fyi : back issues
Autumn 2004 - Place and Space
Experimedia is different!
Colleen Boyle
The first time you walk into Experimedia at the State Library of Victoria you may wonder just what kind of library you’ve landed in.
It looks different for a start. There are comfy orange armchairs, red
couches and a very large Panasonic screen on the wall. There are a number
of computer terminals but not all of them can access the internet or the
library catalogue. There aren’t many tables, unless you count the
ones with computers on them!
It also sounds different to the rest of the State Library. Voices can
be heard against the background sounds of computer games or big screen
presentations. A pair of Sun Microsystem servers cool themselves with
noisy fans. An interactive display housed in a large white sculpture blips
and chortles as children manipulate its buttons.
Experimedia is different to the rest of the Library. Some people come
to curl up in an orange chair with a book they have found. Others take
in what’s on the big screen.
Students move furniture around and arrange themselves into discussion
groups before breaking off to play a computer game. It’s interesting
to note that they prefer to play together than alone. So much for computer
games being anti-social!
So what is this place called Experimedia all about?
Experimedia is a multimedia experiment mixed with the traditional concept
of a library offering a glimpse of what the library of the future may
be like.
Will the library of the future include open access to books and objects
that may be fragile, rare and expensive? It’s unlikely. Probably
such items will only be accessible through an online environment.
Perhaps people will visit the physical space of the library of the future
less? Visitation statistics don’t reveal this yet, but who knows
what the future holds when almost every school student owns a mobile phone?
When I was a student, our home had one phone and it was as big as a packed
lunch!
Experimedia is a place for people to explore the State Library’s
vast collections while using high-end technology and experiencing innovative
multimedia.
The Sun Microsystem’s Learning and Studio Pods allow students of
high school age to access information on the Library’s patents collection
whilst undertaking the basic tasks of comprehension and role-play. The
Learning Pod is where they do their initial research in a website style
question and answer session. The Studio Pod is like a miniature newsroom
where students can ‘interview’ inventors of the past.
The Games Pod shows the wealth of computer games currently being produced
in Victoria. The computer games industry now makes more money globally
per annum than the film industry. It employs artists, designers, computer
scientists, programmers, animators, directors, producers, accountants
and other specialists. Melbourne joins Montreal, Marseilles and Seoul
as one of four key cities around the world where the computer games industry
has taken off.
Who will collect and preserve these remarkable works of media and technology
that are so indicative of the culture and society in which we currently
live? Hopefully it will be the libraries of the future.
Experimedia is making a step towards that future.
Experimedia is also a place to exhibit the work of local multimedia artists.
Martine Corompt and Ian Haig produced the friendly, perhaps misnamed Mass
Teraton, an interactive display that uses images from the Library’s
comic postcard collection. Even when not interacting with a user, the
sculpture seems to breathe and dream.
In May this year as part of the Next Wave festival, video artists Matthew
Gingold and Keely O’Shannessy will fill the space with stacks of
screens depicting various talking heads as they go through the process
of a mock screen test. The artists’ aim is to debunk the myths behind
film, video and TV production, at the same time highlighting the fact
that it really isn’t what you say - it’s how you say it.
Forgotten Heroes: The Goats of Literature is the extraordinary product
of writers Lisa Gye and Adam Ford completed during a pilot Digital Ink
residency at the Library. The Library’s collection of pulp fiction
was the inspiration for this tongue in cheek and entertaining website
(<www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/slv/experimedia/
digitalink/forgottenheroes/index.html>). The annual continuation
of this project will ensure a quality collection of digital literature
for the future.
By the middle of the year Experimedia will have a new section called the
Kids’ Pod. Children will be invited to come and read selected Australian
ebooks and even create their own small ebook, illustrated by with images
from the Library’s vast Pictures Collection.
Personally, I hope that the library of the future continues to see people
visit the physical space of the library at the same time that they become
more and more familiar with using the latest on-line resources.
The library of today, and of the future, is a space in which our minds
are transformed. Libraries are calming, peaceful and stimulating environments.
They are places of research, thought, and also of enjoyment.
Experimedia may not be everyone’s idea of what a library should
or will be like, but I hope you will come to experience it for yourselves.
Experimedia is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 5pm. For schools'
bookings please call Gordon White on (03)8664 7015.
Colleen Boyle is the Acting Manager of Experimedia at the State Library
of Victoria.