Censorship, Proximity, Media Proprietors, Technology

Objects, scene recreations, photography, graphics, educational interactives

• How did technological change drive the rhythm of Parliament House?

• How did politicians and political reporters adapt to new storytelling media?

• Did technology like radio and TV make it harder or easier to break big stories and why?

• How might we interpret or adapt rooms in this era for learning/ educational opportunities to appeal to both self-guided visitors and students?

• What was the Press Gallery reporting at the time of the 1967 referendum?

• What was the chatter inside King’s Hall at the time?

• What are the insights from this major event that remain relevant today?

Given we have large scale, technology driven audio visual entry and exit works, we propose U95 (referred to as the ABC Bureau after the last occupants) have more single channel ‘one dimensional’ content, with integrated learning opportunities.

In collaboration with the MoAD Learning, Engagement and Curatorial teams on this era we’ll to investigate how we could keep the studios and technology of the time insitu but incorporate new interactive technology to make them ‘functional’ and responsive, especially for students. These spaces need to be purpose driven.

In [U96, U96.2, U96.3] we’d like to retain the studio feeling but bring in more functional objects. One idea is to have period video cameras or tape recorders retrofitted with new technology to allow visitors and students to record their own journalistic ‘pieces to camera’ or live radio reports and review them or upload them to social media accounts. This is leaning into the success and popularity of web-based photo booths where people can pose for photos and then upload them directly to the cloud via a touch screen.

In the larger open space [U95], we propose to install a number of clear plinths to house objects and equipment such as cameras, film reels, microphones etc from this era. This serves to chart the technological evolution of the Press Gallery and presents the changing media formats of the time.

Storytelling in the form of text and graphics could wrap around the top section of the walls in [U95] and film stills would line the bottom (the existing shapes here lend themselves to film strip aspect ratio). Some of the content we have found in the archive for this era is perfect for this concept. For example, there are beautiful stills and graphic images from the 1967 referendum. This presentation offers a powerful mechanism to centre the too often underrepresented or misrepresented voices of First Nations peoples. The archive here is incredibly important and compelling and tells a historical story with contemporary resonance.

We are also investigating how to incorporate the fascinating story of Harold Holt’s disappearance within the teleprinter room [U95.1]. We love the idea of creating a ‘choose your own’ adventure type interactive for visitors using the existing teleprinter with new technology installed.

The final room for this era is the toilet and shower [U92]. We can have a lot of fun drawing on archival audio, journalists and press gallery workers recounting lesser known ‘water cooler’ or ‘gossip’ stories from the gallery to create a series of immersive soundscapes in this space. The walls lend themselves to large scale graphics and recreations of magazine or newspaper cover stories.