ExPeriments
“There was Big toddler energy in the room.”
– Participant Comment
This is an ongoing series
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This is an ongoing series *
Public Experiment 1: In nowness
In Nowness was the first in a series of public experiments by New North Inc. A playful activation that invited guests into radical presence, unfolding in the here and now — an experience shaped by who was present and something that could only happen there and then.
A simple provocation:
Take a number. Follow a prompt.
Over 55 creatives showed up. We moved between making and watching, meeting strangers, trying things out and, somewhere along the way, invented Chaos Networking™.
And then we got organised enough to send out a survey to test the New North Nowness Index™.
Some highlights:
44.4% said it felt like a dinner party with fascinating strangers — awkward → connected.
33.3% oscillated between witness and maker.
And 66.6% said the structure felt like a loose horizon — direction emerged through doing.
When asked what lingered, 33.3% said a sense of connection or shared authorship, while others were left with productive discomfort, excited curiosity or an urge to keep experimenting.
In Nowness was hosted by The J, Noosa in January 2026 and supported by Noosa Council and Locate | A Place To Find Creatives.
Experiment 2 : not the thing →
Public Experiment 2 : Not The thing
A fundraising campaign. An invitation. A little test of what might happen if a community collectively backed an ambitious idea before it fully existed.
We asked:
Can we collectively fund, develop, curate, present + celebrate site-specific new ideas for a community we know and love?
Maybe we can.
And we're part way there.
Our Australian Cultural Fund campaign closed on 30 April 2026, raising $10,655, including $5,000 in matched funding from Creative Australia.
That money is helping turn an idea into an actual thing — with artists, partners, places and a whole lot of possibility now in the mix.
We celebrated the campaign at Peregian Beach Hotel, shared some of our ambitious plans for New North and Apparent Light, and had a genuinely excellent time doing it.
Most importantly, we got to test something we care about: whether people will get behind new ideas simply because they believe they should exist.
Turns out, they will.
Thank you to the brilliant individuals, communities and supporters who helped make this possible. You are part of the thing now.
SO, WHAT IS THE ACTUAL THING? FIND OUT MORE HERE
Not the Thing was supported by the Peregian Beach Village Association, Peregian Beach Hotel and Peregian Digital Hub, Noosa Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Noosa Council to support arts and culture in regional Queensland alongside our growing community of artists, collaborators and supporters.
Experiment 3 : the NEXT thing
Experiment 4 : Stay in touch →
Coming soon, probably in November 2026.