Due to the fact that we had way too much time on our hands and that I was unable to do anything overly strenuous in my 2nd trimester, we ended up spending a lot of our Melbourne days in museums.

It’s not a bad thing though! This is especially considering that Melbourne is chock full of amazing museums that I wouldn’t have the chance to visit back home.

One museum that many people highly recommended was ACMI. Said to be Australia’s national museum of screen culture, this museum has received so many glowing reviews from visitors who said this was plenty of fun.

Plus point: it’s free entry!

What to explore at ACMI

We visited ACMI on a weekday afternoon when it wasn’t too crowded. Do note though that groups of school children do tend to visit, much like what happened when we were at Melbourne Museum.

At the museum entrance, the staff handed us this Lens which we can use to scan and collect exhibits that we loved. We could then bring this home and replay all of these exhibits online.

I thought this was a great idea, especially since using a phone camera doesn’t fully capture everything!

The Story of the Moving Image

ACMI’s centrepiece exhibition is called The Story of the Moving Image

The start of the exhibition was mainly focused on the history of moving images. This goes from traditional shadow puppets to optical illusions. This was a good look at how our ancestors first attempted to share stories, which then evolved into screen culture as we know it today.

A bit of exploration into the physics of light and shadows here:

And then you delve into a bit more modern history. Here, you learn more about the time when and after humans invented film, cameras, and recorders. The exhibits detail the origins and future of cinema, production design, and the creative process.

If you’re a film or photography enthusiast, you’ll love how in-depth the exhibits are. I didn’t fully understand everything but I did find the write-ups on the technology very interesting!

Early cinema was monochromatic and silent, but eventually became the movies we knew today through a very tedious and manual process.

Who knew that early colour movies were actually painted by hand!

Of course, a visit to ACMI is not just about looking at artefacts and reading off signboards.

The museum incorporates a lot of interactive elements, such as letting you have a chance to edit iconic screen moments:

Of course, no screen culture exhibit is complete without a walkthrough of TV history.

I’m a huge fan of miniature models (hello Mini Mega Model Museum!) and ACMI has taken it upon themselves to recreate living rooms through the ages!

TVs are typically placed in the living room. So I get that ACMI found it necessary to show how TVs and living rooms have evolved over the years.

I was very tickled by the amount of detail that went into creating these mini models. You can see that they’ve really thought everything through, from the furniture to even the TV shows on display!

I found the modern one particularly amusing because it looks like exactly every modern apartment I’ve seen in interior design inspiration.

Also, note that reference to Bluey!

And of course with the TV came rampant advertising.

I couldn’t exactly catch all the references listed here, but the ideas are certainly universal enough. It was a very entertaining (but certainly very accurate) mind map of how advertisers capture viewers’ attention through the short ad time on TV!

They also had a space dedicated to screen makeup and prosthetics, which was pretty cool! It’s a very laborious process that can take hours just to create a realistic look.

Perhaps now with special effects and AI, this trade will soon fade?

A huge chunk of the exhibition is dedicated to none other than video games, which certainly excited a lot of the children – and probably some men as well.

I’m not particularly into video games, but I did find it fascinating how they showed the progress from arcade games to pocket gameboys and then to the video games we know today.

I didn’t manage to take photos, but they had so many machines for visitors to play all their favourite arcade games and video games! There were classics such as Street Fighter, as well as some new indie ones that made me (terribly) confused.

There were some other parts touching on ethics, virality, and the power of media messaging.

I found it a pity that the section was short and hence there was nothing much to share. But I guess it might be a works-in-progress since there’s so much happening around us even now!

There are some other sections covering Australian screen culture and movies. Unfortunately I didn’t really understand much due to lack of contextual knowledge. It’s a bit similar to the film/screen culture exhibit we have in the National Museum of Singapore.

We chose to skip the paid exhibition (Beings) as it was a bit pricey and we weren’t particularly keen on interacting with larger-than-life digital creatures.

Is ACMI worth visiting?

If you’re knee-deep in screen culture, it’s a hard, resounding yes from me!

Before ACMI, I had never visited a museum that focused solely on every aspect of screen culture, from behind the scenes to the consumers who, well, consume the content. It was quite an eye-opener for someone who has been on both ends as a media consumer and producer.

I find that the exhibits also encourage discussion of a pretty popular topic: of the increasingly interchangeable roles of the consumer and producer in screen culture. It’s a pity ACMI doesn’t delve deep into this, but certainly there’s room for more as time goes by!

And even if you aren’t into screen culture, I find that families and couples alike have a lot of fun here because of the interactive displays available. The arcade games and video games are definitely a huge hit. And you’re technically still learning something here while playing: a win-win situation!

ACMI also has many different film screenings and temporary exhibitions, which we unfortunately missed during our trip. We went during one of their lull periods (I think).

I highly recommend checking out their What’s On page to better time your visit!

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DIRECTIONS

Address: Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

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