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ACMI upgrade features new technology and innovation

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Australian Centre for the Moving Image

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne is getting an upgrade, featuring new technology and innovation.

Almost AUD40 million ($28m, £22m) will be spent on the upgrade, which is set to start this year. ACMI is scheduled to re-open in mid-2020.

The ACMI will be transformed into the world’s leading museum for screen culture, education and innovation using cutting-edge technology.

ACMI director and chief executive officer Katrina Sedgwick told The Age: “ACMI for a lot of our audience members has been a series of parts.

“People will come for a particular film, or a festival, or there’s a particular exhibition on. Often, people don’t know they’ve come to ACMI.”

She continued: “It’s quite fractured across the four levels. How do we connect all those experiences so that people understand that when they go to the cinema, that’s one exhibition space of many, and vice versa.

“How do we bring a real conviviality and connect the social spaces much more richly and encourage conversations across the spaces?”

https://youtu.be/WUJaFmtM4-g

ACMI expansion

As part of the makeover, Screen Worlds – an Australian-focused display telling the story of how moving images began and how they’ve evolved – is being retired.

Replacing it is a bigger, technologically advanced permanent exhibition, which will remain unnamed, and will delve into the many moving images and technologies of today.

The first section of the refurbished ACMI, ‘Moving Image’, will look at the basic building blocks of the moving image, including light and shadow, play and illusion, and time and space, across history and cultures. It will also feature contemporary Australian artwork.

The attraction’s ‘Moving Worlds’ section will depict how entire worlds are created for film, TV and video games, while ‘Moving Australia’ focuses on Australian content.

Other sections include the ‘Video Games Lab’, ‘Moving Minds’, and ‘Space’. Visitors will also be able to edit content or create sound effects at ‘Maker Moments’.

Elsewhere, visitors will be able to collect information about exhibits and film screens at the museum’s touch points using devices known as ‘the lens’, which will unlock information from ‘The Constellation’ – a large repository of extra information and material.

“You can collect and save everything you are interested in … and when you get home you have your own web page and you can read more deeply about what you have discovered,” Sedgwick explained.

2018 could have been a tough year for museums – but all the data suggests they thrived. Find out more about how museums have stayed relevant.

Image and video: ACMI

https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/how-the-australian-centre-for-the-moving-image-is-connecting-to-the-future-20190211-h1b3mj.html

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Rachel Reed

Rachel Read

Rachel is co-founder and FD of blooloop. She has a degree in engineering from Cambridge University, is a Chartered Accountant and has a certificate in Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Responsibility from London Business School. Rachel oversees our news, events and sustainability.

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