Visual & Media Arts

What does heritage mean to your students?  Take an artistic approach to answering this question with your class as you explore concepts of history and heritage with Picture Ipswich.  Images in the Picture Ipswich collection include some of the earliest photographs taken in the Colony of Queensland to the present day.  These images, and other assets including department store catalogues, business letterheads, home movies, architectural plans and maps, can be used in class as both a creative stimulus and as primary sources that depict changing forms of artistic expression over time.

Here are a few examples of how you could use Picture Ipswich in Visual and Media Arts classes.  If you have further suggestions, please add them as a Recollection on this page.

Architecture

• Ipswich is known for its heritage architecture, both commercial and residential.  Explore the Architecture collection for examples of changing approaches to architectural styles.
• Investigate significant contributions of creative and cultural expression in the region by examining the work of prominent Ipswich architects, such as George Brockwell Gill, Will Haenke, and Bruce Buchanan.  Other significant architects will be added to our Ipswich Architects, Builders & Tradespeople collection as it is further developed. 
• Can a heritage building be preserved and adaptively re-used in the 21st Century?  Ipswich has many award winning examples of adaptive reuse.  Using the Ipswich Design and Heritage Awards identify buildings and sites in your area that have been adaptively reused and start students thinking about merits and methods of heritage preservation.  Which heritage sites around Ipswich would they preserve?  How could an historic house, church or industrial site be reused and yet retain its historical significance and heritage integrity?  Students could then draw their own designs for the adaptive reuse of a building.  
• The guides Every House Has A History, Ipswich Heritage Information Kit and Typical Ipswich House Types by Period are useful resources for students to identify Ipswich's architectural styles and gain an understanding on the principles of preservation and adaptive reuse.

Chasing Our Past At Home & Local Stories

• The profile pictures for the Chasing Our Past At Home webinar series and Local Stories collection provides students with examples of combining text and digital photo manipulation to create a still image to illustrate associated textual and visual content, similar to a movie poster.  How might they design a book cover for a local history or create a profile image for an oral hsitory?  

Images

• Encourage students to explore the collection, either via a keyword search or by using the Surprise Me button in the page header.  Ask them to asses the images for aesthetic value and composition.  Demonstrate to students that images contain information.
• Our Advertising collection has examples of promotional materials, such as cardboard fans from the 1930s, and signage that could be used as stimulus for students studying media and graphic design.
• For students studying fashion design, explore our fashion collections: Children's Fashion, Men's Fashion, Women's Fashion, Wedding Bells, and Hats.  These collections provide an historical and socio-economic cross section of fashion choices in Ipswich. 

Interpretive Heritage Signage

• The Interpretive Heritage Signage collection provides examples of interpretive signage installed across Ipswich since the early 1990s.  Encourage students to examine the different design styles of interpretive heritage signage and heritage themed placemaking: what do the various approaches say about any shifts in the community's attitude towards heritage in Ipswich?   Students could choose a site local or special to them and create their own interpretive heritage sign.

Oral Histories

• Students can select a short extract from an Oral History audio recording, such as a retelling of an event, select appropriate images from the collection and create a short video to illustrate, either using PowerPoint or a video editing app.
• Skilled students could attempt to illustrate or animate a segment of an oral history.
• Demonstrate interview techniques and view the webinar Recording Your Memories - A beginner's guide to oral history for more information on how to conduct an interview (also covers ethical considerations and dealing with challenging interviewees).

These are just a few examples of how you could include Picture Ipswich in Visual & Media Arts classes.  If you have further suggestions, please add them as a Recollection on this page.