2013 – Page 4 – Inside the Collection

Photograph Artwork, 'Another World Wide Web', installation

Museum blogs, a few favourites in 2013

September 18, 2013

When Emily Thomas wrote her guide to the top 100 museum related blogs in July 14, 2009 it was an interesting and brave attempt to list engaging, informative and ongoing Museological posts. I say brave as things don't stay stationary on the web, and something that was good one minute can be gone the next.

Paddle steamers – one of Australia’s inland pioneering transport systems

September 16, 2013

Have you been down to Echuca in Victoria on the Murray River (the NSW and Victorian border) and been for a ride on a paddle steamer? The story of the paddle steamers is one of Australia's amazing inland pioneering transport systems on a par with the camel trains, bullock drays and Cobb and Co coaches.

‘Playing with Light’, weird drawings and an anamorphic mirror

September 11, 2013

The excellent 'Playing with Light' exhibition opens at the Powerhouse Museum on 14 September to coincide with Ultimo Science Festival. Developed by Scitech in Perth, the exhibition invites curious visitors of all ages to interact with prisms, lenses, mirrors and colour.

A sense of nearness: Tyrrell collection portraits

September 8, 2013

Once I feel myself observed by the lens, everything changes: I constitute myself in the process of ‘posing’, I instantaneously make another body for myself, I transform myself in advance into an image.

Condom architecture

September 4, 2013

Re-skinning of buildings takes several forms, not all of them particularly reputable. During the 60s and 70s salesmen prowled the suburbs, seeking out fibro and weatherboard cottages that could be re-clad with aluminium or vinyl.

Photograph of Glynis Jones, in the Museum's Pop-UP stall in Lakemba

Powerhouse Museum Pop-UP @ Haldon Street Festival, Lakemba

September 2, 2013

On Saturday 24th August, the Powerhouse Museum ‘popped-up’ with a small object display and promotional stall at the Haldon Street Festival in Lakemba. Attended by more than 20,000 people, predominantly from the local Canterbury Council area, the festival was a fantastic opportunity for the Museum to bring some of its collection to the people – in particular, objects which not only help to promote a major upcoming exhibition opening at the Museum in 2014, but which have a special relevance and connection to some of the audiences we’re visiting. The two objects selected for display at this particular Pop-UP was the wasekaseka split sperm whale’s tooth necklace from Fiji dating to the mid-19th century and a contemporary neckpiece titled ‘Red Drop’ by Norwegian designer, Liv Blavarp.

Botanical illustration of 'Acacia pycnantha'

Happy Wattle Day 2013

September 1, 2013

September 1st is Wattle Day, the perfect excuse to feature another of Agard Hagman's lovely botanical illustrations from 1888. The Museum's first Curator, Joseph Maiden (later Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens) was a well known wattle enthusiast.

Where is Wonderland? – Tamarama’s secret past.

August 28, 2013

The name Wonderland evokes a sense of magic and mystery, something otherworldly and out of reach - much like the famed Alice and her trip down the rabbit hole. Sydney has more than one connection to the use of this name, most recently, is the title of a television sitcom set in an apartment block along the coastline of the eastern suburbs beaches of Sydney.

Photograph of Elise Andrew Derek Muller Chris Cassella

I F***king Love Science at the Powerhouse

August 26, 2013

I F***king Love Science is a Facebook page that started in March 2012, posting quirky but accurate science news and ideas, with serious depth as well as humour. It grew phenomenally and now has more than 6.5 million followers.

Photograph of Albarello (apothecary jar)

Suppository of Wisdom

August 21, 2013

A recent statement made by a politician, ironically prefaced by the phrases smart, well-educated, and experienced, about a ‘suppository of wisdom’ got us in the Powerhouse Museum curatorial department thinking about what this capsule of information might be.

Goodbye to Sydney’s giant hammerhead crane – an icon in Meccano

August 19, 2013

Meccano model builders, industrial archaeologists and lovers of Sydney's history were bitterly disappointed recently when the Navy announced on 8 August 2013 that the giant hammerhead crane towering over the Garden Island Naval Depot on Sydney Harbour will be demolished.

Photograph of disposed Mobile telephones installation

The communising of the mobile computer devise

August 14, 2013

'The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall'. Che Guevara Computing devices are now so ensconced in our lives that the notion of being deprived of one of these devices is seen as a removal of liberty.

Follow Us