Pokemon Go, going, gone

Hope someone rescues the Pokemon at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum before it's too late!

Hand job



Hadn't considered how the special effects for this memorable scene from The Terminator were done until I saw this sketch. It's purportedly by James Cameron for Stan Winston.

Capitalism also depends on domestic labour



"Capitalism also depends on domestic labour" (1970s-80s) by See Red Feminist silk-screen poster collective, via Womens Art

Making History

Griffith Pioneer Park Museum will host a visit by Margaret Simpson, a curator from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

Mrs Simpson is a transport specialist and with her husband Phillip has written on agricultural machinery, among other topics.

She will visit Griffith as part of a curatorial visit offered by the Museum of Applied Art and Sciences.

Mrs Simpson will speak on the role of museums in teaching history and the use of their collections.

“We’re really lucky to have Margaret visit Griffith at this time as she’s enthused about the opportunities for regional museums to contribute in educating younger generations,” said Jason Richardson, Curator at Pioneer Park Museum.

“When I spoke with her recently she mentioned visiting our Museum last year and described it as ‘one of the best in the state for variety and potential to engage students’ – which is high praise from someone who has visited so many of the public collections throughout New South Wales.”

Mrs Simpson will talk about what country museums can contribute to their communities, how curators can assist them to do this and the role of museums in inter-generational learning.

Join us at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum to hear Margaret Simpson talk at 11am on Tuesday 30 August. Cost is $5 or free for Museum volunteers.

Escapes

Sometimes I tinker with a recording. 

Sometimes it's because the version that met the deadline isn't the finished version and sometimes it's because the parts get recycled for another project.

Recently I recorded a jam in G minor for a Disquiet Junto project and the first draft was wild. It had four drum takes, two basslines, two four-string guitars, guitar and a few vocal parts.



Then I revisited the track and used only a bass, drums and two-four strings for a Naviar Haiku project, but ended up adding more takes when I produced the video.



Yesterday I used the parts for another Junto project, moving them into the fore and background.



Each track is like a refraction of the view offered by the parts recorded. Each shows a slightly different perspective on the moment and each seems to suggest a different interpretation.

It's interesting to hear so much possibility in sound, I think.

Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord



Enjoyed reading this summary of Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle:
The spectators consciousness, imprisoned in a flattened universe, bound by the screen of the spectacle behind which his life has been deported, knows only the fictional speakers who unilaterally surround him with their commodities and the politics of their commodities. The spectacle, in its entirety, is his “mirror image.” – Thesis 218

Edited

Maybe it's a coincidence but in the last week I've had my work rewritten by a couple of editors.

I've been writing for publication since the early 1990s. I have taken advice from a few editors. More often than not there are more pressing matters for an editor than changing the sequence of a sentence.

In my own editing I've learned that personal style needs to be flexible. One picks their battle with another writer.

As I wrote to one editor, it's interesting to learn what catches the eye. Which parts of sequence of words suggests a gap in meaning.

For me there have been two different edits to my work that have underlined details.

The first was hearing from RealTime that they wanted more discussion of plot in my review of Basin. I added a paragraph but the editor added words to it to cover more narrative ground.

The next was ABC Open, who also wanted a bit more detail but added an ellipsis to my text. This echoes my earlier observation about personal style because I loathe seeing ellipses used unless they're showing text has been omitted from a quotation.

So, in the case of the former, I've accepted the shortcoming in my review, but; in the latter example, I've requested the editor undo their changes.

Making with steel and wool



Couple more photos from Centenary Exhibition Day at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum last weekend.

Step back in time

Margaret Thornhill of Harden dressed her friends and brought them to the Centenary Exhibition Day at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum.

Fright at the Museum

When I’d started working as a curator at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum, I spent time visiting each of the 42 buildings and testing my intuition.

As I’d walk into each of the historic and recreated buildings I’d get a feel for their age and something else. I recall a couple of buildings made an impression and one was Fairview Cottage.

The building is a Cypress Pine ‘drop-log’ construction from the late Nineteenth Century built by Alfred Hill with his sons and a carpenter.

Like many old homes, it’s dark inside with low ceilings and lower doorways. One of the previous curators at the Museum installed an exhibit that shows a family tree of the Hill family with details including a few tragedies.

The name Fairview came from Hill’s observation there was “a fair view of the work ahead” of him when he looked out from the porch at the wooded landscape at Tabbita, some miles outside Griffith. It would have taken decades to clear the land for agriculture.

The cottage was inhabited by three of Hill’s sons for most of their lives, with the last dying there in 1952. The building was donated and relocated to the proposed folk museum in 1969, which was opened in 1971 by Elizabeth Roberts, a niece and sometime housekeeper for the Hill brothers.

In the first few months of my new jobs I heard a few spooky stories. A couple of the volunteers at the Park spoke of seeing a shadowy figure moving between the buildings around Fairview.

One spoke of having to double-check the Park at closing to ensure that everyone had left after locking the gates.

Another spoke of hearing footsteps in the early mornings outside the kitchen used to prepare meals for visiting tour groups.

Then last year I heard the story of a visiting psychic who claimed to see a ghost in the grounds at Pioneer Park Museum.

She described a large bearded man who was moving around and, when led to 'Fairview', identified him in the family tree as the eldest of the Hill children. James had lived at the cottage all his life.

On the way to the building the psychic experienced breathing difficulties and asked if someone had drowned or suffered from asthma. The family tree described the Hill’s son Daniel who died from pneumonia.

While I haven’t felt anything other than growing unease, it’s not surprising that ghost stories are populating my knowledge of Fairview Cottage.

Last summer a young girl was playing in the garden out front of the building until she complained of being hit in the face by a man yet there was no one there.

I find it fascinating there are increasing numbers of ghost stories about Fairview Cottage yet cannot think of them as anything more than stories, except when I’m alone at closing time.

Then I sometimes wonder if I’ll see a ghost.

Rock photography

Thought this picture on the invite to the opening of Griffith's new sculptures looked familiar.

Here's a photo I'd put on the Park's Instagram account.

Fresh pots!

Pioneer Park Museum audio tour

Blindfolded a few people at work today and made them listen to my stuff. 

See here for a short video about my experimental audio tour.

Now and Then exhibition

Stopped by the Griffith Regional Theatre today, where the annual kids rapt on performing eisteddfod was happening. It looked packed but it might've just been parents hanging in the doorway.

The Now and Then exhibition has a bit longer.
Pics taken from Griffith Pioneer Park Museum's Instagram account.