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I had the pleasure of spending a few days with a SoundHouse colleague, Peter Mahony at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Peter has become somewhat of a SoundHouse legend around Australia, operating the PowerHouse SoundHouse successfully for five years. SoundHouse is an association of music and technology educators in Australia, South Africa and America who are committed to making music and technology available to everyone, especially the "average" person and disadvantaged groups. Members of SoundHouse share their expertise with each other to enhance these outcomes. Special links with members of the business community, such as Allans Music, ensure that members stay on the cutting edge of technology in music. Indeed Scitech in Perth were sending over their new SoundHouse manager for training the week after I left. The week after that, the Public Programs team from the National Museum in Canberra came to visit. They are interested in building a "broadcast room" with a range of studio technologies. It seems that science centres wordwide are using music or music technology to attract audiences who would be unlikely to visit more scientific exhibitions. See http://www.zeum.org or http://www.whitakercenter.org for examples. So it was with some trepidation of exposing my musical and technological ignorance that I met with Peter. My brief was to find ways of making the INVESTIGATOR SoundHouse a more attractive destination for teachers and visitors as well as gaining ideas that might refresh our educational programs generally. I was also looking for ideas that might be incorporated into a proposed new, larger INVESTIGATOR Centre. "Large" is also the operative word when it comes to describing the Powerhouse Museum. The workshop alone was larger than the whole of The INVESTIGATOR! The number of exhibitions and huge floor space was awesome in comparison. There were just so many fantastic displays and exhibits. Some highlights for me were: 1. The music technology exhibits. An inspiring collection of musical instruments showing the technological developments of organs, harpsichords, pianos, didgeridoos, trumpets, string instruments, etc through the ages. A wonderful exhibition to complement Peter's SoundHouse, which he often incorporates into his programs. Perhaps the new INVESTIGATOR could incorporate a similar display of musical technology to complement our SoundHouse. Many of the musical instruments have been donated from around Australia, so perhaps something similar could be done in South Australia? This area could also have some explanatory panels and interactive exhibits developed on the science of sound and music. 2. The science exhibition area (Experimentation). This area featured many of the usual, and some not so usual science exhibits, but I was particularly struck by some clever, interactive displays of socially relevant science exhibits on topics such as chocolate, perfumes and soaps. The perfume exhibit was particularly well designed, allowing visitors the opportunity to mix and smell the different notes of a perfume. 3. The Success and Innovation exhibition. A great interactive exhibition showcasing Australian inventiveness such as shearing the sheep with laser guided shears! Some wonderful ideas that could be perhaps incorporated into the new SA centre. 4. Very appealing children's areas in most exhibitions. They consisted of colourful cuboid interactives related to the main exhibition. For example in the music technology display, the children's area incorporated a giant piano you could play with your feet. A great way to keep Mum, Dad and the kids happy all in the one area. 5. Observing Peter teaching a number of SoundHouse classes where the students left on an absolute high, so excited about their finished product. I gained many valuable ideas in these classes which will help me to improve the success of our students in programs we currently offer as well as increase the variety of programs we could offer (such as the Imagineers and Rap Music programs). It was also extremely valuable to look at the brilliant way Peter has set up his room and the vast array of specialised sound equipment such as samplers, mixing desks, microphones and effects pedals that Peter uses to enhance his programs. It was interesting to note however, after talking to Peter and the Education Services Coordinator that our problems are similar despite big differences in institution size. For example, how much time should Education Officers spend with visiting teachers and their classes as opposed to spending time in course development and preparation time? It was reassuring to note that the Powerhouse was moving towards a less staff intensive model similar to that currently used by The INVESTIGATOR. The Powerhouse SoundHouse and Powerhouse gallery sessions for students all ran for longer than the current 90 minutes we allow in all our sessions. It seems that length of session times is always going to be a compromise of different factors. Experience in SoundHouses around Australia suggests that, due to the nature of the interaction and the sophistication of the software, a minimum of 2 hours is needed to complete many of the SoundHouse programs. I spent time discussing promotional and marketing strategies with Peter for Soundhouse and the Powerhouse. Peter's SoundHouse is very well attended and the quality of his programs sees many of the same schools returning year after year. He has produced an excellent flier on SoundHouse programs which also details curriculum links in areas such as English, Drama, Technology and Music which he sends out once a year. Powerhouse programs are well documented, photographed and promoted in a beautifully produced Teachers Guide each year. The Powerhouse also runs teacher previews of exhibitions as we do in Adelaide, plus an annual one to promote their education services in general. Peter also does public presentations on SoundHouse whenever he can. The Powerhouse also sends out posters and fliers to classrooms and staffrooms as we do. I was also able to spend time briefly with the Powerhouse IT project officer looking at some great programs he is currently offering to schools and discussing how I might offer these in our SoundHouse. These included some great publishing and drawing programs that could be linked with visits to our gallery, especially if a class set of digital cameras was available. I had the opportunity, briefly, to spend time networking and sharing ideas with a couple of other SoundHouse managers, the Australian Director of SoundHouse, based in Melbourne, Ken Owen, and Steve Wells, the Director of the SoundHouse Music Technology Training Centre in Sydney. We also met with a consultant web designer to discuss the possibility of setting up an interactive Australian SoundHouse website with video links between current SoundHouse sites in Australia, South Africa and America. We discussed the possibility of videoing our lessons and sharing these lessons and curriculum ideas through the Internet as well as linking students live with video both nationally and internationally. For example a student in South Africa could record a wonderful drum track and we could add the bass line here in Adelaide, while Sydney adds a guitar riff and America adds the keyboard. What a wonderful opportunity for cultural, technological, musical and educational links for students and the general public! In summary, I felt my time at the Powerhouse was extremely valuable as I was able to make contact with a variety of people in the Education/Programs area who I plan to network with in the future. I was also able to address Powerhouse Programs staff about The INVESTIGATOR and raise awareness of our programs. I left with a greater vision for possibilities in our SoundHouse and for our educational programs generally and for the new Centre. I would like to thank Peter and his colleagues for the valuable time they spent with me. I also wish to sincerely thank ASTEN for their foresight in seeing the benefits of this fellowship for members of the network.
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