Moya McFadzean

Beyond the Label: Museums, Histories and New Technologies

Museums play a vital role in providing a site for the public interpretation of history. In fact, it may be argued, in light of the recent surge towards the popularising of history, that museums, with their broad audiences, can provide a bridge between academic presentations of history and the consumable packaged forms of histories that are becoming increasingly popular.

New technologies have the potential to enhance and expand the ways in which we interpret history in the public domain while instilling an excitement and interest that the public now expects. By recognising the potential of multimedia we can remain at the cutting edge of both the content we choose to explore and the ways in which it is presented.

The exhibition Getting In: Australia’s immigration policies past and present opened at the Immigration Museum early in 2003. It has won international, national and state awards. One of the central experiences in the exhibition is an interactive theatre experience, an example of interactive multimedia that is truly innovative in both its content and use of touch screen and filmic technology. Visitors to the interactive find themselves in the role of a government official charged with the responsibility of interviewing people applying to migrate to Australia, and discovering whether or not they ‘get in’. They can select from nine applicants over three significant periods in the development of Australia’s immigration policies. Visitors who have migrated themselves are able to relate to the anxiety, anticipation, excitement and tragedy of the applicants; others will gain a new understanding of what it must be like to have their lives hang in the balance and decisions taken out of their hands. In either case, the shape and development over time of Australia's immigration policies will become evident as visitors witness the questions, responses and outcomes of the interviews and read the secondary layer of policy 'fact files'.

This interview interactive has proven to be a huge hit with visitors, demonstrated by verbal and written visitor feedback, as well as the tracking studies undertaken on the interactive itself. It has been described as interesting, confronting, entertaining, challenging, educational, moving - all words which demonstrate an effective presentation of historical issues.