24 Museums Galleries Australia Magazine – Vol. 26(1) – Spring-Summer 2017
Three very different exhibitions enhanced through digital creativity
Digitally engaged: Experimenting with digital technologies in social history exhibitions
top:
Craig Middleton.
bottom:
Pauline Cockrill.
right:
Art of Science AR app in action. Image courtesy of SA Maritime Museum.
far right:
Bush Mechanics AR app in action. Image courtesy of SA Maritime Museum.
Craig Middleton and Pauline Cockrill
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avigating further into the digital age, our traditional approaches to social history museums and exhibitions must also adapt and change. As we know, the influence of digital media on the cultural sector has been inescapable and profound. Museums, galleries, libraries and archives, are ever more reliant on new technologies to undertake the basic tasks of managing their collections. Meanwhile institutions are collecting born-digital as well as material things. Furthermore, new and experimental media — often in the form of museum interactives — are often embedded within permanent and temporary exhibition spaces. And increasingly, online visitation and engagement are firmly on the reportable agenda. The History Trust of South Australia is open to experimentation, testing and evaluation of new technologies and ways of working. With this in mind the following case studies look at recent digital interventions implemented within the Trust’s diverse schedule of exhibitions.
The Art of Science at the South Australian Maritime Museum (Adelaide) In an era where technology is ubiquitous, entertainment is at our fingertips, interfaces are simplified to the point of concealing complexity (think UberEats), and smart devices are a domestic
accessory, research suggests that museums are often reacting in contrary ways. Museums tend to be abandoning personal digital devices as an engagement tool, because they are viewed as obstructing a more traditional exhibition experience while hindering the art of good storytelling. In terms of evolving exhibition practices, such attitudes merit serious review. Last year, at the height of the Pokémon Go craze, the History Trust of South Australia’s digital engagement team, together with the South Australian Maritime Museum’s curatorial team, saw an opportunity to enliven a collection of 200-year-old French watercolours by using Augmented Reality (AR) and smart phones. The travelling exhibition The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyages 1800–1804, a collaboration between several Australian cultural institutions and the Museum of Natural History in Le Havre, France, brought to Australia more than 340 original paintings and drawings collected from the voyages of the Géographe and Naturaliste in the 19th century. Original sketches and paintings on display depicted Australian marine and coastal life, as well as particular Tasmanian Aboriginal people (sometimes encountered at a close inter-personal level) during the exploration of southern Australia by Nicolas Baudin. These finely detailed images were created by ship-board artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit. Understanding the importance of this French collection as scientific artworks, and the significance of having them displayed on Australian soil almost