Diagrammatica (In development 2023-24)

Diagrams have been called “moving pictures of thought,” existing where logic meets abstraction. Beyond simple explanations, they help us bridge the known with the unknown, the concrete with the sublime, visualizing hidden relationships and processes as portals to larger, often ineffable ideas.

When stripped of context—freed from words and numbers—diagrams shift from authoritative knowledge into an aesthetic algebra, enabling more poetic interpretations.

Diagrammatica is a genre-defying artwork: part drawing, durational performance, and musical composition, it invites people into a constantly evolving system of meaning-making. Built from hundreds of interconnected visual fragments inspired by physics and astral photography, this expansive “diagram” is continually shaped and reimagined by rotating teams of participants in a hidden location. Musicians respond to the shifting tableau as a graphic score, using a custom hyper-directional audio system to create a live soundscape.

Rewarding curiosity and commitment, Diagrammatica invites participants from spectatorship into a state of active agency, immersing them in a timeless search for cosmology, connection, and coherence.

Diagrammatica will be presented in Australia in 2025

Development team:

Jason Maling - lead artist

Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey - sound design

Rhian Hinkley - video design

Chantal Marks - spatial design

Andrew Treloar - workwear design

Katies Sfetkidis - lighting design

Torie Nimmervol - principal host

Martyn Coutts - dramaturgy

Michaela Coventry - project producer

Anna Schoo - Strange Engine executive producer

Diagrammatica has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.