Art Occupation (2023), Sydney Place. Art vending machine artwork by Micke Lindebergh. Photography by Holly Hawkins. Produced by ART AID with The Runaway Collective for Sydney Fringe.
What an art vending machine can do for a corporate precinct.
For Sydney Fringe 2023, ART AID and The Runaway Collective brought Art Occupation to Sydney Place: the first major art activation at the Lendlease precinct since Salesforce Tower opened its doors. Among the murals, installations, and QR-purchasable prints by 19 local artists were two art vending machines. They sold artworks all month and raised $5,500 for women escaping homelessness and domestic violence. This is what cultural programming with a structural social model looks like in practice.
Art vending machine at Sydney Place, wrapped in the artwork of Micke Lindebergh. Photography by Holly Hawkins.
The model
The vending machines, wrapped in the artwork of designer Micke Lindebergh, dispensed secret art objects for $30 throughout September. All profits went to the Women and Girls Emergency Centre, with each purchase funding an essential items pack for a woman escaping homelessness and domestic violence. By the end of the activation, the machines had raised $5,500. Visitors could also buy prints via QR code in the building's foyer, or wander the laneways to find murals, illustrations, and temporary installations. Vending machine artworks came from Alex Conan, Aaron Craig, James Gulliver Hancock, Steen Jones, CJ The Kid, Nani Puspasari, and Lauren Webster.
Secret art objects, $30 each, all profits to the Women and Girls Emergency Centre. Photography by Holly Hawkins.
For a precinct owner, the mechanics matter. The activation gave workers and visitors a reason to linger in the foyer and the laneways, gave 19 artists a platform and a market, and turned everyday foot traffic into measurable social impact, all inside a commercial tower. None of those outcomes required a permanent commission. They required a concept, the right partners, and a month.
The producer's view
Art Occupation was co-produced with The Runaway Collective, the team behind the Spiegeltent Festival Garden, Hello Darling, and Sideshow in The Rocks. Director Aaron Rutter put the collaboration plainly: "It was a real pleasure working with [ART AID] to finesse this year's concept and vision." And on why they called: "Even though we dance on a similar dancefloor, Runaway Collective is more in the entertainment space. So when we decided visual art was the main calling card at Sydney Place we reached out to [ART AID] right away."
His final word is the one worth keeping: projects like these bring "an exciting element to corporate spaces". That is the case for cultural activation in a sentence, made by someone whose business is knowing what draws a crowd.
Art Occupation, the first major art activation at Sydney Place. Photography by Holly Hawkins.
In conversation with Micke Lindebergh
The Swedish born, Sydney based artist behind the vending machines' flower-patterned skin studied illustration at Camberwell College of Arts in London and is a member of risograph print experts Pinch Press. His compositions put balance, colour, and contrast to work in a confident primary palette. We spoke with him about the machines, his process, and where design is headed.
The activation in full swing at Sydney Place. Photography by Holly Hawkins.
ART AID: Thank you for working with us on the vending machine! What was your first reaction to seeing them installed in situ?
I absolutely loved seeing it in real life, so excited to see my flower pattern cover the whole machine.
ART AID: How do you see the role of graphic design evolving in the broader context of art and communication?
There is a lot of talk about how AI is going to take over designers' work. I hope that as designers we can use it to our advantage and use it as a tool to help our creativity. I also think handmade and crafted art techniques will get more popular again as a reaction to too much screen time. I started weaving about a year ago for that reason. I'm slowly learning about the craft and it also helps me connect with Swedish traditional crafts and design.
ART AID: You've been teaching design at UTS. How has this enriched your creative practice?
I love teaching at uni, it's great to be able to share knowledge and it also made me question and realise a lot about my own practise. We recently did a collaborative mural design with first year visual communication students where everyone, 200 people, contributed one shape to fill a big wall. The outcome was amazing, and to have 200 people come together and make something together is really special.
With thanks to Micke Lindebergh and the vending machine artists. To Aaron Rutter and The Runaway Collective. To Holly Hawkins for the photography. To Eddie Zammit and the wider team. And to Lendlease for opening Sydney Place to a month of art with something to show for it.
ART AID is a public art and cultural consultancy working at the intersection of art, community, and place. To find out more about our work visit art-aid.co or follow @artaidau.
