Peter Murphy's Panoramic VR Weblog

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Last week I went to Adelaide for a couple of days, and visited, amongst other places, the marvellous South Australian Museum. The highlights of this museum include the Egyptian Room - panorama. This Room is a heritage item in itself, being basically unchanged for sixty years. There is a poem about the Egyptian Room here (by Jeff Guess). 11:36:10 AM

Saturday, April 26, 2003

It was Anzac Day here yesterday - panorama. These guys in blue had a slogan on the back of their t-shirts saying "we support our troops past and present" - picture -reflecting the Prime Minister's entreaties and media's editorialising about how the troops returning from Iraq, should not be subject to abuse for their participation in the war. Note the tattoo of the flag on the back of the closest guy's neck. Update: searching on the "we support our troops etc " phrase in Google - it comes from Queensland Premier Beattie in a recent speech - so my theory is - these guys are from Queensland, and they are actually soldiers (cf the haircuts). Earlier in the day - just after the Dawn Service, in Martin Place, there was, in fact, a lone antiwar protestor, opposite the Cenotaph - picture. I wanted to do a panorama at the Dawn Service but again, like last year, I slept in and just missed it. By dawn, they really mean dawn, like first light. 5:02:08 PM

Monday, April 21, 2003

It has been extremely wet in Sydney, and yesterday, Easter Sunday was no exception. Here  -  a panorama from the Rocks during a break in the downpours. The composition of my pano tweaks some memory of some classical painting but precisely which one eludes me for the moment. I have been reading Michael Fried's book on German painter Menzel in the library lately and Menzel is big on rear views of people and elevated oblique perspectives .. so maybe that is part of it. Dick Termes paints spherical scenes on large balls, and he has done one of intersecting stairs - here. 8:24:54 AM

Sunday, April 20, 2003

I usually find myself in Paddy's Market -  panorama from yesterday - when I am on my way to Darling Harbour to photograph something else. It is Sydney's oldest and most famous market but most of it is full of the same terrible tat as other big markets here -- sunglasses, mobile phone "skins", posters, t-shirts etc -- but the fruit and vegetable section is good.  There is a short history of Paddy's here.  2:45:35 PM

Thursday, April 17, 2003

The inner city has become out of reach rent-wise for many alternate artists but some, like Liksa here, in her Futurelic bus yesterday - panorama - still manage to create a space for themselves. Liksa builds sensor-activated robotic characters and does techno-magicky performances in cyborgian costumes. Her Futurelic website is here. interview audio (Realplayer) 7:39:03 PM

Sunday, April 13, 2003

I went to the races yesterday -- out in the suburbs -  at Rosehill Racecourse. The panorama shows the scene during the running of the Golden Slipper - "the richest race for 2 year olds in the world".  Golden Slipper day is a big fashion occasion with lots of corporate marquees full of socialites and pop stars - but my panorama shows the area in front of the main grandstand -  where the general public hangs out. There is an interesting-looking recent book "The Racing Tribe" on the anthropology of horse race watching. 6:05:40 AM

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Martie Bear, a local street performer and bear activist, has a workshop space in the old Eveleigh Railway Workshops near the city in Redfern. Yesterday I did this panorama of his bear collection there -- 1000 bears. His bear character saves urban icons in the calendar he puts out. Martie's bear site and his gallery. 5:35:15 AM

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

A panorama of the interior of the south-east pylon of the Harbour Bridge -- from my excursion on Monday 4:41:10 AM

Monday, April 07, 2003

A view of the Harbour Bridge - from Dawes Point today - panorama.  There was one of those bulky mobile billboard trucks parked there (advertising Lotto). Sydney streets are full of these traveling ads at the moment including a new super-ugly type where the truck has three scrolling ads - on both sides and rear ... my pic of an alternate advertising approach at the Opera House a couple of weeks ago. 11:01:20 PM

Thursday, April 03, 2003

After the unruly events at the school student anti-war protest last week the government ordered that this week's one be a static demonstration without a street march. Here is the scene yesterday at the Town Hall when the march banning order is being read out.  panorama  audio (Realplayer) 2:18:28 PM

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

The pedestrian walkway on the Harbour Bridge today  -- panorama  --  with that icon of the present, uniformed security. There is a Herald article about the Bridge as a target here.  The right hand pylon in the pic is the visitable one. It is hollow -  with giant Piranesian flights of stairs and cavernous chambers with historical displays. A panorama of the interior shortly. There is a great passage in DeQuincy where he reminisces about a conversation with Coleridge about the Piranesi "i Carceri" etchings : "Some of them ...represented vast Gothic halls: on the floor of which stood all sorts of engines and machinery, wheels, cables, pulleys, levers, catapults, &c.&c. expressive of enormous power put forth and resistance overcome." 9:53:36 PM