The Five Best Things to See at the IRL Digital Festival 2015

If we asked if you wanted to hang out at IRL in IRL, you might think that we're repeating ourselves. We're not — we're talking about going to the IRL Digital Festival in real life. That's Brisbane Powerhouse's latest event, an interactive art and gaming playground designed to combine the virtual world with a physical experience.

Running from May 7–17, IRL is a celebration of technology and creativity in its inaugural year. That means rad things like playing with electronic art works and reliving the history of gaming. It also means these five events that you won't want to miss.

IAM8BIT

When it comes to revelling in the retro gaming world, no one does it quite like the iam8bit gang. It might be just one of the fields the creative production company plays in, but it's one they're quite dedicated to. To celebrate their tenth year of operation, they're bringing two art shows to Brisbane from their iconic Los Angeles gallery. The first pays tribute to the incredible world of '80s video games, while the second looks to the future to predict what might come. It's fun, it's free, and it is accompanied by a pop-up store selling limited edition prints from both exhibitions.

May 5 to June 28

ENTER THE MASHUP

Ever watched a mashup and thought "I can do that"? Ever watched a mashup, thought "I can do that" but then never taken it any further? Don't worry, we're not here to make you feel lazy — we're here to help nudge you towards achieving your dreams. At Enter the Mashup, you're not just making your own film mashup from snippets of video and animation, or wrangling whatever you can from clips of gritty urban streets, blue-skyed pastures, hypnotic galaxies and candy-hued utopias. You're also in charge of seeing your work projected large, as you control the screens in this interactive installation.

May 7–17

POP-UP VIRTUAL REALITY LOUNGE

When it comes to virtual reality, movies sure do have a lot to answer for. We're not all living in The Matrix, we can't experience someone else's memories like Strange Days promised, and no one is taking the leap into software as seen in TRON. Well, not yet. Instead, we currently have to be content with whatever simulated experiences we can get, such as strapping on some goggles in the Pop-Up Virtual Reality Lounge and delving deep in a different form of storytelling. From frights to free-falling and action to fantasy, it's as immersive as it sounds — and it's also your taste of the virtual future.

May 7–17

RGB LASER SHOW

Lasers aren't just something that cats love (and by golly, do they love them). Here, they're something people love too, in an audiovisual feast of synchronised sound and visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space. In simpler terms, that's a signal that you'll see and hear at the same time. That's artist Robin Fox's thing, and it's something the Australian artist has performed in over 50 cities worldwide and counting. If you've wondered what the hype coming out of past RGB Laser Show performances at MONA FOMA and Vivid Festival was all about, here's your chance to find out. Just don't run around trying to chase the bright lights, however feline you might be feeling.

May 10

QSO AND TOM THUM

Orchestral music and beatboxing don't really seem like likely bedfellows. They're not, really, but that doesn't mean they can't try to be. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra and international star beatboxer Tom Thum are certainly going to give it their best shot, teaming up for a world-first production by acclaimed composer Gordon Hamilton. Testing out a possibly amazing marriage of different styles and sounds, they're aiming for a combination that ends up like jazz meets hip hop. This really isn't the type of thing you see and hear everyday — or will again any time soon, we're betting.

May 16

IRL runs from May 7–17. View the full program at the Brisbane Powerhouse website.