Research

There are round ones, black ones, orange ones, blue ones. Compound, stalked and spots. Some animals have two, others eight or perhaps 100. Eyes see amazing things and they’re amazing to look at.

I’ve spied many a curious eye looking back at me underwater. Here are 19 fishes, three octopuses, three squid, two rays, a scallop, a seahorse, a shark and a shrimp. Thirty-one belong to marine species, one lives in freshwater. See how many species you can recognise.

An array of marine animal eyes.
Image: all photos by Julian Finn
Source: Museum Victoria  

Find more information on the species behind the eyes on our Port Phillip Bay Marine Life website.

Editor's note: This will be Blair's last blog post (for now) as he's leaving the museum for other adventures. Now's a good moment to revisit his many posts, or you can just remember him as his colleagues choose to - wearing a silly hat and making anatomical models out of balloons.

Blair demonstrating odd genitalia of the animal world using balloons at the Melbourne Museum SmartBar event, January 2013.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria

The theme of the most recent SmartBar at Melbourne Museum was 'retrofuturism'. A perfect theme to base a demonstration of technology that's definitely more future than retro – 3D printing.

During the evening we had two printers set up: the Museum's recently-purchased MakerBot Replicator2 and a printer brought along by our colleagues Bernard Meade and Ben Kreunen (from The University of Melbourne). Bernard and Ben also brought along a 3D scanner, and spent the evening scanning specimens from our Marine Invertebrates collection.

3D printers and scanner demonstration with an enthusiastic and interested crowd at SmartBar, Melbourne Museum, April 2013.
Image: Ben Kreunen
Source: The University of Melbourne  

We had an incredibly positive response with people very interested to see the new technology demonstrated. One reaction was surprise that the Museum is experimenting in this emerging field. “What are you going to use it for?” was a common question. The answer ranges from science (especially palaeontological) research, to rapid prototyping of exhibition components, to modelling. And the list will continue to grow. Other museums are also experimenting, and 3D printing maker spaces have been popping up at museum technology conferences for a couple of years now.

We also used the deadline of SmartBar to test out possible workflows, as we have also recently purchased a 3D scanner. With the scanner located in our Media Production department, our best expertise at handling 3D files located in our Design team, and the printer located in our Digital and Emerging Technology department, we wanted to see how well a new cross-department workflow might go.

The MakerBot Replicator2 in action, printing an ammonite.
Image: Ely Wallis
Source: Museum Victoria  

Our Sciences department supplied some collection specimens to scan, which we did more and less successfully. The best was an ammonite, and our scan of a trilobite was okay, though we want to try printing it end on to get better relief detail.

Less successful was a biscuit star which looked to have enough surface detail to scan well, but which ended up looking like a lump of dough. The lessons learned were that we should upgrade our scanning software, and that we need a lot more practice in how to fill in ends and merge multiple scans to get a complex 3D shape with no holes.

The least successful, but amusing, experiment was an attempt to scan quartz crystals. Lovely shapes but the lasers passed straight through or bounced off the clear crystals, providing a very pretty laser light show but no scan. Next time we’ll try powdering them to get a better matt surface.

Real ammonite specimen from Museum Victoria’s palaeontology collection, next to the 3D printed model.
Image: Ben Healley
Source: Museum Victoria  

All in all, it was a fun night, and a successful first attempt at our own scanning and printing. Congratulations to all who attended SmartBar and got to take home their own 3D printed ammonite. In case you’re interested, the original is a fossil Pleuroceras sp, which was found in Bavaria in Germany.

We have now uploaded the ammonite scan to Museum Victoria’s collection (of one!) in Thingiverse, a website for sharing 3D printable files and where you’ll find other museums also uploading scans. We’ll continue to add specimens and models there over time.

Happy printing!

(see also Amstrad on display at SmartBar)

The Spencer & Gillen: A Journey through Aboriginal Australia website was launched last Friday at a celebration at Melbourne Museum. In attendance were MV staff, representatives from several partner institutions, Central Arrernte Elders, and descendants of the two ethnographers, Walter Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen.

Screenshot of the newly-launched website, spencerandgillen.net.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Descendants of Sir Baldwin Spencer with MV curator Dr Phillip Batty and three visiting Central Arrernte Elders.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

The spencerandgillen.net launch included speeches by project partners and collaborators, and a performance by three Central Arrernte Elders. L-R: Martin McMillan Kemarre, Ken Tilmouth Penangke and Duncan Lynch Peltharre.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

The website has been several years in the making and brings together over 50,000 objects, photographs, documents, recordings and drawings that are housed in institutions in Australia, Europe and the United States. Research coordinator Jason Gibson calls it "one of the most comprehensive collections to do with a group of Aboriginal people. Certainly there’s nothing else like it on the web. It covers life on the frontier in Central Australia between 1875 and 1912."

Among the treasures are rare and wonderful audiovisual recordings, including the earliest film footage taken on mainland Australia. "Most of this material isn’t available on the web anywhere else, so we had to digitise and compile it at the same time," explains Jason. With a new mapping function and many ways to sort and filter the collection, you can now access these vital ethnographic records in ways never before possible, which is particularly important for members of Arrernte communities. "We spoke to over 80 different individuals from five different language groups, mainly in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek and overwhelmingly everyone is really excited and proud to have their heritage on display for all to see."

The Central Arrernte Elders watching the footage on spencerandgillen.net of the 1901 Unintha corroboree at Charlotte Waters. This is the earliest film footage shot on mainland Australia.
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

Download the Unintha corroboree, Charlotte Waters video

View the Unintha corroborree footage on spencerandgillen.net

Spencer and Gillen worked in Central Australia for 30 years. "Although they have been criticised by many people for their social evolutionist attitudes, this collection demonstrates the collaboration with local people," explains Jay. "Gillen’s very close relationship with Arrernte people was unusual at the time and they were among the first non-Indigenous people to grapple with the concept of the Dreaming. 'Dream time' was a Gillen interpretation of the Arrernte word Altyerr and this interpretation became important internationally in terms of thinking about religion and society."

The website is the product of a collaborative project that was funded by the Australian Research Council and led by the Australian National University. It would not have been possible without the partner organisations especially the South Australian Museum, Northern Territory Library, and the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Links:

spencerandgillen.net

Media News: Putting Spencer and Gillen back together

MV Blog: Following the travelling Tjitjingalla

MV Blog: Rare scene of first European contact

All I want for Christmas is an update on the Android field guide!

Well – drumroll – it's here!

Last Friday, we were very proud that Senator The Hon Don Farrell, Minister for Science and Research and Minister Assisting for Tourism, was able to join us at Melbourne Museum to celebrate this significant milestone. 

  Field Guide apps team pose with Minister Farrell: Simon Sherrin, Jo Taylor, Ely Wallis, Ajay Ranipeta, Minister Farrell, Blair Patullo (absent: Nicole Kearney, Michael Mason).
Image: Jon Augier
Source: Museum Victoria  

Development of the Android version is part of a wider project, funded by the Australian Government under the Inspiring Australia, Unlocking Australia's Potential scheme, where we are working with museums around the country to deliver field guide apps for all States and Territories.

The MV Field Guide app is now available through Google Play for Android devices – including tablets, phablets and phones. And it's free.

The MV Field Guide home screen (shown here on a Nexus 7)
Image: Museum Victoria
Source: Museum Victoria  

The app contains over 730 Victorian animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, fishes and marine and freshwater invertebrates. Each detailed description includes stunning images, distribution maps, endangered status and animal sounds (for birds, frogs and other noisy critters).

The Helmeted Honeyeater is Victoria's bird emblem (shown here on a Nexus 7)
Image: Museum Victoria
Source: Museum Victoria

Apple device users will be able to download an updated iOS version in the coming weeks. The new version represents a significant upgrade to the existing iOS app.

Additions to the new Android app (and coming soon for Apple devices) include:

• Over 30 new species (many added as a result of user requests), including the Great White Shark, the Giant Gippsland Earthworm and Victoria's bird emblem, the Helmeted Honeyeater
• New marine mammals: seals, dolphins, whales
• 75 new bird calls, including the Powerful Owl, the Little Penguin, the Tawny Frogmouth, the Sacred Kingfisher and the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
• The complete set of frog calls
• The updated Victorian Endangered Status for all vertebrate species (bringing the app in line with the DSE's 2013 Advisory List for Threatened Vertebrate Fauna)

Last week the Immigration Museum Discovery Centre participated in the annual Shake Your Family Tree event. Organised by the National Archives of Australia (NAA), this is a national event that brings together family history experts in one location for an entire day.

  Victorian Archives Centre Foyer
Image: Phillip Morrissey
Source: Phillip Morrissey  

It was an opportunity for budding genealogists to delve even deeper into their family history with a full day of activities presented by the National Archives and others. There were many opportunities to speak to experts about resources that can assist with your family history journey and visitors could hear personal stories from fascinating guest speakers. Key sessions were webcast, including a special panel discussion on how migrants have shaped Australia, moderated by Karen Middleton, SBS journalist, and an introduction to the National Archives new website Destination: Australia which showcases over 21,000 images of migrants in Australia after World War II.

Along with many other institutions such as the State Library of Victoria, Public Record Office of Victoria, Genealogical Society of Victoria and the Koori Heritage Trust to name but a few, we set up our stand in the foyer of the VAC in North Melbourne and helped many enthusiastic visitors with questions about doing their family history research. 

Immigration Museum Info desk
Image: Phillip Morrissey
Source: Phillip Morrissey  

Immigration Museum Info desk at NAA
Image: Phillip Morrissey
Source: Phillip Morrissey  

It was the perfect opportunity to promote the services of the Discovery Centre at the Immigration Museum which we hope will encourage more visitation to the Museum and the IDC.

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Android version of the MV Field Guide app, we're adding a suite of new species; species that have been specifically requested by the users of the existing iOS app.

However, we were missing images of a few species, including Victoria's bird emblem the Helmeted Honeyeater. With no images, these species were going to be left out of the app.

So we asked our MV Blog readers for help – and the response was overwhelming!

Helmeted Honeyeater, Lichenostomus melanops cassidix
Image: Ian J. Wilson
Source: Ian J. Wilson  

Thank you to everyone who sent in images for our MV Field Guide photography competition. We wanted to include them all, but we had to be mindful of download size (with over 700 species in the app, that's a lot of pictures).

The winning photographers were:

• Neville Bartlett
• Leo Berzins
• Arthur Carew
• Micha Jackson
• Gordon Slater
• Ian J. Wilson

Thanks to these people, the upcoming Android version of the MV Field Guide (and the iOS upgrade) will include the Helmeted Honeyeater, the Diamond Firetail and the Little Eagle (along with 25 other new species).

Haven't got the MV Field Guide app? Download it for free from the App Store. Android users, stay tuned – it's coming soon!

UPDATE: The Android version is now available from Google Play. Hooray!

Diamond Firetail, Stagonopleura guttata
Image: Gordon Slater
Source: Gordon Slater