The beams of light alerting festival-goers to Melbourne's Now or Never art trail are just like bat signals, but for art.
The Of sky and sea installation by Michaela Gleave uses Morse code to beam a list of extinct and endangered languages into the sky, as part of a 1.2km art trail at Docklands opening on Thursday.
It is expected Now or Never's program of digital art and future thinking will attract about 200,000 people across the 17-day event.
The festival also builds on nostalgia for past events such as the Melbourne International Arts Festival, said Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp.
"It is important that we as a city and as an organisation continue to explore and experiment ... all of that comes together for Now or Never," she told reporters.
Also on the art trail curated by art and technology organisation Experimenta, an interactive installation by Georgie Pinn gives people the chance to project an image of themselves on to a seven-metre high sculpture of a face, using projection mapping technology.
"I combined very intimate personal storytelling with immersive technology to elicit empathy,'' the artist said.
"It's all about connecting strangers and breaking down bias and prejudice."
The experience, and the Instagram pics, might just be enough to entice art lovers out for the opening night, despite the rain and a forecast of 11 degrees.
Now or Never has attracted 300 local and international artists, composers and thinkers, with 20 new commissions in its first year.
Large-scale live music returns to the Royal Exhibition Building for the first time in 20 years, with a concert by American singer Kelela, and a performance in complete darkness by English electronic duo Autechre.
At the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a hybrid of live and digital art event titled Body Crysis will feature avatars made from live dancers, with streamed performances in Taipei and Melbourne.
At the Melbourne Museum, films will be projected on a wraparound screen inside a giant pop-up geodesic dome.
Now or Never runs from Thursday until September 2.
