The acclaimed Our Way: Contemporary Indigenous Art from Lockhart River exhibition can be viewed by people all over the world, thanks to an innovative 3-D computer program.
The virtual tour allows people to view computer- generated images of the UQ Art Museum in the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre at the University's St Lucia campus. Visitors can use their computer mouse to move around the museum and view high-resolution images of the artworks.
Program creator Associate Professor Joanne Tompkins said the program used computer gaming technology to model the gallery and art.
“The virtual tour provides an experience of the exhibition that is almost like being there,” Dr Tompkins said.
“It’s a tour that you devise for yourself, just as you would if you went to the gallery.”
Students studying the indigenous art on display will benefit from the virtual tour, as the tour will allow them to revisit the works after they have left the museum.
In addition, people who are not physically able to come to the museum can get a sense of the art as it appears in the gallery.
“We’re not using it as a replacement, but for people who can’t visit the gallery or are in remote locations, such as the artists themselves, it’s the next best thing,” Dr Tompkins said.
“The virtual tour ensures that others in the (Lockhart River) community can also view the exhibition.”
She said the virtual tour would be a useful archiving tool as exhibitions were difficult to preserve after they have finished.
The Our Way virtual tour would become a lasting resource that gave a sense of how the exhibition appeared while it was in progress, she said.
Dr Tompkins said the virtual modelling program, called Ortelia, had originally been designed for the performing arts industry, so theatre practitioners could get a feel for the “space” of a theatre before they had access to the building.
While the program has already been used to model the La Boite theatre and several others in Brisbane, she said art curators could continue to expand the program’s use in the future by using it to help plan exhibitions.
Download the virtual tour and read the tutorial on how to use the program.
Media: Associate Professor Joanne Tompkins (07 3365 1435) or Tegan Taylor at UQ Communications (07 3365 2339)
High-resolution images are available for this story. To view proofs, visit http://omc.uq.edu.au/images/5000a/ and contact photo librarian Diana Lilley (07 3365 2753 or d.lilley@uq.edu.au) to request full-sized images.
