Zia McCabe (she of Dandy Warhols fame) believes our human nature is being eroded by the onslaught of information we’re subjected to in the modern world.

So she’s coming to Mona to unveil a surrealish lounge: a space furnished with sound, vibration and movement, intended to soften the nervous system and quiet the mind. Her endeavour is inspired by the teachings of Be Here Now, the 1970s manual for conscious being by the American guru Ram Dass that became something of a counterculture bible (and awoke a generation to yoga and Eastern spirituality), influencing everyone from George Harrison to Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Steve Jobs. ‘Wherever you are’, quoth the guru, ‘be there.’ Inside the gallery, you’ll discover ‘a gentle collision of touch and tone’, as McCabe puts it. Objects created with visual artists respond to your attention and interaction. McCabe has also collaborated with composers and musicians from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on a ‘non-linear sonata’ recorded and mixed in our Frying Pan Studio: a new composition split into disparate, overlapping sequences, so that no matter which part of the sonata is activated, it still makes musical sense. The whole designed to shift our frantic modern focus from doing everything, everywhere, all at once; to feeling our way back to the present moment—to simply be, right here, right now.

Curated by Jarrod Rawlins and Sarah Wallace