[LINK] Painting by Rover Thomas and Multimedia at National Museum of Australia

[Tom Worthington]

The National Museum of Australia's Yiwarra Kuju Exhibition features 
paintings from the Canning Stock Route collection, including Rover 
Thomas: <http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yiwarra_kuju>.

It also has an 8 metre interactive multimedia display and online 
Education kit for schools. The exhibition in Canberra is free and is on 
until 26 January 2011. There is also a Hands-on demonstration and debate
The future of museum multimedia, 26 August 2010.

The exhibition was not well attended when I visited on Sunday, perhaps 
due to the uninspiring English title "The Canning Stock Route", making 
it sound like a display of agricultural equipment, not an 
internationally significant art exhibition.

The 8 metre long multi-touch multimedia display is a remarkable 
achievement. About 14 large format flat screens are arranged 
horizontally as a desktop surface. The screens display a map of the 
stock route and viewers can touch icons to display images and videos. In 
addition they can draw in the virtual sand depicted on the surface as 
virtual ants crawl around. Dozens of people can interact with the 
display at once, using it from either side (each end of each wide format 
screen is designed to be used from either side). There is a rack of Dell 
PCs in a cabinet at the end of the display to drive the system.

This is the most carefully designed computer museum display I have seen 
and deserves to win an international award. It manages to be impressive, 
without distracting from the traditional art around it. There will be a 
forum about the display and the role of such technology in museums, 26 
August:

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Hands-on demonstration and debate
The future of museum multimedia

Meet the creators of the impressive 8-metre multimedia display in the 
Yiwarra Kuju exhibition. See behind the scenes, discuss the 
interpretation and debate whether multimedia is the way of the future 
for museums. Supported by Museums Australia (ACT Branch).

Free
Bookings essential. Telephone (02) 6208 5021 or email bookings at nma.gov.au.
2.30–5pm Thursday 26 August
Meet at the Information Desk
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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/