DISRUPTIVE CRITTERS

DUCKWORTH HULLICK DUO

In partnership with RMIT University

INSTALLATION VERSION:

ISEA 2025, SEOUL

23–29 May 2025

Hangaram Design Museum (1, 2 Exhibition hall), Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum (1, 2 Exhibition hall) – 10:00-19:00, Last admission at 18:30

As an installation:

Disruptive Critters is a playable interactive audiovisual installation designed for live vocalized sound art performances by the Duckworth Hullick Duo. Disruptive Critters embodies the playful chaos of creativity and digital disruption in an era defined by rapid advances in artificial intelligence. A multi-touch tabletop console invites the audience to construct their own immersive visceral experiences by triggering sound generating entities, or Critters, from a graphical menu. Each autonomous critter offers a distinct visual identity and vocal repertoire, creating unexpected, layered compositions. The critters evolve both sonically and visually, blurring the boundaries between human and machine, art and technology, performer and audience. The artwork offers a humorous take on how machines might express the creative, chaotic energy of life, transforming the gallery into a performative space where sound, animation, and audience participation coexist in unpredictable harmony.

More broadly:

Disruptive Critters is both a concert and free play exhibition. The concert is a 50-minute performance by James Hullick and Jonathan Duckworth playing the DHD’s bespoke DC tabletop audio-visual interface in surround sound.

Versions of the work have been presented in Australia at Tura New Music (2018, WA); RMIT Gallery (2021, Future:U, Victoria); The Meat Market (2017, JOLT Arts, Victoria) and JOLTED Arts Space (2023). Internationally the work has been presented in Barcelona (2017, Sonar+D), Japan (2023, Bank Arts Yokohama, Urban Guild Kyoto) and the US (2024, SIGGRAPH, Denver).

Disruptive Critters explores digital disruption through the theatrical and performativity of autonomous computer generated agents, interactive media and digital design. Using a multi-touch tabletop console, audiences, or players, activate real-time computer generated virtual avatars (or critters), which roam the virtual performance space. The critters, each with their own sound world and gestural repertoire, become autonomous co-performers in the work, interacting with players and with each other in seemingly unpredictable ways. Players will be immersed in a responsive, interactive world where virtual beings teem and flock, collide and collude in various forms of playful mischief.

ALBUM

ARTISTS

James Hullick & Jonathan Duckworth: Artistic Direction & Live Performance

Jonathan Duckworth: Interactivity Design

Hullick: Sound Design

Ross Eldridge: Computer Programming

Casey Rice: Computer Programming

Hullick: Prerecorded Voice

Justine Anderson: Prerecorded Voice

Astrid Bolcskey-Hullick: Prerecorded Voice & Video Performance

Charlotte Bolcskey: Prerecorded Voice

Photography: Tim McNeilage, WoW Studios

PREVIOUS SHOWINGS

SIGGRAPH: Colorado Convention Centre, Denver: 28 July – 1 Aug 2024

Urban Guild, Kyoto: 28 Sep 2023

Bank Art Station, Yokohama: 24 Sep 2023

JOLTED Arts Space, Melbourne: 1 Jul 2023

RMIT Gallery, Melbourne: 11:00am, 29 Jul 2021 – 5:00pm, 26 Feb 2022

PS ARTSPACE & TURA NEW MUSIC, Perth: 29-31 Oct 2018

MEAT MARKET, Melbourne Music Week: 17-18 Nov 2017

SONAR+D, Barcelona: 14-17 June 2017

Supported by RMIT University. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body. This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. Project partners have included: Ritsumeikan University, RMIT University, The Toyota Foundation, and the Australia Japan Foundation.

Duckworth Hullick Duo