We’re going to kick off the year with a couple of events looking solely at using mobile devices for interpretation.

Designed by Poco People, developed by our pals Blue Hat, and created for the young friends of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, ScavBot is a modern take on interpreting an important Tasmanian institution.

An iPhone-based scavenger hunt, ScavBot takes the user on an exciting exploration of the nooks and crannies of Australia’s second-oldest botanic gardens.

ScavBot was inspired by DigiMacq, by Paramatta City Council, which was presented at the 2010 Interpretation Australia Conference.

As the first Interpretation Australia event in Tasmania for 2012, join the project team for an introduction to the project and a demo.

11am – 1pm Saturday 21st April
Top Gate, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Hobart
Free Event – but please RSVP to Kelly.

Requires iPhone with iOS 5.0. Download ScavBot for free here.

It was a real contrast to the Congress held three years ago, in Jerusalem, because the focus was much more academic this time – with little discussion on the role of Friends of Museums.

Here are ten highlights from the Congress:

1.  WFFM Vice-President for Europe Jean-Michel Raingeard asked, ‘what is the role of new media for friends groups?’ Will the new technologies overpass our role, or become a good partner for our work? He argued that Paulo Buroni’s work that he presented was an example of young people playing, not learning. Lauro Magnani claimed that technology is now a part of the life of museums, and that some technologies can be extremely useful. Maria Mautone echoed this with the sentiment: “Technologies are something that we cannot live without.” Professor Pierangelo Campodonico, Director of the Galata Museo del Mare in Genoa, warned that new media can be costly to maintain, and rapid obsolescence is another issue to consider.

2. Maria Teresa Balboni Brizza said ‘a museum is a place where you can practice imagination’. I liked her point about some works of art made more accessible through reproduction. For example she cited that the Mona Lisa is behind 10cm of bullet proof glass, and even then you can only see the reflection of the person standing next to you.

3. There was also much mention of the word ‘interactivity’. I enjoyed Maria’s point about visitors liking to touch things because they’re normally not allowed to touch anything in museums. But she stressed that museum designers and curators need to keep focussed on their aim, not just flashy effects that will ‘conquer the young’. I do disagree with her statement, though, that a museum is made of concrete objects, otherwise people would just stay at home and watch video clips of it. That excludes any video art. She also said that ‘we all agree that this [new technologies] will never replace the direct experience.’ Is that true? Aren’t people already visiting virtual museums?

4. It was great to hear from Valerie Cooper again from the Art Gallery of Calgary, and I noticed that her average number of people per event has risen in the last three years from 1000 to 1200/1300 people.

5. Myrta Steiner of the Hess Art Collection mentioned the importance of good wine and good art in life. This is definitely relevant to The TMAGgots and our partnership with the largest privately-owned museum in the southern hemisphere/winery, the Museum of Old and New Art.

6. Jean Michel also said that icons hide the rest of the collection, saying that the Mona Lisa hides 99% of the Louvre collection.

7. I liked the comment somebody made in the marketplace session. They said “Silence is important – sometimes applause can upset the conductor.”

8. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill. “If we do not plant knowledge when we are young, we will have no shade when we are old.” Lord Chesterfield.

9. Simone Ferrari said that Leonardo da Vinci was considered a craftsman…he was “paid to paint people’s bathrooms”.

10. I liked how Mark Carroll called the art gallery space ‘the sublime’. I also enjoyed Leonardo Sangiorgi’s thoughts on creating more than one viewpoint for the visitor, namely by ‘immersing’ them in the art. Architect Mario Botta said that one thousand new museums had been built in the last year. He also said that museums might have replaced cathedrals as a space for spiritual experience. It was interesting to hear from James Snyder on the progress of the Israel museum, particularly as the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is currently undergoing a major redevelopment. That they pulled out one million tonnes of bedrock however, differentiates the projects slightly.

Did you know that Italy has the greatest number of UNESCO-listed archaeological sites in the world?

Photograph by Glenn Mead.

QR codes in Museo di Sant’Agostino, Genoa. This museum housed some fascinating pieces of medieval architecture and Roman sculptures, and there were plaques where you could scan the QR code to get more information about the piece you were looking at. Photo by Ben Britten.

My talk was on the iPhone application we are currently developing with Bluehat – ScavBot – so it was great to hear details of so many innovative new media Australian projects from people like Michael Parry from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Michael Harvey from the Australian Museum and Andrew Bowman, who is doing some amazing work for the Carnamah Historical Society in WA.

Another highlight was the dynamite Tuesday Pecha Kucha session where a packed Theatre Studio was dazzled by five separate speakers in the space of only an hour and half. Topics ranged eclectically from Jacqueline Healy’s high quality contemporary art installations at the historic Bundoora Homestead, to self-described ‘rogue historian and jeweller’ Helena Bogucki’s intriguing artistic process and Lilly Hibbard’s provocative ‘Benevolent Asylum’ incarceration research project. It truly was a session packed full of flavour and difficult to forget.

A really moving presentation was Masaaki Morishito’s vivid description of recovery efforts for ‘Cultural Properties’  in post-Tsunami Japan. There was audible despair in the full Heath Ledger Theatre from museum (and interpretation) workers when Mr Morishito showed before and after photographs of a particularly badly effected museum. 

Some thoughts to digest that came out of the conference were questions about the additional work required to maintain online collections, the future of the WA museum, the potential applications for Near Field technology, the opportunities to reinvigorate regional museums and the oft-repeated but still dissected concept of the museum as ‘a safe place for unsafe ideas’. There were plenty of moments to reflect on our role as interpreters, which I think is a healthy thing to do, and often. Moana Davey from Waikato Museum in New Zealand commented on the last day of the Conference – “too often we think that we can tell other people’s stories”.

I Sleep in Haysheds and Corners, edited by writer Ben Walter and myself, was named the best new project or work by young people in Tasmania.

In an unusual collaboration, short stories were paired with craft artists. We advertised a short story competition and received nearly 80 stories, from primary students to people in their late 20s. We could only chose ten, which was a difficult task.

We then gave each artist a story to which they responded with their craft – including a knitted book, jewellery with memory tokens, a leather suit and delicate letterpress designs (title pic for this blog post).

Then the talented photographic team, Kim Eijdenberg and Paul Yonna, shot the pieces and I designed the book.

Themes ranged from hallucinogenic encounters with a great white shark in an island pub to quiet reflections on formative experiences in a country hayshed.

The book, which also received a Gold Print Industry Craftsmanship Design Award, has sold most of its limited edition run. But you can probably still pick up one up from the Inscrutable Press website.

Here’s me with Ben Walter at Fullers Bookshop:

The previous festival was held in May 2010, and was the community’s first attempt at creating a large-scale regional festival. Over 30 cultural activities were crammed into a single, lively weekend – and the results were amazing. Visitors both old and new flocked to Queenstown, every event was packed to the rafters, and people gained a fresh insight into one of the country’s most illustrious mining towns.

Poster for the 2010 festival.

The opening of ‘Psycho Geographers & Geoparks – Six Queenstown Painters’ at LARQ during the festival.

Photographs of the 1929 Chevrolet that was specially modified in Queenstown for use by the Queenstown Fire Brigade – vehicle on display during the festival.

An engine on the West Coast Wilderness Railway in motion during the festival. The train journey is one of the most renowned tourist experiences for the region.

Passengers on the West Coast Wilderness Railway enjoying a subsidised train journey to Rinadeena Station and return during the festival.

One of the hard-to-book helicopter rides during the festival.

Patrons enjoying the festival Gala Ball.

Local auctioneer Phil Evans raising funds during the festival Gala Ball.

Three attractive Queenstowners using Partybooth at the Gala Ball.

Adelante String Quartet entertaining patrons at the Gala Ball.

Raymond Arnold Short Film, one of four shot for the festival by filmmaker Simon De Little, funded by Festivals Australia.

The next Queenstown Heritage & Arts Festival will be held from 12-14 October 2012, and will commemorate 100-years since the North Mt Lyell Mine Disaster – lamentably Australia’s worst underground mining tragedy, with over 40 people losing their lives. This emotionally powerful anniversary will underpin the festival, yet importantly we’ll also be celebrating Queenstown’s present and future with an intensely creative arts and heritage program.

Project Queenstown Inc., the festival steering committee, and Poco People have lofty ambitions of making this event the preeminent cultural festival for regional Tasmania… Stay tuned for some exciting announcements!

Images courtesy Ben Britten and Glenn Mead.

Best known for its infamous denuded landscape, Queenstown is experiencing a quiet rejuvenation driven largely by the not for profit sector.

The arts and social enterprises are creating a resurgence of new business opportunities and re-engagement of the community. New models are being sought to further attract civic pride, urban rejuvenation and business investment.

Exposing a regional audience to contemporary arts practices is invaluable and creates ripple effects within the community. The cultural upturn was seeded in 2006 when well-known Tasmanian artist Raymond Arnold and his partner Helena Demczuk brought their vision, energy and reputation to Queenstown. Arnold set up Landscape Art Research Queenstown (LARQ), creating a facility for international residencies and associated exhibitions, workshops, advice and mentorship. With a thriving program of residencies by artists from around the world LARQ is a beacon for cultural excellence. In an environment that could be considered an artistic frontier, LARQ is linking regional western Tasmania with the rest of the world.

This development left an indelible imprint upon non-profit community group Project Queenstown, which in 2009 consequently undertook development of the Queenstown Heritage & Arts Festival. The event (volunteer-run) delivered more than 30 arts and cultural activities in a single weekend. The festival attracted more than $50,000 in sponsorship and support, including a vital contribution by the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Premier’s Arts Partnership Fund. Local businesses and community groups embraced the event and worked together to co-create Queenstown’s inaugural cultural festival.

The festival was lauded as a critical success, creating an important social outlet for the town and boosting many retail and hospitality businesses. It contributed to a sense of pride within the community, defying the cliched label of Queenstown as a one-trick community reliant upon an ever-greener ‘moonscape’ for identity. It also proved to locals and attendees from wider Tasmania that the town can create a best-quality festival comparable with any other regional event in Tasmania.

Currently in development is the October 2012 Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival, a major event that will commemorate 100 years since Australia’s worst underground mining disaster. The National Trust is investing time and money into future visitor interaction with the nationally-significant Mt Lyell Office.

After the success of the 2009 Festival,  civic leaders in Queenstown became aware of an astounding project that was finding short and medium term uses for vacant and disused commercial buildings in Newcastle’s Hunter St Mall. At its core, Renew Newcastle brokers 30-day leases between artists and landlords. This gives artists a valuable opportunity to try their practice in a commercial environment and landlords a potential tenant and upkeep for their property. Foot traffic was increased which in turn created new economic activity, dramatically altering the status and prosperity of the Hunter St Mall. In 2011, Newcastle was named one of the top ten destinations in the world by Lonely Planet. Could this work in Queenstown?

The Queenstown community saw obvious potential for a similar system to capitalise on the developing arts scene and rejuvenate the increasingly vacant main street. In March this year Australian Greens senator Christine Milne facilitated a public forum in Queenstown with the creator of Renew Newcastle, Marcus Westbury, who detailed the inception, development, failings and successes of Renew Newcastle.

Seventy locals attended the meeting. There was a tangible vibe of optimism in the room that led to the decision to formalise a Renew Queenstown project, with the West Coast Council looking at ways to broaden the benefits to the entire West Coast.

Renew Queenstown hasn’t yet been established. Yet, five months later most of the empty shops are filled with tenants. The community forum, new main street paths and parking and developments such as the Linc Centre have prompted locals to ‘have a crack’ and take their destiny into their own hands.

Town leaders are researching new social enterprise and skills development models. And the Queenstown Geopark Project is looking at ways in which geological-based tourism infrastructure, school groups, field studies and interpretation can be developed to benefit the region. Whilst not yet formally established, the Renew Queenstown model will cross-pollinate with these projects.

Marcus Westbury (upon the invitation of AbaF) will return to Tasmania this week to deliver an open presentation on Renew Newcastle to interested community planners, artists, property developers and local councils. 

International research and experience shows there will be a shift in visitor travel patterns towards places that are unique, progressive and engaging. The Queenstown community has realised it is no longer just a mining town. Arts and culture have prompted new business opportunities and the impulse for change is coming from the community.

West Coast Time Lapse Study, laminated digiglass, 1980 x 1012mm x 4 panels, 2011
Child and Family Centre side of the artwork.

West Coast Time Lapse Study, laminated digiglass, 1980 x 1012mm x 4 panels, 2011
Library, Service Tasmania and Online Access Centre side of the artwork.

West Coast Time Lapse Study (detail), laminated digiglass, 1980 x 1012mm x 4 panels, 2011

West Coast Time Lapse Study (detail), laminated digiglass, 1980 x 1012mm x 4 panels, 2011

Images from the Ocean Beach panel in motion.

For more information on the concept behind the work, see previous posts here and here.

Swallow/Rock, Raymond Arnold, 2001

Swallow/Rock happily joins other works by two of our other fave Tasmanian artists, Melissa Smith and Pip Stafford.

Untitled, Pip Stafford

Untitled (detail), Pip Stafford

Holding Pattern, Melissa Smith, linocut, 56 x 76cm, 2009

Holding Pattern (detail), Melissa Smith, linocut, 56 x 76cm, 2009

Each community, town or place has its own characters, stories, industries and community identity, so it’s natural to think that these traits can be reflected in the object which is the very first point of contact with visitors.

With this in mind we decided to differ from the conventional town sign template and engage with the community to create a fresh and new entrance marker for Queenstown.

A mockup image of the entrance sign.

The conclusion was to reflect the ‘working town’ characteristic of the mining community. Saunders Signs constructed the 4000mm x 1800mm tall entrance markers from 50mm thick steel with a rust-coated resin infill around the lettering. The steel directly interprets the town’s mining legacy, reflecting the weight, solidity and imposing nature of the industry. The metal was allowed to rust, matching the burnt-orange ochre of the Gormanston Hills and referencing the inclement climate of the region. This approach is a direct reference to the work of Richard Serra, whose fantastic rolled-steel sculptures dominate landscapes throughout Europe and America.

Two construction views of the entrance sign.

For inquisitive visitors two halves of an evocative c1930s poem by passionate west coaster Charles Witham are etched onto the back of each marker. Not every person who passes the markers will stop and look at the back, but for those that do, this is intended as a little extra bonus for their curiosity.

During the day the sky is seen through the letters on the Lyell Highway marker, and at dusk it is backlit by the setting sun. The intended effect is for a unique and memorable first impression of Queenstown.

Photo courtesy Hayley Strutt.