Looking beyond static art at 664 Collins St

Mirvac’s newest Docklands project, 664 Collin St, will showcase eight-metre LED artworks by Swinburne University students on its lobby walls.

While Mirvac has previously focused strongly on art, development manager Scott Jarzynka said it wanted to differentiate this project.

“We thought we’d create a more dynamic piece, with constantly changing digital art work,” Mr Jarzynka said. “The idea is you’re not seeing the same thing every day.”

More than 50 students studying a Bachelor of Design (Digital Media Design) and Masters of Design are creating concepts for the artwork. The digital screen will display selected content that intrigues, entertains and tells stories fed by local and urban data.

There have been 35 submissions already from the first stage.

“We’re very impressed by stage one content and are gearing into the second stage now,” Mr Jarzynka said.

Mr Jarzynka said Mirvac was determined to get the best students possible for the job.

“We talked to a lot of local universities and found that Swinburne was the best place to partner with,” he said.

Bachelor of Design student Serena Peregin has created Behind Sunlight for the project, inspired by solar energy.

“It starts off as a blank wall and it slowly kind of turns,” she said.

“The wall flips out in a tiled pattern and eventually you see through the wall into what’s happening behind it.”

What’s happening behind the wall is an artistic representation of solar energy being converted into electrical energy. Then, slowly, the wall closes back up. The loop lasts exactly five minutes.

“It was a really cool experience to work with an industry partner,” Ms Peregin said.

“At university you’re doing a lot of projects that are made up so it was really awesome to work on a real project with a real partner.”