpy Sailor, an agile, creative team experimenting with digital technology and storytelling. With a team of passionately curious individuals behind him. Grumpy Sailor have worked with clients such as Punchdrunk, Google Creative Lab and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

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Tamasein Holyman

Founder, Immersive Cinema

Tamasein is the Founder & Creative Director of Underground Cinema, Immersive Cinema and Secret Squirrel Productions and considered the leading immersive performance director in Australia today. For the last 13 years she’s passionately proved the power of immersive storytelling with over 60,000 people having stepped into one of her 80+ immersive worlds. In 2019 she teamed up with the Mushroom Group and Frontier Touring to launch festival sized Immersive Cinema with Dirty Dancing. In 2021 Tamasein was named a Future Shaper in the Arts by Time Out Australia.

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Peter Tullin

Co-Founder, REMIX Summits

REMIX Summits explore the big ideas shaping the future of the creative industries. Locations inc. London, New York, Istanbul, Dubai and Sydney with partners inc. Time Out, Google and Microsoft. REMIX Agency has collaborated with organisations including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to develop ACMI X, a new co-working space for the screen industries as well as State Library Victoria on Alchemy, a platform to develop new audience experiences and StartSpace; a new hub to support early-stage entrepreneurs.

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