Museum of Discovery, Migration Museum, South Australian Museum
My original plan was to go from Halls Gaps back to Melbourne, and from there take a flight to Adelaide. But by the time I got around to booking it, all the good flight deals were gone and it made no sense to go back to Melbourne. 3 different buses and about nine and a half hours later, I have made it to South Australia,
My first destination in Adelaide was the Museum of Discovery. While I didn’t plan to visit it, the museum was on my way to other places and the entry was free, so I decided to give it a go and see if it’s worth my time.
The museum had 2 floors with a few different rooms. The first room I entered was related to body modification, and the possibility of designing a different body. This was pretty much the only part of the museum I felt like I could actually understand, and it seems like a unique idea that’s worth exploring.
The next room was about space and, I think, about the possibility of colonizing other plants. Around the walls were screens that projected some space scenes (I wasn’t sure if it’s fake or not), and in the center there was a sphere onto which different planets could be projected. On the screen next to the sphere I could change the view to look at different planets, and each planet and some details so I could learn more about it. After playing with it for a little while, I didn’t feel like there is much I can learn from it and moved on to the next floor.
The first room I entered on the second floor was supposedly about using AI to create different avatars. It took me a few moments to understand what’s going on, and even then I wasn’t sure I fully understood what’s supposed to happen. I needed to get close to the camera in order for it to recognize me, and once it did some shapes appeared on the different displays, and I just didn’t understand what it has to do with creating avatars, although the idea of using AI seemed quite creative.
The next room was about moral dilemmas and the idea that perhaps we need to listen to each other more. That is, if I understood the idea behind that room, which I’m not sure I did. The first activity in this room was to answer a few questions about moral dilemmas. I didn’t feel like I wanted to do that, so instead I sat down in a very weird looking chair at the far end of the room. I can only assume there were speakers built into the chair, because when I sat down I started hearing a voice, which was supposed to help me meditate. The problem was that the volume of the speakers was very low and I could barely hear it. And what I did hear was more confusing than relaxing.
The last room was about breath. Walking through a dark corridor that felt like it belonged in some kind of horror movie or a scary attraction in an amusement park. There were many monitors along the corridor, and each one displayed a close up of a mouth, breathing in and out. I believe I was supposed to focus on my own breath, but the whole thing was just confusing more than anything else.
Leaving that confusing experience behind me, I made my way toward the Migration Museum. When I got there I was handed a map and was free to look around. I started at the room dedicated to the people of the year in Australia, where I could learn about who those people are and what they did to deserve that title. It was a small room which didn’t take a lot of time to cover, although I wasn’t sure if this particular display belonged in the Migration Museum.
Going back out of the room I followed the hallway to the far end of the building, which had some displays about the aboriginal history of South Australia and the beginning of the British colonization. I felt like I’m starting to understand what the European superpowers of the time did to Australia.
Then there was a shift to the more modern migration, from all over the world, and some of the things on display were flags made by different communities, combining their culture and tradition with those of Australia.
There was also another building which was part of the Museum, displaying the “Haza” collection. I thought it was supposed to depict the life of the Artist who created it, but I found myself quite confused by the whole thing, so I didn’t stick around for long.
The last museum on my list was the South Australian Museum. As soon as I entered the first gallery, I started to notice something was wrong. That something turned out to be noise. The Australian crowd was very loud, and not just the children who were running around excitedly, but also the adults who were chatting about pretty much everything and didn’t seem to care much for the place they were in. This was by far the noisiest museum I’ve visited in my travels, and as such that ruined part of the whole experience for me.
Nevertheless, as I was there, I tried to enjoy my time in the museum and learn a thing or two. The first two floors of the museum were all about the people, telling the story of the aboriginal people since they first settled in South Australia. It was similar to other history museums I have visited before, yet at the same time it felt different, not quite the same.
The displays were of early tools, weapons, and decorations, with some signs providing information and explanations. This, unfortunately, was another point against the museum. While the signs were informative, some of them were placed behind glass, and as the lights reflected in the glass it was very difficult to try and read many of them, and with many of the signs I didn’t even bother to try.
The next gallery was about other cultures in the Pacific and had displays from different islands and countries in the area such as New Zealand, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. It was interesting to see both the similarities and the differences between the cultures, and learn a bit more about them.
Going up another floor, it was time to leave the people behind and learn about the animals instead. This gallery was dedicated to all the different species of animals that can be found in South Australia, and included quite a bit of information. With the use of a touch screen, it was easier to both find and read the information.
Finally, I made my way up to the last floor of the museum, which included galleries about fossils, minerals, skeletons of large animals classified as “megafauna”, and for some baffling reason, ancient Egypt.
The latter was still confusing to me after I saw it. It was a small room with some Egyptian artifacts, although I couldn’t understand what it has to do with the history of Australia. The rest of the galleries on that floor were pretty straight forward, although the level of noise became so unbearable that I decided to rush some parts of it and leave the museum a bit early.
Overall this museum, as well as the others, was an interesting place to stop by, even if it was confusing at some points. It was a nice day out for the most part, which was slightly ruined by others.