Matthew Riley

Dr Matthew Riley is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity program at RMIT University. His work and scholarship in experimental design, art practice and play has been recognised internationally in exhibitions, events, symposia and conferences.

Riley examines agency, affect and abstraction of complex systems, worlds and environments, often in relation to ecologies and experiences of place. He explores this through an array of methods and materials; both digital and otherwise, developing prototypes and drawings to exhibited commissioned works for galleries, events and public spaces. These works often connect digital, physical, social and material elements together as installations, playable works, mixed realities, interactive environments, public art and play design projects.

With Uyen Nguyen and Max Piantoni he is a co-founder of the experimental collective YomeciPlay, serving as a creative producer in the conceptualisation, development and design of gallery-based and urban play works. These works - outdoor street games, digital soundtoys, installations and playable art machines have been commissioned for national and international venues, organisations and events including Playable City Melbourne, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Experimenta Life Forms and Bunjil Place and shared in public symposiums and conferences including DiGRA (Kyoto, 2019), EVA Conference (London, 2020), Audio Mostly (Austria 2022), Play and Place (Melbourne 2022) and ISEA Everywhen (Brisbane 2024).

Riley’s practice involve extensive interdisciplinary, professional and public engagement with cultural institutions, local government, design sectors, communities, industry bodies, practitioners and researchers. In 2017 he worked with Ryan Reynolds of New Zealand creative urban regeneration initiative Gap Filler, artist gamemaker Dr Troy Innocent and artist Kate Baker in developing a series of urban play interventions in the outer suburban Melbourne township of Lilydale, the first project of its kind to be staged there. In 2021-22 he co-designed a learning program to create location-based games with First Nations students, who developed game literacy through augmenting a local bushland with digital worlds. Led by Uyen Nguyen in collaboration with ACMI Education and Bendigo Tech School, the workshops highlighted Dja Dja Wurrung culture in the Bendigo region.

A central leader in the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity (MAGI), Riley contributes practice-based creative research expertise to MAGI’s distinctive industry-engaged and studio-based program. He has established new collaborative alignments and partnerships that have connected institutional study to studio networks, industry partners and professional bodies, resulting in wider disciplinary, industry and public impact of student practice outside of academia. Riley has been invited to share his approach to creative practice pedagogies in conferences and symposiums including ISEA (Hong Kong) Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and Kerr-boo-on-ool: A DSC Reconciliation and Belonging Event at RMIT University.

His research and professional practice have been the recipient of awards, commissions and grants from organisations including Creative Victoria, Yarra Ranges Council, Bunjil Place, RMIT University, Swinburne University, Experimenta, Playable City, ACMI, Bunjil Place and the Ngapartji Education Centre.

Riley’s background is in contemporary art, working as a designer within a team of studio assistants, artisans, technologists and fabricators at the Melbourne-based studio Drome for renowned artists Patricia Piccininii and Peter Hennessey. Working with cultural, educational and arts organisations including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, The University of Melbourne, Creative Victoria, Chunky Move and Friends of the Earth, Riley’s design work has featured in HOW Magazine (New York), IdN Magazine (Hong Kong) and Architectural Review Asia Pacific (Melbourne) among others.

He is a member of the RMIT Future Play Lab, who work with local government and industry partners connecting speculative design, creative placemaking, extended realities and urban play to explore new ways of being in the world.

Riley is also a member of the Academic Board of The MIECAT Institute who offer experiential, arts based programs for those working in community health, therapy, education and research.