From Fishermans Bend to Fed Square: FB IDEAs Powers the Dance Floor
When Melbourne Fringe audiences step onto Federation Square’s glowing tiles this month, they’ll be dancing on an idea born in Fishermans Bend.
Power Move, the city’s first large-scale kinetic dance floor installation, started life inside the Circular Design Hub — nurtured by its space, community, and hands on ethos. Conceived by Quiet RIOT founder and Circular Design Hub innovator Linda Catalano, the floor is designed to transform movement into clean, green energy, with the ultimate ambition of one day powering the party entirely off-grid.
The idea came from Catalano’s fascination with energy in all its forms. “Human beings are energy,” she says. “And we are currently in an environmental crisis, partly around how we use energy. So, if we are always consuming energy, but we are energy, how do we harness that? While we’re facing this crisis in the environment, we’re also seeing a surge in technology. Can those two meet? Can art power itself?”
Inspired by Berlin nightclubs experimenting with energy-generating dance floors, Catalano began imagining what it might look like to bring that underground concept into broad daylight. “What if we unleash that kind of energy in a public space? Let’s throw it out as a challenge to the people of Melbourne to see how much energy we can generate together.”
Stage 1 was pure experiment and supported by FBIDEA’s: the floor was built, wired, painted and tested in Fishermans Bend until it lit up and produced measurable power. The Hub became a living lab where artists, technologists and designers collided. Visual artist Drez created the concept art. It was realised in collaboration with Circular Design Hub Innovators Oli from Lousy Ink and Roger from Dodgy Paper who assisted in the artwork installation alongside Studio Drez. Paul Lim of Additive designed the tile systems, lighting and overall technical elements, while immersive designer Justin Dwyer developed and trialled interactive floor and screen elements. Their combined work is literally embedded in the surface people now dance on.
Now the prototype has leapt from the Fisherman’s Bend Circular Design Hub workshop to public square with the support of Melbourne Fringe, Fed Square and the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. From 30 September, the Fed Square Forecourt will pulse with dancers’ energy, tracked in real time. Bikes from the Little Projector Company will add pedal power, amplifying the experiment.
Stage 2 is already underway: exploring how to harvest and store the generated energy. But the project is about more than spectacle. Power Move asks what happens when creativity, sustainability and technology fuse and whether our collective movement can power more than just the dance floor.
Born in the Circular Design Hub, powered by collaboration, and unleashed in the heart of the city, Power Move is a joyful, electric reminder that our energy, combined, can light up more than a square. It can light up a movement.
Let’s dance.
