Memorial launches online interactive Art of nation

The Australian War Memorial has launched Art of nation: Australia’s official art and photography of the First World War, a three-dimensional online interactive experience based around Charles Bean’s proposed design for an “Australian War Memorial Museum”’, on the eve of Remembrance Day 2017.

Working with digital developer Ortelia Interactive Spaces, the Memorial has created an online interactive exhibition featuring works created by official war artists and photographers in the midst of the First World War. The vast online gallery, housed in a virtual reimagining of Bean’s original sketches for the museum, features more than 600 works of art and photographs from the Memorial's collection.

As Bean returned to Australia from the war in 1919 he sketched his vision for the Memorial. Users can explore the building and its paintings and photographs, while a street view feature allows them to compare the locations depicted in original works to how they appear today.

The interactive also features animations showing the complex darkroom processes Frank Hurley used to create his iconic composite images, and recreates a magic lantern show using the rare colour Paget plates.

Director of the Australian War Memorial Dr Brendan Nelson said the interactive exhibition honours Bean’s legacy and will allow a new generation of users to understand the vision behind the Memorial that has become a national institution and an international icon.

“Charles Bean was witness to it all. He was embedded with the troops on Gallipoli through to the end of the war, after which he wrote the official history of Australia’s involvement in that conflict. In the midst of that work he conceptualised a vast museum to commemorate the service and sacrifice of those Australians, a vision that is superbly translated in bricks and mortar here in Canberra,” Dr Nelson said.

“This fully navigable online presence means people from around the world can visit this special place and see the Memorial’s magnificent collection in the way Bean first envisaged.”

The online exhibition was officially launched by renowned journalist and author Scott Bevan, who will also serve as Master of Ceremonies for the Memorial’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Art of nation is proudly supported by the C.E.W. Bean Foundation, and is now live on the Memorial’s website at www.awm.gov.au, complete with an instructional video tour.