Brett Leavy is an Indigenous artist, immersive heritage specialist, inventor, and the driving force behind Virtual Songlines.

In consultation with historians and custodians of First Nations knowledge, Virtual Songlines is an immersive virtual landscape with 3D characters based upon historical counterparts from Australian history before first settlement. Using applied research and development along with Unity 5, Leavy has been collaboratively designing a software to represent the cultural knowledge of Australia’s First Nations people.

A prototype of Virtual Songlines has been included in our current exhibition Frontier Imaginaries: No Longer at Ease. For this talk, Leavy will demonstrate the virtual reality component of Virtual Songlines, which aims to represent 50 authentic and interactive virtual environments where each player adventures and learns of Aboriginal Australia before first settlement forever changed it.

Applying gamification to cultural heritage, lore and customs, the player of each real serious game embarks on a hero’s quest. On their virtual walkabout they must apply their gained skill and techniques to survive in within a historically accurate and immersive landscape.

Join Brett Leavy as he takes us through this world and shares the journey of creating this groundbreaking project.

Virtual Songlines has been supported by QUT, Griffith University, Council of the City of Sydney, Innovation Academy, Brisbane City Council, Wyld Productions, Dr Ray Kerkove, Board of Newstead House, Australian Heads of Independent Schools and Burnett Region National Resource Management Group.