Vivid Sydney 2026: Interactive Art Installations

(eap) “Vivid Sydney”, the festival of light, music and food held annually in Sydney by Destination NSW since 2009, took place this year from 22 May to 13 June and comprised numerous art and entertainment installations based on advanced projection and LED display technologies. The technology company TDC – Technical Direction Company, which is also based in the Greater Sydney area, was responsible for a total of eleven installations – including “The Daydream Machine”, an AI-powered interactive production developed in-house that transformed the city’s Pier Street Underpass at Darling Harbour into a living digital artwork.

"Fringe of Infinity" by Spanish artist Javier Riera at Customs House at Vivid Sydney festival 2026 © Photo: TDC – Technical Direction Company Speaking about The Daydream Machine, Harrison Dow, one of the creative technologists responsible for the project, said: “Using AI systems and live rendering, the installation reacts and evolves with every person who walks through it, creating an experience that is constantly changing and never behaves the same way twice.” For Festival Director Brett Sheehy AO (Officer of the Order of Australia), interactive installations such as this are central to how visitors experience the festival: “Vivid Sydney invites people to participate in creativity and interactive installations like The Daydream Machine, which place visitors at the heart of the artwork. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies such as AI, this work creates ever-changing experiences that encourage exploration, play and imagination.”

Other large-scale projections at Sydney landmarks and heritage locations included installations such as “Lighting of the Sails: Opera Mundi” by French artist Yann Nguema at the Sydney Opera House, “Fringe of Infinity” by Spanish artist Javier Riera with nature-inspired geometric patterns at Customs House, and “Deep Time” by the Spanish collective Hotaru Visual Guerrilla, which transformed Garrison Church into a journey through Earth’s 4.54-billion-year ecological evolution.

TDC’s technological services included systems such as central master control for real-time oversight across installations throughout the city, as well as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanning carried out ahead of the festival to create highly precise digital replicas of the festival sites and make them available to artists around the world for the preparation of their works. Other technical components used included ultra-high-resolution laser projectors from Belgian supplier Barco, live monitoring cameras and automation systems for nightly festival operations, as well as modular LED display panels from Chinese manufacturer ROE Visual.

The next Vivid Sydney festival is scheduled to take place from 28 May to 19 June 2027. ■