Inside Inferno: the NFSA’s mind-bending installation

Posted on 3 November, 2025

A hyper-real, sci-fi-infused world where identity, memory and matter collide – that’s what you find when you visit the National Film and Sound Archive’s immersive installation, Inferno.

Created by Paris-based Australian artist Mikaela Stafford, Inferno blends epic-scale motion graphics, kinetic sculpture and dynamic lighting with an original soundscape by electronic composer Kate Durman. Open to the public until Sunday 16 November, it blurs the lines between the physical and digital worlds.

Influenced by club culture, hyperrealism, early cinema, and Japanese silk painting, the concept might sound like something out of a science fiction novel. It’s rooted in humanity and nature, with Mikaela drawing inspiration from the epic narrative poem Dante’s Inferno and Kate using the sounds of birds and insects to build the soundscape.

The result? A disorienting journey where the viewer is lead through a dreamlike world.

Kate-Durman (left) and Mikaela Stafford (right). Photography by Cassie Abraham.

Created by Mikaela following an artist residency at the NFSA earlier this year, Inferno was born after she started combing the Archive’s collections for inspiration. Coming across the small props and costume pieces from the 1998 film Dark City, it was there she says she found an interesting overlap with Dante’s Inferno.

“It helped me get an understanding of the abstract narrative that I was going to portray in the motion piece,” explains Mikaela.

“And then once I had an idea about who the protagonist was, how I wanted to convey the story, from there we branched out into sculpture One and Two.”

At Inferno’s centre is a large resin sculpture that appears to ooze from a monumental 12-metre digital screen.

Anchoring the protagonist’s metaphysical journey through a shifting, tech-saturated landscape amid themes of uncertainty, reflection, and renewal, Mikaela says that the concept is that visitors move through layered digital visuals and multidimensional sound to experience an almost hyperreal realm.

Connecting via social media after following each other and forming what they describe as a ‘parasocial relationship’, Mikaela and Kate collaborated for eight months to bring the final installation to life. From the beginning they say that they knew they wanted to create something sci-fi-infused.

“It’s not necessarily the Hero’s Journey, but we knew we were going to follow a character through an epic journey,” says Mikaela.

“I had always thought that I would really like to collaborate with Mikaela in some way,” adds Kate.

“When Mikaela initially expressed what the ideas would be and where it was going to go, I was drawn to it. I’m really obsessed with sci-fi films, particularly of the ‘70s and ‘80s era, so we had a lot of similar things that we’re interested in.”

Starting with sound effects and Foley (the reproduction of everyday sounds) to build the soundscape, when Kate and Mikaela met in Canberra at the start of the year to start the project, they went on hikes to collect nature sounds.

“Bees buzzing, birds and footsteps and creepy-crawly textures and after that, I went back and applied a lot of processing to them. You can’t really hear exactly what it is in the piece, but it started with those kinds of sounds,” explains Kate.

“The combination of the soundscape (presented in a multidimensional way) to accompany Mikaela’s rich visuals and physical sculptures allows the audience to feel like they are fully immersed in the whole environment.”

Agreeing that finally seeing the installation come to life after staring at it on a computer screen is ‘surreal’, the duo is thrilled by how it’s come together at the NFSA.

But while Inferno is inspired by technological oversaturation and themes of spiritual crisis, Mikaela says that it ultimately leans toward optimism.

“The essence of the work is hopeful; it’s about navigating out of this inferno-like space,” she says.

“It’s the story of a character that wakes up and they don’t know who they are or where they are or where to go, but they know the only way is forward. They’re encountering various creatures and obstacles, but they still persevere.”

“That sense of hope in a very uncertain place is the essence of what the work is about, and I hope people leave feeling a bit curious and introspective.”

And yes, before you ask, this will be part one of three, just like Dante’s Divine Comedy. Mikeala will be exploring part two and three of Inferno outside of her exhibition at the NFSA, making this a must-visit.