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MacroVerse at Melbourne Fringe
2025-10-07
MacroVerse was a live sonic and visual work at Melbourne Fringe, part of Abbotsford Convent's experimental art program — contemplative, evocative, transcendent, as the festival put it.
The show
Reductionist (Nick Wilson) performed with battery-powered micro-instruments and micro-virtuosic technique, carrying a macro-narrative of the universe from energy stasis through heat-death dissipation. I (Adrian Richardson / Aday) provided live video projection improv that distorted time and manipulated perceived energy flow — extension for bodies trying to grasp the infinite.
Both of us are longtime members of Australia's Clan Analogue collective. The exhibition ran **free daily 12pm–4pm**; ticketed performance sessions ran **from 7pm each night for about an hour**, alongside related contemporary works (including bodies no bodies and The Shore Remembers on the same program). Bar from 6pm.
The tool behind the visuals
MacroVerse on stage was not only performance — it was a working pipeline:
- **GLSL** shaders authored and iterated in a browser lab
- Conversion to **ISF** for interchange
- Export into **Resolume Wire** for the venue stack
- **FFT** and live parameters steering crossfades, colour, and motion in sync with Reductionist's set
That pipeline — shader index, fix chain, expose params, VJ deck, audience QR, LAN bridge — is what macroverse.aday.net.au grew into. Version **42.0** is the official hosted release name; the Fringe show is the origin myth.
See also: Official hosted release — ArtBastard 5.1.2 and Macroverse 42.0 for the relic-era git squash and dev/live lanes.