Australia museum was a really fantastic natural history museum with exhibits on dinosaurs, Aboriginals, Wildlife photography, and, my personal favorite, ice age era megafauna—including time spent on giant wombats, glyptodons, and thylacienes.
Though, unfortunately, I was not at all in the mindset to be in a museum—I was far too wound up—I really enjoyed the wildlife photography exhibit and decided that I could be competitive in the 11-14 year old category. The most striking photo, and I believe the overall winner of the contest, was of a SCUBA diver standing and a Right Whale had come up face to face with him. The composition isn’t anything special, but I am impressed that such armament happened and was captured. There was also a photo of a Black Gibbon’s (or something like that) head on top of a fire—almost like a funeral pyre—however the caption said something having to do with bush meat trade and the illegal exotic animal trade, shocking because of its gruesomeness.
Though, unfortunately, I was not at all in the mindset to be in a museum—I was far too wound up—I really enjoyed the wildlife photography exhibit and decided that I could be competitive in the 11-14 year old category. The most striking photo, and I believe the overall winner of the contest, was of a SCUBA diver standing and a Right Whale had come up face to face with him. The composition isn’t anything special, but I am impressed that such armament happened and was captured. There was also a photo of a Black Gibbon’s (or something like that) head on top of a fire—almost like a funeral pyre—however the caption said something having to do with bush meat trade and the illegal exotic animal trade, shocking because of its gruesomeness.
http://www.austmus.gov.au/visiting/whatson/display.cfm?event_id=322
The Museum of Sydney defines to me what a modern museum should be—sleek, highly interpretive and self-directed, a harmonious bled of old and new, and designed to tell many stories. The museum was designed to show Sydney’s history and FINALLY served as what the last two lectures were meant to be. There were many interactive high tech gadgets including an ENORMOUS touch screen with maps and paintings of Sydney throughout time. The museum itself was built on the site of the first governor’s house in the colony with the original floor plans bricked into the street. Above the museum was a modern office. A really neat exhibit involved video dialogues between different people who would have been found in the colony—indentured servants, Aboriginals, convicts, freemen, etc. Another was an indigenous person’s video project involving three screens showing a variety of natural images as well as candid people shots, in an attempt to describe what it means to be aboriginal and the connection to the land. My favorite artistic work though was a wall containing everything from chinchilla fur to whiskey that was imported into Australia in the early-ish settler days. The lighting and arrangement of this work was such that the colors and textures popped out and the best way I can describe them is as visually pleasing.
My favorite exhibit though was on Australian pets, from the attempts to domesticate kangaroos and dingos all the way through furbies, gigapets, and whatever the kids play with these days. My favorite aspect of this exhibit though was—surprise!—the photography. One artist took pictures of Sydney area folk with their pets. Urban free range-ish chickens, by the way, I guess are the current trend. But the photos were shot through a filter or edited to really make the bright colors pop. One photo in particular showed a slender dark-haired pale woman with her two Neapolitan mastiffs (the big’uns—think Fang from the Harry Potter movies). The blue of the dogs stuck out very vividly against the darker feel of the rest of the photo and complimented the electric magenta lipstick that the woman was wearing. Color me impressed!
The Museum of Sydney defines to me what a modern museum should be—sleek, highly interpretive and self-directed, a harmonious bled of old and new, and designed to tell many stories. The museum was designed to show Sydney’s history and FINALLY served as what the last two lectures were meant to be. There were many interactive high tech gadgets including an ENORMOUS touch screen with maps and paintings of Sydney throughout time. The museum itself was built on the site of the first governor’s house in the colony with the original floor plans bricked into the street. Above the museum was a modern office. A really neat exhibit involved video dialogues between different people who would have been found in the colony—indentured servants, Aboriginals, convicts, freemen, etc. Another was an indigenous person’s video project involving three screens showing a variety of natural images as well as candid people shots, in an attempt to describe what it means to be aboriginal and the connection to the land. My favorite artistic work though was a wall containing everything from chinchilla fur to whiskey that was imported into Australia in the early-ish settler days. The lighting and arrangement of this work was such that the colors and textures popped out and the best way I can describe them is as visually pleasing.
My favorite exhibit though was on Australian pets, from the attempts to domesticate kangaroos and dingos all the way through furbies, gigapets, and whatever the kids play with these days. My favorite aspect of this exhibit though was—surprise!—the photography. One artist took pictures of Sydney area folk with their pets. Urban free range-ish chickens, by the way, I guess are the current trend. But the photos were shot through a filter or edited to really make the bright colors pop. One photo in particular showed a slender dark-haired pale woman with her two Neapolitan mastiffs (the big’uns—think Fang from the Harry Potter movies). The blue of the dogs stuck out very vividly against the darker feel of the rest of the photo and complimented the electric magenta lipstick that the woman was wearing. Color me impressed!
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