Tyama

Museums Victoria

Interactive Immersive Experience

Woman silhouetted against an immersive projection of native plants and flowers

“A mindfully developed exhibition that artfully combines the aims of contemporary museums as places of learning through enquiry-based pedagogy and multi-sensory experiences as well as places of entertainment.”


ArtsHub

TYAMA: A Deeper Sense of Knowing is an interactive journey into the vibrant nocturnal world of native Victorian animals, immersing visitors in non-humancentric and non-settlercentric ways of seeing, thinking and feeling.

The word Tyama (pronounced ‘Chah-Muh’) is a Keerray Woorroong language word meaning ‘to know’. Developed in collaboration with Gunditjmara women Yoolongteeyt Dr Vicki Couzens and Yaraan Bundle, the experience is guided by First Peoples practices of embodied learning and respect for nature.

Groups of up to 20 people can move freely through the 360-degree, six-room, 1000-square-metre experience, which takes around 25 to 40 minutes. The exhibition features some of the largest screens in Australia, with 47 projectors and 80 speakers. Spatial tracking and sound detection are key mechanics of the interactive experience, which is rendered in real-time through Unreal Engine.

An illustration of a yellow glowing moth hovering beside a branch of eucalyptus leaves.
Three illustrated moths.
A illustration of two glowing moths and some surrounding foliage.
Eight illustrations of a stingray. Arrows indicate its motion.
An illustration of a whale underwater.
An illustrated style frame of two people standing in front of massive projected image of several whales.
Concept art by Oscar Berman

The exhibition pairs First Peoples’ knowledge with Western scientific understandings, which is referenced in the art direction by the weaving together realism and abstraction. Realism is found in anatomically correct proportions, colours and movements of the flora and fauna, while gestural abstraction and atmospherics create an aesthetic that speaks to the visitors’ imagination, inviting them to view the world differently.

Developed in collaboration with Keerray Woorroong knowledge holders Yoolongteeyt Dr Vicki Couzens and Yaraan Bundle, Tyama is an honouring of Country and reflects the knowledge of those who have been honouring Country for thousands of years.

Three people stand in a long immersive projection space with curved walls. the imagery on the walls depicts an underwater scene featuring several large icebergs.
A silhouetted person in an immersive projection space of hanging leaves in a foggy blue void. Text on the walls read 'Guide your moth to scents in the sky country'.
Two silhouetted women stand in front of a large projected image of colourful paint-like streaks.
A child runs through an immersive project space depicting a blue underwater world of fish.
A person stands in front of a painterly-looking image of 4 whales in a blue void of light.
A silhouetted person stands in front of a painterly-looking projected image of a whale launching out of the ocean at sunset.
Three people stand in immersive projection room, depicting three growing moths in a night scene of trees, sky and fog.
Three people stand looking up at an immersive projection of thousands of bioluminescent insects at night.