I'm a bit of a museum junky. My "must do" tickets on every holiday involves the gardens and the museums (second tier ticket items include art galleries and zoos). So, on my first real day of holidays in Sydney, I went to the Chinese gardens and the Powerhouse Museum as my major activities for the day.
The Chinese gardens were absolutely lovely. I enjoyed every minute I spent there, and my only disappointment was that I hadn't brought a sketchbook. I can't draw to save myself but for some reason, when I'm travelling, I like to pretend I have a talent for line drawing in ink. This really means I just sketch bad drawings with a Bic pen, but it makes me happy, so what the heck. Anyway, no sketch book on Monday, so just me and my camera. And lots of pretty things. I love the way Chinese gardens make the most of a limited space - the way they use walls, buildings and levels to create different views at every turn. They put hours of garden wandering goodness into a space smaller than an office building's footprint.
On the one hand, I got there nice and early only to find out they didn't open until 9:30. On the other hand, when they did open, the cash registers weren't working so I got in for free. Good stuff.
The next stop for the day was the Powerhouse Museum...
Have I mentioned that I'm a museum junky? I really love museums. It's almost at the stage now where I've seen most of the things a museum could possibly exhibit, and I just go to see the museum itself - the way it's designed, how it shows its wares, that sort of thing. Oh, sure, I love looking at the stuff, too. I learn something new every time (which is the point, really), but I do regard the museum itself as part of the museum experience.
The Powerhouse museum was...
Noisy.
Annoyingly so.
Oh, there were groups of school children and parents with kids of all ages, but they weren't too noisy, all things considered. Most of the time the museum managed to drown them out.
Every room made noise. There were some rooms that had "sound scapes" (like the 80s exhibit and the "Frock Stars" look at fashion week), and then there were rooms with video components that were constantly yabbering on in the background. And I mean CONSTANTLY. They would keep playing the "Hey! Come look at me!" intro over and over and over again until someone used them - and then they would make a different range of noises. At no time, tough, would they ever stop making noise.
While I was trying to look at the poorly lit museum casings with musical instruments (which were hidden in the corner as though the museum was vaguely embarrassed about the museum-like presentation), there was a children's interactive area five steps away with the most annoying voice constantly inviting me to "swing my hips around and round". In order to stand still long enough to take in the display that interested me, I had to listen to this stupid thing about eight or ten times. It was not pleasant.
And it was like that all over the museum - "interactive" displays calling out to you whether you were there to hear them or not. At one point, I found myself standing in a position where I could hear three of these darn things running their intros on a constant loop. No one was looking at them or using them. "Don't come too close! I'm radioactive!" No fear of that - I was the only person in the room, and all I wanted to do was read the information on the displays that weren't yelling at me.
The one person who could hear them just wanted them to shut up.
It usually takes me a few hours before I get "museum fatigue" - that feeling where your feet hurt, you can't really focus on what you're looking at and you feel an overwhelming urge to go sit down somewhere and look at nothing for a while. The Powerhouse Museum managed to push me into the museum fatigue stage much sooner. I don't usually find myself wanting to get out of a museum so I can get some peace and quiet.
Look, I know the Powerhouse is aiming at being a more active, interactive, exciting, "non-boring" museum than the stereotypical model most people think of when they think "museum". I know they have always gone out of their way to try to engage children and teenagers, rather than museum boffins. But it doesn't have to be that annoying, does it?
Surely they can make sure the darn things only talk when someone is standing in front of them for more than a few seconds? I know kids these days aren't in the same room (metaphorically, if not physically) for more than a flashing moment, but they've got these signs next to stuff, you see, and occasionally someone must pause long enough to read them. Surely they can be nice to those poor souls who occasionally stand still?
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