MESMERISM IS THE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION STUDIO OF LUKE JAANISTE.We make immersive, atmospheric, large-scale installations that—like the weather—are expansive, elemental and ethereal.The work bridges the spectacular and the spiritual. It is both alluring and deeply contemplative, inviting immersive contact with the intimate intricacies and epic vastness of our earthly and cosmic existence.PUBLIC SPACES AS EXPANDED ENCHANTMENT ZONESThe core goal of MESMERISM is to set up the conditions for deeply mesmerising experiences—not as a means of escape, but to bring people more intimately in touch with the always-emerging, interweaving and embodied nature of being on earth, within the air, together.In doing so, MESMERISM transforms public spaces into zones of collective and enduring enchantment.There is a poetics and a politics of wonder at play here. It offers an alternative to the fragmented urbanism and polarised public discourse that dominates much of contemporary life, fostering the kind of presence and openness essential for more caring, curious ways of living.ATMOSPHERIC INSTALLATIONS AS WEATHER EVENTSWhether outdoors or indoors, MESMERISM’s installations function as "mesmeric atmospheric events." They channel the fluid dynamics of the earth and universe—the birthing and swirling of clouds, tornadoes, winds, rivers, oceans, geysers, volcanoes, fires, stars, galaxies—into a scale that can be viscerally experienced by the human body.Here the dance of creation unfolds in real-time. Atmospheric and sonic textures envelop the body, encouraging direct engagement over passive observation. It unfolds continuously over extended durations and across expansive spaces, inviting people to sink deeper into the experience.ARTIST AS MATERIALS ENGINEER AND ETHEREAL ARCHITECTMESMERISM draws on years of experimentation with increasingly innovative uses of theatrical and industrial atmospheric effects. Fog vapour, bespoke ratios of fog liquid, bubbles, fans, ducting, paneling and lighting, along with airflow, turbulence and luminosity, are manipulated in sensitive ways to maximise atmospheric nuance and intrigue.This work also builds on a long-term engagement with spatialised audio systems that wrap around the listening body, combined with compositional materials such as organic loops, textural layering and glacial harmonies that charge the air with an evocative timeless aura.Furthermore, we work very consciously with the site infrastructure needed for safe, accessible, and weather-proof public presentations, in ways that preserve rather than obstruct the raw impact of the work.HANDS-ON, SITE-SPECIFIC PROCESSMESMERISM’s hands-on and exploratory approach to site-specific work combines meticulous attention to detail with a vision of expansive horizons. Site visits and testing, and site-sensitive design choices are core elements of our creative process.We actively research and attune to various factors of a site and its micro-climate. This includes a site's architectural features, layouts, pedestrian flows, sight lines, and infrastructure such as power, lighting, and access pathways. We also take into account the acoustic factors of resonance, ambient noise and volume levels, and atmospheric parameters such as prevailing winds, air currents, temperature, and humidity.By fine-tuning each installation to its specific environmental context, every work develops a distinct form, mood, and mode of interaction within a space and its micro-climate.

LUKE JAANISTE
SONIC, VISUAL AND SOCIAL ARTIST
DIRECTOR, MESMERISMLuke Jaaniste (b.1977, currently residing in Perth and Brisbane, Australia) has been creating, researching and presenting immersive, ambient and atmospheric experiences for the last two decades.From his early student days onwards, Luke has been equally interested in compositionally crafted sonic arts, embodied performance art and immersive visual installation art. Whilst he was studying post-classical composition and musicology at the Queensland Conservatorium in the late 1990s, he was also pursuing installation and performance art via site-specific interventions in streets and empty buildings. He then completed an artistic-based PhD at QUT Creative Industries Faculty in the early 2000s on the topic of "ambient modes of being in our surroundings" within visual and sonic arts, informed by spatial phenomenology.Since that time he has worked both individually and in collaborations on a wide range of projects that focus on opening up the experience of palpably-being-present in full-bodied-vastness, which has become the primary medium of his art practice and life-long exploration.His work has been featured in festivals, galleries, exhibitions and on radio, across Australia, and in the US and UK, including: FuturEverything (Manchester), APT8 GOMA (Brisbane), Grand Central Arts Centre and OCMA (Los Angeles), CUSP (Australian Design Centre), HOTA (Gold Coast), Make Music New York, Sonic Social (The Performance Space and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney), Cementa (Kandos) and Festival of Landscape Architecture MPavilion (Melbourne).He has been involved in various long-term multidisciplinary collaborations, including THEATRE OF THUNDER (sonically-infused Butoh performance, 2014–2023), BLACK RAINBOW (ambient doom long-form improvisation, 2019–2022), SUPER CRITICAL MASS (participatory site-specific sound, 2007–2017), the SONIC BODY COLLECTIVE (sonic-drone whole-body focusing, 2013–2015).Luke composes and performs live music as piano soloist, and as electronica producer under the moniker of HHAARRPP.His dual musical interests in keyboards (he learnt classical piano and church organ as a child) and electronica have birthed a range of long-term projects, including TRANCE PIANO (long-form feats of physical endurance and harmonics for tremolo-ing piano), PORTAL (using a collection of many identical Yamaha PortaSound keyboards from the 1980s), PIANO MOON (solo piano songs, lullabies for adults), and INFINITE DREAMS (a sonic-cinema collaboration between the electronica of HHAARRPP and abstract landscape film-making of JNXYZ).Luke has curated various artist-led events and festivals, including the MESMERISM Summer and Autumn Festivals (2015) at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts and Sonic Spaces (2016) at Metro Arts, both in Brisbane, and the arts components of Renew Fest and the Vigil for Grief in Mullumbimby (2019–2021).He has also worked within universities, as a postdoctoral researcher and facilitator of postgraduate researchers. He lectured and supervised on research methodologies across arts, design and media for QUT Creative Industries (2006-2009), and was postdoctoral fellow for the Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation (2010–2011) on the relation of arts and innovation theory and policy.Since 2016, Luke has studied the work of philosophy and practices of living process and embodied felt sensing of Eugene Gendlin, and has been a member of the Embodied Critical Thinking group hosted by Iceland University (2018–2022).

MAJOR PROJECTS

The Mesmerisation of Everything
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens
Botanica: Contemporary Art Outdoors
Curated and produced by Museum of Brisbane
For Brisbane City Council
12-21 May 2023The Mesmerisation of Everything
Victoria Harbour Promenade, Melbourne Docklands
Now or Never Art Trail
Curated and produced by Experimenta
Funded by City of Melbourne
Now or Never Festival
17-21 Aug 2023The Vaporisation of the Vastness
Liberty Theatre Perth
Strange Festival
14-23 June 2024The Unfurling of the Cosmos
Carpark rooftop, 68 Roe St Northbridge
Curated and produced by Artrage
Funded by Tourism WA, Western Australian Government
RE//PERTH
4-14 July 2024

SATELLITE AND STUDIO PROJECTS

Warehouse studio residency
Supported by SuperOrdinary
Hamilton Northshore Warehouse, Brisbane
April–May 2023Lost Paradise
Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
May 2023Warehouse studio residency
Supported by Artrage
European Foods Warehouse, Perth
April–July 2024The Dissolution of All Things (showing)
European Foods Warehouse Perth
ISPA Congress Satellite Showing
2 May 2023Ponder session
Circuit West WA Showcase Perth
7 Aug 2024

ORGANISATIONAL PARTNERS

Artrage
Audio Technik
Brisbane City Council
Buck Outdoors
Circuit West
City of Melbourne
Experimenta
Howard Smith Wharves
Museum of Brisbane
Now or Never Festival
Strange Festival
SuperOrdinary
Theatre of Thunder

INDIVIDUAL COLLABORATORS

Alyssa Crighton | movement performance
Ava Rose Jaaniste | project assistant
Blake Howson | technical
Courtney Meagher | curatorial
Ella Rose Goninan | project assistance
Emily Briffa | movement performance
Glenn Watson | production
Lubi Thomas | curatorial
Megan Janet White | movement performance
Cobie Orger | film maker
Robert Jordan | technical
Stephen Brodie | production

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