Artefact H10515

First published on 9 Jul 2009. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

I'm deep down in the belly of the Powerhouse Museum looking at a living, breathing thing with no label or description. Its name is 'Artefact H10515' and it is very hard to define. It's a contemporary sculpture, an interactive installation, an artificial life form and a museum artefact. In fact, the name derives from the museum's first registration system that was used to catalogue items from 1889 to 1984. Artefacts of unknown origin or purpose were given the prefix H followed by a number; 10515 would have been the next number in the sequence.

Resident artist Craig Walsh is the project's progenitor, in collaboration with animator Steven Thomasson and sound designer Lawrence English. What they have created is a giant glass display case with an alien-looking animated creature inside. It moves, breathes and changes colour in response to stimuli. It has multiple tentacles culminating in suckers that stick to the inside of the glass. The suckers are like small screens that throw up images that are "fed" to the creature online. It can access public domains like Flickr, and users can upload their own images. Display is dictated by an algorithm and is random, except where users have specified the day of their visit and their content is guaranteed to appear.

The creature can also access the Powerhouse Museum's archives. So Artefact H10515 is not only a new item in the museum's collection. It is also a reflection of the existing collection, a "nanocurator" that creates a museum collage for visitors. Walsh is fascinated with the curatorial process, especially in light of the internet. In an age of mass consumption, access and display of information, how does a museum decide what's worth showing?

"I'm interested in how people respond to it and interact with it," says Walsh. "Museums usually display static objects and provide a full explanation of it. I am denying information and encouraging interpretation."

But wouldn't that be better suited to an art gallery? Perhaps, he concedes - however, this installation is providing visitors with a new kind of museum experience. It is an unidentified living object in the museum that feeds off its collection, craves attention, evolves with time and reflects the viewer. The floor-to-ceiling glass display case is the only traditionally museum-like aspect of it.

I'm only just beginning to wrap my head around the concept when a gaggle of noisy school kids rushes past. Perhaps seeing museum artefacts like H10515 as children will allow them to think in ways that this adult is still learning to.
by Sarah Theeboom