The establishment of the Museums of History in 2022 represented the joining of two major collections: those belonging to the former Sydney Living Museums and the collections of the State Records Authority.

To celebrate this moment, the Museum invited Studio ESEM to develop a moving image artwork to be featured as part of the launch event for Museums of History at the Sydney Mint on Macquarie Street.

The moving image artwork, titled ‘Time Flows’, drew from digitised collection assets including early physical artefacts, iconic archival photography and more recent digital scans of the SLV’s key historic properties.

The commission provided an opportunity to explore how visualisation methods and techniques could be used to expand and shift perceptions of colonial governance. This involved working across - and emphasising connections between - both material and digital collections of urban transformation through time.

The materials of water and sand are transformed, using animation techniques of dispersal and image manipulation, into the materials of currency (coinage) and colonial authority (governing buildings). New digital methods of visualisation, including point cloud scans, become emergent forms through which to materialise the porous and changing natures of institutional governance through time.

“How can new visualisation technologies be used to expand sensory connections to the potentials of spatial justice and repair in a post-colonial Australia?”

— DR. Sarah Barns, Studio ESEM, Reflecting on the potentials of spatial media in advancing truth-telling and decolonising practices across Australia’s heritage institutions.

To explore these ideas, Michael and Sarah from ESEM worked with Andy Noonan to explore how to render point cloud scans of these buildings into a more immersive animation experience. Michael also explored recolourisation techniques to bring a contemporary ‘look’ to iconic black and white imagery, including the Museum’s collection of prison mug shots from the Justice and Police Museum.

Technical Director Leif Wilson also expertly managed the installation and design of the large scale LED wall featured as part of the launch event, creating a canvas for video storytelling within the grounds of the former Sydney Mint building.