Dates and Times
20 February 2025
12:30 - 13:30
Event for
Location
Organiser
Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR), Faculty of Art and Design
Speakers
Assoc. Prof. Alison Wain
Enquiry
Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR)
Event about:
Culture and Creativity Seminar – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Evolving a New Future for an Old Telescope
Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Alison Wain
Date\Time: Thursday 20 February 2025, 12:30-13:30
Location: Building 1 Level A Room 1A21, University of Canberra (NB Room 1a21 is accessed from the foyer joining Building 1 and Mizzuna café);
or Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/95029077504
Abstract
The University of Canberra in Australia is the possessor of a 1980s 10 metre radio telescope. Due to changing university priorities it has not been used for nearly 20 years, but it has been estimated that at today's prices it would cost $10 million to purchase and install.
Over the past 8 years a project has evolved to see value in this heritage machine, stabilise it, return it to working order, and create a community to care for it and use it. Each new person who has got involved has added a lifetime’s worth of skills and experience, creative ideas, bits of spare equipment, offers to piggyback off software and techniques developed for other projects, and invitations to join existing networks and projects. This talk is about the challenges of meshing these different resources to create a project plan that is leaner, environmentally gentler, and better connected than one based purely on copious funding, and that prioritises a whole-of-life focus rather than a time limited start/stop project management structure.
All are welcome!
Bio
Alison Wain is Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage at the University of Canberra, teaching materials conservation and heritage practice. Her research focuses on the challenges of preserving and interpreting engineering, industrial and science heritage, and the importance of recognising the intangible heritage of culture, skills and changeability connected with and embodied in machinery heritage.
The Culture and Creativity Seminar Series is hosted by the Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR), Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. To discover upcoming seminars, please follow us on Facebook @uccccr, or Instagram and Twitter @uc_cccr. Alternatively, join our mailing list by emailing cccr@canberra.edu.au.
Any questions and accessibility requests please contact: cccr@canberra.edu.au.
UC acknowledges the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the lands where Bruce campus is situated. We wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of Canberra and the region. We also acknowledge all other First Nations Peoples on whose lands we gather.