There’s comfort in knowing that while the Museum continues to appeal to a modern and future audience, the past will not be forgotten
Presented by: South Australian Museum and Adelaide Festival
Reviewed: 8 – 10 March, 2024
The creative minds behind the South Australian Museum (SAM) continue to inspire and surprise us with innovating new ways to open their doors to new and returning visitors.
In conjunction with the Adelaide Festival, SAM presented a 48-hour marathon event to farewell its stunning Gondwana virtual reality exhibition that’s been running since 9 December 2023.
Featuring talks, meditation, yoga, games, film, and a host of other activities, the weekend kept the museum doors open from the Friday evening to Sunday night.
The Gondwana exhibition has been an opportunity for visitors to walk through and explore the 180-million-year-old Daintree Rainforest. The uniqueness of this award-winning virtual ecosystem by creators Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts has allowed visitors to return to the forest throughout the day to witness it evolving and changing. The simulation resets each day.
For the 48-hour marathon, Gondwana continued to evolve without being reset, with visitors allowed to return multiple times across the full 2 days to re-explore the growth of the environment.
Many of the activities across the interactive weekend centred around the ground floor exhibition space and featured a separate yoga and meditation session before a virtual reality wall of the Daintree Forest.
Ellie from Grounded Yoga let both the yoga and meditation classes against a moving floor-to-ceiling backdrop of the virtual forest. The dimly lit space and soothing visuals made for a completely immersive experience led by the experienced guide.
In the Museum’s café a Paint and Sip class with Fleurieu Peninsula sisters “Ezzie and Mave” guided participants to paint their own Rainforest Dragonfly based on a screenprint by Ezzie. Over a glass of wine, the social nature of the one-hour class attracted experienced and new artists alike, allowing each to explore the use of colours over many laughs and situational friendships.
A free screening of the family favourite FernGully: The Last Rainforest, and drumming on the front lawns of the Museum added to the entertainment between science talks, and an opportunity to meet the creators of Gondwana.
The South Australia Museum is progressively becoming one of Adelaide’s premier centres for educational entertainment throughout the year. Along with their regular adults-only Night Lab evenings, they have long moved away from just the dusty displays of more traditional museums and easily compete with our modern museums that explore technology and space. There’s comfort in knowing that while they continue to appeal to a modern and future audience, the past will not be forgotten.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Venue: SA Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide
Season: Ended
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