Testing Grounds is closed

Good bye and thanks xx The Projects

So long Melbourne, it's been quite the ride. Thank you and good bye xx

✨VCA THEATRE COMPANY 2025 SOLOS ✨ ✨Massive congratulations to co’25 for their fantastic solo works at @testinggrounds ! ✨Incredibly grateful to the incredible @sarahtakesphotos for these amazing and iconic photos 💗 @vca_mcm #EVERYTHINGMUSTGO

Day 3: Delving into our oceanic entanglements. How can reimagining our responsibility to water bodies in urban environments lead to explorations towards creating a swimmable Birrarung? In relation to our collective selves, how can we think through the interconnectedness of river and ocean ecosystems by mapping innovative practices? @narweet_carolyn @rosibraidottiofficial @fihillary @future.play.lab @troy_innocent @testinggrounds #posthumansummerlab25 #birrarung #posthumanism #playmatters #testinggrounds

You are invited to our Trash Party at Testing Grounds Emporium! Open: 20.12 7pm - 11pm/12am 21.12 12pm - 5pm 22.12 12pm - 5pm Location: 432 Queens Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000 Vendor Lineup: @tr4shg4l @l3ngnail @pipguffy @novaland.au @gurevitch_ @lilliaaannnnnnn @rati_thelabel @sanguinstudios @k1enai @lusterottoline @addiction_by_kana @slagwear 20.12 DJ Lineup: 8-9 pm: @19tobsession 9-10 pm: @sacha.sanders 10-11 pm: @brandonagaa Poster: @yaegyl Dress up in your trashiest fit and bring all your friends!

Join us for a night of celebration with the screening of Jessie Scott's remarkable documentary Rainbow Video. 📍Testing Grounds Emporium, 432 Queen St, Melbourne 3000 📅 7pm, Friday 1 November 2024 Check the link in our bio for tickets The screening will be followed with Jessie in conversation with Director of Composite, Channon Goodwin. Through lively interviews and site studies of many legendary, now defunct video shops, Rainbow Video uncovers a secret history of a brief but impactful era. Artists and programmers such as Philip Brophy, Ian Haig, Cassandra Tytler, Xanthe Dobbie, Jean Lizza, Diego Ramirez, Emile Zile and Spiro Economopoulos delve into their own libraries, and back catalogues, to talk about how they used video shops: as a direct source of material, as an informal art school, and as a social space to trade in cultural capital. Against a backdrop of 30 years of constantly shifting technology, Rainbow Video explores a twin history of indie video shops and libraries in Melbourne, and the underground artists that used them, showing that video shops weren’t just a plot point on the historical chart of film distribution, but a crucial period of creative transition, whose impacts live on. Check out the Testing Grounds website for more information about the full Rainbow Video program. Join us again between 12-4pm on 2-3 November for more screenings of Rainbow Video and Video Rainbow, as well as the Video Art Video Shop library and Video Shop Algorithm! Photo credit: @rainb0wvide0

Kayla, young Queen of Wax @biccymonster_2nd (& ft. Thee Duchess of Wax!) at the first of four @restlessrecordscrew Women’s Turntablism Workshops, The Art of Rhythm (Vinyl Mixing & Beat Matching) a couple of weeks ago [the launch of the first of many Turntablism workshops here in Victoria!]. 👑♥️ THIS SUNDAY 27th OCTOBER @testinggrounds 🚨‼️ Workshop 1: The Art of Rhythm (Vinyl Mixing & Beat Matching) 11am-1pm Workshop 2: Control the Itch: Scratch, Level 1 (Beginner) 2pm-4pm ⚔️ There are 3 spaces left (limited at 10 per workshop!) so if you’re looking for a sign to get bizzy, this is it 🫡♥️ Attendance is $88 incl. GST per session, all equipment provided. DM for bookings or enquiries!

Do you need space and time? The team behind Testing Grounds and Siteworks is delighted to introduce you to Balam Balam Place — your new purpose-built creative and community precinct located at the former home of Siteworks, in the heart of Brunswick. This is a new space for community groups to meet and gather, and for arts practices to develop new work in an affordable and flexible setting. We are opening soon, and now taking enquires for 2025. Check out the link in our bio. Balam Balam Place is proudly managed by The Projects in partnership with Merri-bek Council. The image is the view from Saxon Street showing garden, house and new buildings. Image credit: Kennedy Nolan

Showing now in the basement at Testing Grounds Emporium: at one and the same time is an exhibition that examines how placemaking, heritage overlay policies and national archives inform epistemologies and in turn form subjectivities. This body of work approaches the deep time of trees and idiosyncratic aspects of memory as devious agents operating in defiance of state processes. [email protected] @elenabetroslopez Elena Betros López is a maker of experimental moving image and a writer of poetry. She works with embodied approaches in language and moving image, weaving biographical references with theoretical and empirical research of place and ecologies. Her work has been shown in galleries, cinemas and non-conventional art spaces. Her writing has been published in poetry journals, as well as in exhibition catalogues and visual arts journals. Her current research is examining a relationship between the production of tides in the southern ocean and the embodied experience of desire.

1 year show ✨ tickets in bio Aug 30-31 @ Testing Grounds This exhibition brings together some of the things I’ve been working on over the last year. Things that bring me joy and make me question things. It’s important to share these things. The exhibition runs for two days: 1. Fri Aug 30 / evening viewing Drinks by @rewinecbd & @bricklanebrewing 2. Sat Aug 31 / daytime viewing Pop-up café/library curated with @m.axliu with florals by @soya_florist & menu by @vianc_ Coffee by @onmywayycoffee In collaboration with @melbartlibrary This is a self-funded exhibition, pay as you feel has been setup to cover costs. If you are in a position to pay it would mean a lot:) This event will take place on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We express gratitude and respect to the oldest continuing cultures on earth and their deep history and connection with story and place. Always was, always will be. Photosensitivity: this event will include projected visuals with minimal yet unpredictable flashing lights. Accessibility: a large portion of this venue does not have wheelchair access, reach out for more details.

TOILET STORIES Presented by RMIT Interior Design Toilet Stories is a student-based interior design project and global design pedagogy collaboration between RMIT University, University of the Arts London, and Toronto Metropolitan University. Toilets are often profoundly intimate spaces. Instrumental in how we present to the world, they are as much facilitators of subjectivity and self-expression as our closets. Yet, their interior planning often expresses heterosexist binary ideologies that conflict with how we may typically understand our subjectivity and its production. Interior design students from all three universities explored toilet interiors in relation to public space, culture, sexuality, and politics. Students developed tactics in narrative, decoration and subversion to explore ways of queering the interior design of toilets. The project aims to generate an expansive conversation on this interior typology by addressing contemporary issues around gender, sexuality, utility, cleanliness, and class within the discipline of interior design. This exhibition showcases projects from interior design students from three cities—Melbourne, London, and Toronto—with varying conditions and concerns about public toilets. The collection will travel to the three cities as part of the Design Week festival program in each city throughout 2024. Participants RMIT Students Ashleigh Thompson
Daisy Nicholls
Declan Schipper
Em Shoesmith
Francesca Charlwood
Gaea Balano
Gianna Ritch
Harrison McTavish
Joshua Douglas
Linlu He
Malka Yota
Zahra Ahmadi Opening Event: Thu 23 May 6:00pm - 8:00pm Dates: Thu 23 May + Fri 24 May 2:00pm - 5:00pm Tickets - Free, No Booking Required MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK AND THE VICTORIAN DESIGN PROGRAM ARE INITIATIVES OF THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH CREATIVE VICTORIA #MelbourneDesignWeek #NGV @NGVMelbourne @rmit.interiordesign @toiletstories_project @s.ida__rmit

Concordia presents its 5th ‘Listening Room’ at @testinggrounds next week Sunday June 2 from 4pm-10pm The evening will be guided by a live performance from @michelleleln and sounds from @d4nny_boy @labasscourexperiment @stephjudd_ and @iamflax_ 🔊 Live visuals will be orchestrated by @stephjudd_ and @nicholaspjm 🖼️ Tickets are $10 and only available at the door. As always bring a carpet and cushion for your comfort 🔊🌀 Artwork: @labasscourexperiment