https://osw.com.au Open Spatial Workshop Fri, 21 Mar 2025 01:57:28 +0000 https://osw.com.au en https://osw.com.au/Home Thu, 25 Apr 2019 02:50:17 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Home https://osw.com.au/CV Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:04:14 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/CV Selected Solo, Group Exhibitions and Public Art Works 2025&nbsp;‘Metabolic Scales’, These Entanglements: Ecology After Nature, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane, 18 February - 16 June. 2023 ‘Metabolic Scales’, Earthen Group Exhibition, Cement Fondue, Sydney, 14 October - 2 December. 2022 'Sedimentation of Relationalities', presented at Conversations with Extractivism, Melbourne, Hybrid, 15-16 July. 2020 ‘Three thoughts on sculptural production,’ invited online presentation for Spaced Apart, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, 29 June. 2020 ‘What time is the temporary’ in Everything is Temporary, Freerange Press, pp. 76-83. &nbsp; 2019 'Works, Working, Work', in van Schaik J (ed.), Writing &amp; Concepts, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 96 - 101&nbsp; 2017 Converging in Time, MUMA, Melbourne. 2017&nbsp;Converging in Time Publication, MUMA, Melbourne. 2015 Anthropocite (public artwork and online video), Earth Sciences Garden, Clayton Campus, Monash University, Melbourne, public art commissioned by MUMA, Melbourne. 2015 SPLINTER, in from the collection: Gertrude Regional Residencies, chapter two, curated by Emily Cormack, commissioned by Gertrude CAS and La Trobe Regional Gallery, Victoria 2015 FAULT, in Performing Mobilities: Traces, curated by Mick Douglas, Storey Hall RMIT University Gallery, Melbourne 2015 GLIMPSE (video and installation), in feeling material, curated by Benjamin Woods, C3 Gallery, Melbourne. 2012 Lumpen Falls, Conical Gallery, Melbourne. 2011 BIG LOG JAM, AEAF, Adelaide. 2011 BIG LOG, in Collected Collaborations, curated by Brad Haylock, MUMA, Melbourne. 2009 west Brunswick Sculpture Triennial [wBST], curated by OSW. A multifaceted event dispersed across five sites, involving 24 artists, together with film and sound contributions from many more. 2008 Landings, public art proposal for Lend Lease's Victoria Green, Docklands, Melbourne. 2005 groundings, in Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, Federation Square, Melbourne. Grants, Prizes, Awards and Residencies 2024 Bundanon Studio Residency, Bundanon, NSW. 2020 Australia Council Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups. 2019 Bundanon Studio Residency, Bundanon, NSW. 2018&nbsp; Winner Exhibition Catalogue (Major)-Level A Museums Australasia Multimedia &amp; Publication Design Awards (MAPDA) for Converging in time. 2018 Winner of the AAANZ Best University Art Catalogue. 2018 Finalist in the Cornish Prize for Art and Design Publishing. 2018 Shortlisted for the Australian Bookdesigners Association (ABDA), for the category ‘Best Designed Fully Illustrated Book’. 2016 Australia Council Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups. 2015 Museums Victoria (Research in off-site storage archive). 2013 Australia Council New Work Grant. 2013 Museums Victoria (Residency embedded in geoscience archive). 2009 Arts Victoria Presentation and Promotion Grant to stage the west Brunswick Sculpture Triennial. 2005&nbsp; &nbsp; Inaugral Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, Melbourne. https://osw.com.au/Bio Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:11:27 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Bio Open Spatial Workshop (OSW) is a collaborative group comprising Terri Bird, Bianca Hester and Scott Mitchell. Since 2003 OSW has produced a broad range of work spanning sculpture, installation, curated events, publications and video production. OSW’s activities are framed by an ongoing interest in physical forces and how the temporalities of these forces are registered. Projects emerge from exploratory workshops focused on our collective interest in the forces of formation involving the social, political, geologic and economic that are registered variously across material events. Past projects have explored the dynamics and vitality of matter and the complex threads that connect biological, material and geophysical processes to anthropogenic activity—charting a ‘geo-social’ field formed through interrelated processes of ‘metabolism’ and ‘extinguishment’. From this research, we investigate connections between sculptural and geological processes through material experimentation. In 2017 OSW staged a major project Converging in Time at MUMA Melbourne, that comprised an exhibition, bus tour and publication, which explored connections between materiality, the shaping of territories and the complex politics inscribed in place. This exploration was framed through research into the Natural Sciences Collection at Museum Victoria, employing a selection of specimens to explore entanglements between geology, geography, colonisation and resource extraction across the South Eastern region of the Australian continent. Our current project, titled Metabolic Scales, is a long term investigationinto banded iron formations that both comprise and are extracted from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. These formations were deposited 2.5 billion years ago when cyanobacteria, one of the earliest forms of life, converted sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen resulting in the precipitation of dissolved iron from the Earth’s oceans. Known as the ‘Great Oxidation Event’, this biologically driven transformation of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere produced an oxygen rich environment capable of supporting multicellular life. It is these complex interrelations, between biological and geological forces, and their interconnections with social and political states of affairs that forms the basis of our current research. These interrelations are evident in banded iron formations and the fossil records of the Pilbara, as well as within living stromatolite formations in Western Australia, and the communities that live and work in these regions. We are concerned with thinking—practising in modes otherwise to an anthropocentric perspective that positions the nonhuman as resource. We employ art as a platform to examine how an attentiveness towards geological processes coupled with an ethics of production attuned to deep-time, can reconfigure understandings of possible futures. https://osw.com.au/Media Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:13:01 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Media Saskia Beudel,&nbsp;Fossils in the City. Published within our book titled Converging in Time, and also on Saskia’s website. Matt Poll, From out of nowhere, now here.&nbsp;Published within our book titled Converging in Time, and also on Matt’s page on Medium. Spiros Panigirakis’ essay on our project Converging in Time at MUMA: A Name is not a Verb, 2017.Adam Cruickshank’s publication:&nbsp;In One Hundred Thousand Yearsw, published by True Belief in 2017. Brad Haylock’s catalogue essay on our work Big Log, during the Collected Collaborations exhibition at MUMA in 2011. Essay by David Thomas in response to our work FAULT, exhibited within Performing Mobilities: ‘A composite of screens or transforming matter(s) in time’ https://osw.com.au/Metabolic-Scales-2025 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 01:57:28 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Metabolic-Scales-2025 Metabolic ScalesExhibited within These Entanglements: Ecology After NatureQU Art Museum18 February - 14 June 2025Curated by Anna BriersPhotos by Joe Ruckli<img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e49b22767a5f1f233e8e8136ed5a761bef36cfa37e5961bf083d5841cf30685c/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_067.jpg" data-mid="228578213" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e49b22767a5f1f233e8e8136ed5a761bef36cfa37e5961bf083d5841cf30685c/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_067.jpg" /> Metabolic Scales explores metabolism and extinction in relation to unbounded consumption of resources. Based on research and fieldwork in the Pilbara, Western Australia on the lands of Nyamal and Kariyarra custodians, the work is a new commission by Open Spatial Workshop, an artist collective that examines biological, geological, and social entanglements. Metabolic Scales follows multiple material flows from the earliest forms of microbial life to the extraction of iron ore, and the circulation of this mineral on the global market. The physical movements of iron ore are captured through video footage and live vessel tracking data: from its mining in the Hamersley Ranges to its export as one of Australia’s most significant mineral resources, traded across global shipping routes and transformed into steel for nation building and consumer consumption. The capital circulation of iron ore’s value on the global financial markets is indexed through live data on a nearby LED screen.Derived from Banded Iron Formations, iron ore owes its geological origins to a biological one—cyanobacteria—a microorganism pivotal in the origins of life. Cyanobacteria are regarded as the most successful organism on Earth. They developed a metabolism that obtained energy through photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as a by-product, and paving the way for the gradual transformation of Earth’s atmosphere and the evolution of more complex oxygen-dependent life forms. A record of this transformation is registered in the stromatolites fossils in the Pilbara. Today, cyanobacteria are found as symbionts with other interdependent life like fungi, lichens, corals, as well as in the human body as radical feminist cellular biologist Lynn Margulis taught us. A milled reproduction of a stromatolite fossil is included in this installation. Formed by communities of cyanobacteria, stromatolites are biogenic structures created through the interaction of biological and geological processes, blurring the boundaries between life and non-life. Cyanobacteria were responsible for both the origins of life as we know it and one of the first significant extinction episodes during the ‘Great Oxygenation Event’, which also produced the Banded Iron Formations. By referencing past climate crises Open Spatial Workshop offers ways of considering our rapidly collapsing future in relation to Earth’s deep material histories. <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7f034f9c45fa3382064d79ced338561359a79182a84f6d8dbf650612a9c67227/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_044.jpg" data-mid="228578207" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7f034f9c45fa3382064d79ced338561359a79182a84f6d8dbf650612a9c67227/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_044.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06c76eacc8c4fd5fd0b34b17671017a3cd74e7ccac94717ed828d34a05077dec/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_041.jpg" data-mid="228578205" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06c76eacc8c4fd5fd0b34b17671017a3cd74e7ccac94717ed828d34a05077dec/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_041.jpg" /><img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ff68c4c5dd16cf1ebf28dc4b3a1d958d47975e69bc2991474d707235d54a5813/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_043.jpg" data-mid="228578206" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ff68c4c5dd16cf1ebf28dc4b3a1d958d47975e69bc2991474d707235d54a5813/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_043.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1668" width_o="2500" height_o="1668" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/940cf4b92503fefdbe45cae4763d7e246f7161eb07763914844ca57b11f5e75c/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_045.jpg" data-mid="228578208" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/940cf4b92503fefdbe45cae4763d7e246f7161eb07763914844ca57b11f5e75c/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_045.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/888149680de6968c165280fafe201d29ff3115a006fb45bb6b53aeb87d979cef/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_038.jpg" data-mid="228578204" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/888149680de6968c165280fafe201d29ff3115a006fb45bb6b53aeb87d979cef/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_038.jpg" /> <img width="1667" height="2500" width_o="1667" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d1eb502153e626b4c5c9e7c9423ab42d1a191dcd70dac4cca9b5d000a1b99aa/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_053.jpg" data-mid="228578210" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6d1eb502153e626b4c5c9e7c9423ab42d1a191dcd70dac4cca9b5d000a1b99aa/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_053.jpg" /> <img width="1667" height="2500" width_o="1667" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b0a11c80eeb3fbb6e55a4565c60d5f6732ac25de08b63fbfdb652a97430d39f/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_059.jpg" data-mid="228578212" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b0a11c80eeb3fbb6e55a4565c60d5f6732ac25de08b63fbfdb652a97430d39f/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_059.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ede896fd7aa35bedd41594775d38a47c862e407350409d7b07d9f8c73083cab/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_055.jpg" data-mid="228578211" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1ede896fd7aa35bedd41594775d38a47c862e407350409d7b07d9f8c73083cab/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_055.jpg" /> <img width="1667" height="2500" width_o="1667" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06ecba7698536acf99669fc67445f9f066ba16cd527a23076f30fba344369043/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_049.jpg" data-mid="228578209" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06ecba7698536acf99669fc67445f9f066ba16cd527a23076f30fba344369043/UQAM_TheseEntanglements_installationview_20250214_jruckli_049.jpg" /> https://osw.com.au/Metabolic-Scales-2023 Wed, 29 Nov 2023 08:50:07 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Metabolic-Scales-2023 Metabolic ScalesFirst iteration of video work - Exhibited within Better Nature: Earthen at Cement Fondu 14 October - 3 December 2023 <img width="2764" height="1574" width_o="2764" height_o="1574" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d3c1eff96103baf5db7c1c1a9d36a41d7e218dedee4dd98a00e7229b46fe313/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-7.57.27-pm.png" data-mid="198308257" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d3c1eff96103baf5db7c1c1a9d36a41d7e218dedee4dd98a00e7229b46fe313/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-7.57.27-pm.png" /> <img width="2860" height="1606" width_o="2860" height_o="1606" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3cf3b4ed8e53c1dead5fdd3fe4900104b09fe6a126eded26a9b8950e85175689/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.53.15-pm.png" data-mid="198308347" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3cf3b4ed8e53c1dead5fdd3fe4900104b09fe6a126eded26a9b8950e85175689/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.53.15-pm.png" /> <img width="2866" height="1604" width_o="2866" height_o="1604" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28309f107fbdd5b833e5fd5c8102d696b117b6680a571d7d6fc7d3454213a74d/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.53.42-pm.png" data-mid="198308348" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/28309f107fbdd5b833e5fd5c8102d696b117b6680a571d7d6fc7d3454213a74d/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.53.42-pm.png" /><img width="2858" height="1596" width_o="2858" height_o="1596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/37c7e42c83b184ab6fb22f7744d2332cc64a49503ccaf3f8d22e7cd59eae06b5/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.55.11-pm.png" data-mid="198308352" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/37c7e42c83b184ab6fb22f7744d2332cc64a49503ccaf3f8d22e7cd59eae06b5/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.55.11-pm.png" /><img width="2868" height="1612" width_o="2868" height_o="1612" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d97bc65d49be7592aec52aa2267106f8a9dd86224223cfe36e3827f460fa0f70/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.55.30-pm.png" data-mid="198308353" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d97bc65d49be7592aec52aa2267106f8a9dd86224223cfe36e3827f460fa0f70/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-1.55.30-pm.png" /> <img width="3868" height="2579" width_o="3868" height_o="2579" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/320104d22c48bd43312135cebc5a2c608c76bdb5de2fb78d23540d5d253fd500/BETTER-NATURE-Earthen--exhibition-installation-view-featuring-Open-Spatial-Workshop.-Cement-Fondu--2023.-Photograph_-Jessica-Maurer2-copy.jpg" data-mid="198223037" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/320104d22c48bd43312135cebc5a2c608c76bdb5de2fb78d23540d5d253fd500/BETTER-NATURE-Earthen--exhibition-installation-view-featuring-Open-Spatial-Workshop.-Cement-Fondu--2023.-Photograph_-Jessica-Maurer2-copy.jpg" /> HD video, sound. 12.25 mins by Open Spatial Workshop The first iteration of Metabolic Scales is exhibited within the exhibition titled Better Nature: Earthern, at Cement Fondu Gallery, Sydney 14th October - 3rd December 2023. Curated by Josephine Skinner. Metabolic Scales examines the biological, geological, and economic entanglements bound up in banded iron formations found on the unceded lands of the Nyamal, Kariyarra, Banjima, and Yindjibarndi, in the Pilbara region, Western Australia. The work presents the material record of transformations dating back more than 3 billion years when oxygen was released into the Earth’s Ocean through the microbial metabolisms of stromatolites. Amongst the first forms of life, stromatolites are microbialites constructed by colonies of microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria. The world’s oldest examples of fossil stromatolites are located near Marble Bar on unceded Nyamal land. The slow build-up of oxygen in the ocean caused iron rich minerals to precipitate out of solution forming layers on the deep seafloor. The iron ore extracted today, found in banded iron formations, resulted from the coupling of these microbial and mineralogical processes. In a nonlinear sequence of newly created imagery and text, layered with found footage, Metabolic Scales seeks to unfold the complex biogeochemical interactions that take place in the heterogeneous environments where geology meets life. It points to how the politics of life are conditioned and constrained by the dynamics of these interactions, and how our rapidly collapsing future should be understood in relation to Earth’s deep material histories. Acknowledgements: Nyamal Aboriginal Cooperation, W.A. Geological Survey, Museum of W.A., Martin Van Kranendonk (UNSW), Sarah Wall (PICA), Josephine Skinner (Cement Fondu) and Edwin Sitt.This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. https://osw.com.au/Converging-In-Time-2017 Thu, 25 Apr 2019 04:46:13 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Converging-In-Time-2017 Converging in time was the first major museum exhibition by Open Spatial Workshop in which we drew upon an extended period of research and engagement with the Natural Sciences Collection at Museums Victoria.&nbsp; Converging in Time included loaned specimens such as a meteorite fragment containing pre-solar grains, Saléeite crystals from the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory, a 23-million-year-old kauri log from the Gippsland coalfields and a fossilised ‘sea lily’ unearthed in a Brunswick clay pit in 1923.These specimens were incorporated into purpose-built structures, and presented in dialogue with OSW’s sculptural and video experiments. Together they develop a more complex and comprehensive understanding of the circulation of matter in the world, drawing out various histories and illuminating entanglements between geology, geography, colonisation and resource extraction, upon which our global society exists. <img width="1613" height="1076" width_o="1613" height_o="1076" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b8526cdb000a2df6631944133c7a183efd207014cc52653f850444f57189c200/_AC_8580.jpg" data-mid="41203389" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b8526cdb000a2df6631944133c7a183efd207014cc52653f850444f57189c200/_AC_8580.jpg" /> <img width="1613" height="1076" width_o="1613" height_o="1076" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2eeb332474483706a2a5fe1ed1105aa08a6d177bdbaecae491fad0bc5a8ebf30/_AC_8600.jpg" data-mid="41203390" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2eeb332474483706a2a5fe1ed1105aa08a6d177bdbaecae491fad0bc5a8ebf30/_AC_8600.jpg" /> Exhibited at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) 11 February - 10 April 2017 <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0fbe9ef2cc22a897cdcb2b3931fdbad7190f75c9818e54f1924379c64ccd6606/_AC_8610.jpg" data-mid="40800649" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0fbe9ef2cc22a897cdcb2b3931fdbad7190f75c9818e54f1924379c64ccd6606/_AC_8610.jpg" /> <img width="1076" height="1613" width_o="1076" height_o="1613" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fc3cee6d63dc30901945d1135760cd7018ee21d32253d147087aaf669c001d5b/_AC_8997.jpg" data-mid="41203394" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fc3cee6d63dc30901945d1135760cd7018ee21d32253d147087aaf669c001d5b/_AC_8997.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a8f2a30819b75a3556c7ed87396acefa0ec673bad6b4ab9e8cd267d7a44ab369/_AC_8669.jpg" data-mid="40800652" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a8f2a30819b75a3556c7ed87396acefa0ec673bad6b4ab9e8cd267d7a44ab369/_AC_8669.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07869e72ff89a77a6c6f93de33a8acf00030484cc4d9e7c8c24a3953f185f50e/_AC_8654.jpg" data-mid="40800651" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/07869e72ff89a77a6c6f93de33a8acf00030484cc4d9e7c8c24a3953f185f50e/_AC_8654.jpg" /> <img width="683" height="1024" width_o="683" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71ced9ae2881da7f3c34147fdbc62e263568dea1f2d9e08635cb891390dbf4e8/_AC_8728.jpg" data-mid="40800656" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/683/i/71ced9ae2881da7f3c34147fdbc62e263568dea1f2d9e08635cb891390dbf4e8/_AC_8728.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb3dfd519cd227edf841c427d5c203526f4f2a483067becbf5f500de8ed616ad/_AC_8922.jpg" data-mid="40800645" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cb3dfd519cd227edf841c427d5c203526f4f2a483067becbf5f500de8ed616ad/_AC_8922.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/620a9461c61281efa7a88cbf4c961c6a8718ebe0a3ea95d209aa9de3d42540da/_AC_9175_A.jpg" data-mid="40800682" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/620a9461c61281efa7a88cbf4c961c6a8718ebe0a3ea95d209aa9de3d42540da/_AC_9175_A.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/619382e01e350792b2c701846da6ff637c618569e0f4224e992ce740d78d166d/_AC_8941.jpg" data-mid="40800674" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/619382e01e350792b2c701846da6ff637c618569e0f4224e992ce740d78d166d/_AC_8941.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/719c40b668820d6466443d45ed33f210da5079f76ae0caa8f7906e7e8b2ede64/_AC_8966.jpg" data-mid="40800676" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/719c40b668820d6466443d45ed33f210da5079f76ae0caa8f7906e7e8b2ede64/_AC_8966.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a8ce4469ed6b3f4ccb01b163e2d213f38470bfc02efc56de7c477627803e1643/_AC_9001.jpg" data-mid="40800677" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a8ce4469ed6b3f4ccb01b163e2d213f38470bfc02efc56de7c477627803e1643/_AC_9001.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a71c290abc4d740b89e2a48bf3b81dfe61719626d344a5582f9b5909230e215/_AC_9091.jpg" data-mid="40800681" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a71c290abc4d740b89e2a48bf3b81dfe61719626d344a5582f9b5909230e215/_AC_9091.jpg" /> <img width="683" height="1024" width_o="683" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09f96375a8ecf8d65c78c27dd26bbc425e7b92a2c50cd20acaa20c6297f74cac/_AC_9064.jpg" data-mid="40800680" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/683/i/09f96375a8ecf8d65c78c27dd26bbc425e7b92a2c50cd20acaa20c6297f74cac/_AC_9064.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="854" width_o="1280" height_o="854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/50d6e35eaae3b02b3f5ce8ae2e718987205e9099467fab83a756d02b7419a917/_AC_9012.jpg" data-mid="40800678" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/50d6e35eaae3b02b3f5ce8ae2e718987205e9099467fab83a756d02b7419a917/_AC_9012.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="858" width_o="1280" height_o="858" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d3ba66ef99ca942646183a9e9fa1fe059e452ec2fc7d008d3abd24f66aada777/_AC_9033.jpg" data-mid="40800679" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d3ba66ef99ca942646183a9e9fa1fe059e452ec2fc7d008d3abd24f66aada777/_AC_9033.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="853" width_o="1280" height_o="853" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/203ed353c4463bb736cc74559ea14afd5cec2c56f11a7aa0316e81f446707a8d/_AC_8776_J.jpg" data-mid="40800667" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/203ed353c4463bb736cc74559ea14afd5cec2c56f11a7aa0316e81f446707a8d/_AC_8776_J.jpg" /> Video: Glimpse, 2015. 5 minutes 26 seconds. Video can be viewed here. watch video of the installation walkthorugh <img width="1240" height="1753" width_o="1240" height_o="1753" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e5d53e8f08cb76721f584e64dc775d90f97087fb77e9d883016ab41b29f298fc/OSW_Room-sheet_FINAL.jpg" data-mid="154469048" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e5d53e8f08cb76721f584e64dc775d90f97087fb77e9d883016ab41b29f298fc/OSW_Room-sheet_FINAL.jpg" /> https://osw.com.au/Bus-tour-to-Wil-im-ee-Moor-ing-2017 Tue, 30 Apr 2019 12:22:51 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Bus-tour-to-Wil-im-ee-Moor-ing-2017 Heritage site of Wil-im-ee Moor-ing (Mount William greenstone quarry) near Lancefield in regional Victoria, Saturday 11 March 2017, 10:00am-5:00pm. For thousands of years Aboriginal people quarried greenstone (volcanic diorite) from Wil-im-ee Moor-ing/Mount William to make the hatchet heads for their axes. The quarry was the centre of an extraordinary trading network that extended 700 kilometres into New South Wales as well as into South Australia. In 1882 and 1884 Wurundjeri elder William Barak witnessed the final operations of the quarry, describing aspects of its custodial control to anthropologist, Alfred Howitt. On 23rd October 2012, the land title of the Wil-im-ee Moor-ing/Mount William quarry was handed back to Kulin elders and is now under the &nbsp;control of &nbsp;the Wurundjeri Tribe Land Cultural Heritage Council. Wurundjeri elder, Bill Nicholson Jnr, performed a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony before providing a site tour and introduction to Wurundjeri history and environmental sustainability. Commentary was also&nbsp; provided on the day by academics from Monash University together with staff from Museums Victoria and &nbsp;Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. With a focus on intersections between the earth sciences and Indigenous history and knowledges, the tour offered participants an insight into the Wurundjeri people’s long term relationship to this site and the geological processes that continue to shape Victoria’s landscape. This tour was part of the public program for the exhibition Converging in time, at Monash University Museum of Art, 2017. Speakers on the day included: Bill Nicholson Jnr, Wurundjeri Elder and Cultural Education Manager, Wurundjeri Council Julie Boyce, Research and Teaching Associate, School of Earth, Atmosphere &amp; Environment, Monash University James Driscoll, Research Fellow, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University Dermot Henry, Acting Head of Sciences, Museums Victoria John Patten, Manager, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Museum Victoria Matt Poll, Curator Indigenous Heritage and Repatriation Project, Macleay Museum, The University of Sydney Andrew Milner, Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, Monash University <img width="720" height="1080" width_o="720" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed44e77771259ae7273991e437afe83dd7e878681f8549ddf7c452616c6512f0/3U4A4138.JPG" data-mid="41156381" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/720/i/ed44e77771259ae7273991e437afe83dd7e878681f8549ddf7c452616c6512f0/3U4A4138.JPG" /> <img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5afa650dc181ec7cbab68fb0eae7fa03363744fb0edf4f183c6220e6deeb10c8/3U4A4122.JPG" data-mid="41156380" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5afa650dc181ec7cbab68fb0eae7fa03363744fb0edf4f183c6220e6deeb10c8/3U4A4122.JPG" /> <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/df5e4267d2e64dd31d7cd51faeaf3b16694133a631c3ef6c29b665fbcdc2b714/P1080201.JPG" data-mid="41156390" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/df5e4267d2e64dd31d7cd51faeaf3b16694133a631c3ef6c29b665fbcdc2b714/P1080201.JPG" /> <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/47d509c4135fa1a03749f7eb298b1c9ae15f45dd930eead2b0067693bc2527cb/P1080234.JPG" data-mid="41156391" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/47d509c4135fa1a03749f7eb298b1c9ae15f45dd930eead2b0067693bc2527cb/P1080234.JPG" /> <img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d7f81fcdebff2e68edd3a5ea684747e10123e8af2be7d1ef7daa3d704d367d79/3U4A4204.JPG" data-mid="41156383" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d7f81fcdebff2e68edd3a5ea684747e10123e8af2be7d1ef7daa3d704d367d79/3U4A4204.JPG" /> <img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/03edc7bceddb238af50370e724ccd14f147f65a4c1f65173f7335f48fc994537/3U4A4222.JPG" data-mid="41156385" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/03edc7bceddb238af50370e724ccd14f147f65a4c1f65173f7335f48fc994537/3U4A4222.JPG" /> <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/94fdeca4dfd4e18a7031a4bf9f52b79908f2c471c646a38210921b583d45fabb/OSW_Lancefield_P1080290.JPG" data-mid="41156388" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/94fdeca4dfd4e18a7031a4bf9f52b79908f2c471c646a38210921b583d45fabb/OSW_Lancefield_P1080290.JPG" /> <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7dad0ee7a3056bdee6c800d03bdd75bb1f2236611de78502a0d8987c041e5da/P1080249.JPG" data-mid="41156393" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7dad0ee7a3056bdee6c800d03bdd75bb1f2236611de78502a0d8987c041e5da/P1080249.JPG" /> <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ff48fd0e4dcb7b46f6384ecce3c2fd569ca9e2cc73fbfc961d38600baf891e8d/OSW_Lancefield_P1080312.JPG" data-mid="41156389" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ff48fd0e4dcb7b46f6384ecce3c2fd569ca9e2cc73fbfc961d38600baf891e8d/OSW_Lancefield_P1080312.JPG" /> <img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24d7adb4b3074b180acb548dd50b530269ebbf2be5cc0935e8db66eafab6abc0/3U4A4250.JPG" data-mid="41156386" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24d7adb4b3074b180acb548dd50b530269ebbf2be5cc0935e8db66eafab6abc0/3U4A4250.JPG" /> https://osw.com.au/Glimpse-2015 Thu, 25 Apr 2019 02:50:17 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Glimpse-2015 Glimpse comprises a 5 minute video featuring sounds of the big bang, a set of eight posters designed by Adam Cruickshank, a glass blown meteorite, metal stand with lead weight and photograph of an interior detail of the Abbotsford Convent. Glimpse&nbsp;explores contingent processes. It is drawn from a larger project investigating the relations between things and forces across differing temporal and spatial scales. This project focuses on bodies both animate and inanimate congregating in multiple assemblages, generating multiple variations. The event of these relations does not distinguish in advance for whom it will make a difference or in what way. The difference between before and after is a problem posed for a future it creates. Thanks to Polly Stanton, Sophie Takach and Matt Wood for camera work, and Polly Stanton for sound. Convent film crew: Kay Abude, Jon Butt, Jonathan Carmichael, Chantelle Mitchell, Geoff Robinson, Isabella Wren and Benjamin Woods. Also Brent King and Sary Zananiri for the glass blown meteorite, Jethro Harcourt for fabrication assistance and Adam Cruickshank for poster concept and designs. Sound adapted from NASA&nbsp;Sounds of the Ancient Universe. The video Glimpse was shown at Monash University Museum of Art during the exhibtion Converging in time in 2017. <img width="1280" height="853" width_o="1280" height_o="853" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/52f24c26e6ec725a3c06d14ca4f41097f0f6f35c4cd8dc18e8547d4a966b18fb/_AC_8776_J.jpg" data-mid="40801350" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/52f24c26e6ec725a3c06d14ca4f41097f0f6f35c4cd8dc18e8547d4a966b18fb/_AC_8776_J.jpg" /><img width="5476" height="3587" width_o="5476" height_o="3587" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6fb0553b63f147d9b451f7bedc21d1c7f1b0cc12d0bb93c2497a82489a28fff/2-Glimspe-installation.jpg" data-mid="40815809" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6fb0553b63f147d9b451f7bedc21d1c7f1b0cc12d0bb93c2497a82489a28fff/2-Glimspe-installation.jpg" /><img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1fc074e6c0667c5654d20c11dcf69779b183b28c83c8871b66d52878ecb07f0d/OSW_Glimpse_06.jpg" data-mid="239806301" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1fc074e6c0667c5654d20c11dcf69779b183b28c83c8871b66d52878ecb07f0d/OSW_Glimpse_06.jpg" /> <img width="5179" height="3294" width_o="5179" height_o="3294" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4734835265729e1543993fdc2cc5997139cae3443ecfd79d666cae4437240fb/3-Glimspe-film-screening.jpg" data-mid="40815811" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b4734835265729e1543993fdc2cc5997139cae3443ecfd79d666cae4437240fb/3-Glimspe-film-screening.jpg" /> https://osw.com.au/Fault-2015 Thu, 25 Apr 2019 05:01:00 +0000 Open Spatial Workshop https://osw.com.au/Fault-2015 Performing Mobilities: Traces, curated by Mick Douglas, Storey Hall RMIT University Gallery, Melbourne 25-09 to 24-10-2015FAULT investigates the multiple temporalities that matter registers through forces of contraction, dilation, folding, compression and erosion. Through video-collage, OSW explores the convergence of these forces that give rise to an earth that is ‘indelibly inscribed’ (Claire Colebrook). Anchored around the material specificity of a geological specimen, this work follows fissures that expose glimpses of differing tempos resonating from events that knot together accumulation and extinguishment. Beginning with a Sea Lily fossil (1) selected from the Natural Sciences collection at Museum Victoria, OSW presents a video-work of ‘temporal-fragments’ that visualise the movements of matter across durations, and complex convergences brought into relation by the specimen. Approached through the framework provided by the Sea Lily fossil, matter’s movement includes the massive sea-floor landslides and tectonic subduction that occurred over millennia, which contributed to the formation of the Eastern Australian coastline. The Sea Lily specimen persists as a tiny material remainder registering these processes, whilst also connecting with recent anthropogenic activity. The circa 1903 event of this fossil’s excavation is contingent upon the brick-making industry reliant on the clay reserves that dominated West Brunswick. Formed by the ancient landslides taking place before the emergence of homo-sapiens, this clay provided the primary material for the Hoffman’s brickworks, a key supplier meeting Melbourne’s brick requirements in post gold rush development. The hunger for clay generated two extensive excavations on either side of Albert Street (2), which widened proportionate to the surge in Melbourne’s built fabric. The Sea Lily fossil has stimulated a process of temporal excavation through such relations, making apparent materiality’s complex durational qualities, and entanglements with the politics of extraction, forces of production, geo-bio-human history, energy and economies. (1) The particular fossil is a ‘holotype’ providing the initial description of its kind. (2) The first excavation was backfilled with domestic refuse from 1947. <img width="3425" height="2480" width_o="3425" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da854af2458d9ade41f301f36b1e1757b20ec1e65560f17a40d9c3b06ff0c850/OSW_FAULT_1.jpg" data-mid="41155257" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da854af2458d9ade41f301f36b1e1757b20ec1e65560f17a40d9c3b06ff0c850/OSW_FAULT_1.jpg" /> <img width="2560" height="1600" width_o="2560" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0378af934f58396d2788290750f47105f51e071cd238a0bc5996b0993037273d/OSW_FAULT_3.jpg" data-mid="41155278" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0378af934f58396d2788290750f47105f51e071cd238a0bc5996b0993037273d/OSW_FAULT_3.jpg" /><img width="2362" height="1710" width_o="2362" height_o="1710" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a5c05d5a0ae219a05e0109b576709cea60b20b9efc8d259f8ab8bbc40bf329e2/OSW_FAULT_2.jpg" data-mid="41155267" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a5c05d5a0ae219a05e0109b576709cea60b20b9efc8d259f8ab8bbc40bf329e2/OSW_FAULT_2.jpg" /> <img width="2560" height="1600" width_o="2560" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/517d1568701e6499d4b3bd6db7a8d3982a5af822bfb2df5c428dcf183bc4106b/OSW_FAULT_4.jpg" data-mid="41155290" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/517d1568701e6499d4b3bd6db7a8d3982a5af822bfb2df5c428dcf183bc4106b/OSW_FAULT_4.jpg" /> <img width="1187" height="1684" width_o="1187" height_o="1684" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5be4b58ffd065c4aac2984dc24a983c2a785b005f55bc6edf6b6cc7c16921cd7/Fault-2015-OSW.jpg" data-mid="40809711" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5be4b58ffd065c4aac2984dc24a983c2a785b005f55bc6edf6b6cc7c16921cd7/Fault-2015-OSW.jpg" /> 542 - 488 million years ago At the beginning of the current geologic eon, when multi-cellular life diversified greatly particularly amongst marine species, a landmass is forming at the level of the sea-floor on the eastern edge of a supercontinent. This edge, its most westerly boundary now marked by the Flinders Ranges, is built through successive volcanic eruptions and intermittent accumulations of sand and mud that washes off the supercontinent. Over millennia these accumulations provide the material for the formation of sedimentary rocks that in turn are compressed, heated and driven upwards along fault lines. Traces of this process are preserved as greenstones found throughout present day Western Victoria. 488 - 443 million years ago During this period sea levels are high and shallow seas cover much of the land. Parts of present day Victoria are forming through processes of deep marine sedimentation. Underwater landslides cause vast amounts of material to collect at the base of continental slopes burying marine creatures such as the Crinoids – or sea lilies. Crinoids evolved in this period and existed in superabundance on the seafloor, their remains decomposing over millennia in what would become the clay pits of Brunswick and limestone forma- tions of Lilydale and Buchan. 443 - 416 million years ago The building of what will become south-eastern Australia continues, dominated by an east-west shortening of predominantly oceanic sedimentary and volcanic rocks and their consequent folding, faulting and uplift. A number of structural windows in the Melbourne zone, such as that at Dight’s Falls, expose rocks from this period, which are some of the oldest rocks on the mainland. 385 million - 380 million years ago For millions of years extensive rifts have affected the major fold belts that make up present day Victoria causing multiple deforma- tions including faults and basins. Throughout this time the Melbourne Zone has been largely unaffected and thick sediments have accumulated without interruption. 385 million years ago the situation changes and the Melbourne Zone experiences a period of major deformation. 299 million - 251 million years ago The supercontinent Pangaea, incorporating Gondwana, is fully assembled straddling the equator and surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. Glaciers scourer rock surfaces and ice covers most of Victoria. By the end of this period the earth’s climate is very dry, nearly 70% of terrestrial and 96% of marine species have died out forming rich fossil deposits from the earths third and most severe mass extinction event. 199 million – 145 million years ago Early signs of a rift forming in the Gondwana landmass between Australia and Antarctica become evident, delineating for the first time what would become the Australian continent. 141 - 65 million years ago During this period the Otway and Gippsland basins form across the southern margin rift between Australia and Antarctica. At about 100 million years large parts of the Australian continent are submerged beneath a marine transgression. Not long after, a wide belt of continental crust is uplifting along the eastern highlands and at approximately 80 million years Australia and New Zealand separate. The end of this period brings another mass extinction with a 75% reduction in life forms. 65 - 23 million years ago Large reserves of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) are formed in the Otway, Bass and Gippsland Basins. Australia separates from Ant- arctica between 37 and 33.5 million years ago and drifts northward creating the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which contributes to the evolution of the earth’s present climate. 5.3 – 2 million years ago The most recent period of sustained volcanic activity sees thick sheets of basalt lava approach the Melbourne zone from the Keilor and Werribee Plains in the west, with activity to the north filling the Moonee Ponds, Merri and Darebin creeks. 40,000 – 22,000 years ago Australia is part of the Sahulland land mass including New Guinea and Tasmania. The Wurundjeri people occupy the Birrarung Valley around the area currently known as Keilor. During this period the climate is wetter than it would become during the last gla- cial period. The continent is at its coldest and driest around 22,000 years ago with half the continent covered in shifting sand dunes and areas around Mount Kosciuszko and Tasmania covered in ice. 8,000 – 6,000 years ago The end of the last glacial period, sea levels rise, gradually flooding the Bassian Plain, which joins Tasmania to the mainland and forming what is now known as Port Phillip Bay. This event is recorded in creation stories of the Wada Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Bun Wurrung of the Kulin Nation. 1,500 years agoMoonee Ponds Creek valley provides a major route to Northern Victoria, where metabasalt, or greenstones, are mined at Mt. Wil- liam for use in hatchet heads and traded across the continent. Pre 1835 Brunswick is a small plateau tilting from a hill facing the Moonee Ponds Creek in the west to the Merri Creek in the east, timbered by eucalypt trees with poor drainage making the terrain swampy. To the north, grasslands predominate with up to a hundred and fifty six different species in existence. Murnong – yam daisy – proliferated across the plains from Melbourne towards the snowline of the great dividing ranges, and provide a staple food for the Woiwurrung of the Moreland area. 1835After decades of informal incursions by sealers, Batman’s ‘treaty’ marks the beginning of official occupation. Melbourne becomes the location from which violent possession of much of southern and central Victoria is taken from its indigenous owners and sub- sequently colonised. 1839 – 1841Land north of Royal Park is surveyed for farming. Chief surveyor Robert Hoddle overseas its division into 20 allotments running east and west from the main thoroughfare, which at the time is thought to be too narrow. Marked upon the grasslands, blocks one and a half miles long and a quarter mile wide are auctioned in 1839. Most are sold to speculators who hope to sub-divide and quickly sell them on. The central block on the eastern side is resold to Thomas Wilkinson and Edward Stone Parker in 1841. They name their estate Brunswick Park and sub-divide the land for sale or rental, naming the boarding streets Victoria and Albert Streets in honour of the recent royal wedding. 1850 – 1870Property owners divide their land as they see fit and grazing devastates the grasslands and its ecosystems. At the same time the eradication of the marshlands decimate the complex systems of flora and fauna. As a consequence many species disappear includ- ing swans, brolgas, magpie-geese, and over twenty migratory bird species. The rich basalt layer provides the first quarries with abundant bluestone for the city’s buildings and the reserves of clay supply a burgeoning brick industry responding to the rapid de- velopment of Melbourne as the gold rush takes hold. By 1870 eight brick yards are in operation, the largest is in Albert Street called the Hoffman Patent Steam Brick and Tile Company, one of the first mechanised brickworks in Australia. 1880’sCoinciding with the Melbourne land boom Hoffman’s open a second site in Dawson Street in 1883. The business thrives as they continue to pioneer the industrialisation of brickmaking. They introduce steam powered technology that revolutionizes the indus - try with powered brick presses and imported kilns enabling heightened levels of productivity. By 1884 a train runs to Coburg and Hoffman’s build their own line and siding running directly into the brickworks. Hundreds of labourers are employed in brickmak- ing and associated pottery industries and the Hoffman’s factory whistle reminds them every morning at 7:15 am. The success of this business makes Brunswick the brickmaking capital of Victoria. 1897The first labour based political organisation forms in 1897, the Brunswick branch of the United Labour Party. The future Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin joined the Brunswick branch, as a pottery industry worker. 1903 – 1914Frederick Chapman, palaeontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne names the crinoid or sea lily fossil, found in Silurian mudstone at a Brunswick clay pit associated with the Hoffman’s Brickworks - Helicocrinus plumosus. The fossil dates from approx- imately 415 million years ago. Chapman describes it as “a delicate and handsome species, having a small cup with finely pinnate arms, which are forked once, and with a pentagonal stem coiled at the distal end” (136). Chapman later uses it as the Frontispiece for his book Australasian Fossils. A student manual of Palaeontology published in 1914. 1914 + Consolidation of brick manufacturing operations, reduced demand due to the depression and diminishing clay supplies sees a number of Brunswick brick factories close. Parks are developed over several former clay pits while others are used as municipal rubbish tips. Beginning in 1947, the Hoffman’s number one pit takes 17 years to fill with rubbish. In 1981 it becomes M. W. Clifton Reserve.