3 Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum

The Powerhouse Museum will open three new exhibitions in February and March 2011, shining the spotlight on this year’s award-winning engineering projects, 2010’s most outstanding design and technology Higher School Certificate (HSC) projects, and the work of Sydney’s most recent top fashion graduates.

The exhibitions, Engineering Excellence (open now), designTECH (opens 19 February) and Student Fashion (opens 12 March), showcase the emerging innovators and designers in New South Wales.

Powerhouse Museum Director, Dr Dawn Casey said: “The exhibitions highlight the ground-breaking engineering work taking place here and draw attention to a new breed of design talent that is around the corner. They are a great insight to the future prospects for this state’s creative industries.”

“The extraordinary engineering projects being undertaken here and overseas, the innovative ideas and student motivation behind the HSC major works, and the amazing fashion design work is as fresh and inspiring as ever,” said Dr Dawn Casey.

Six local and international contemporary engineering projects that recently received industry awards by the Sydney Division of Engineers Australia are on display in Engineering Excellence. They include a spectacular, fully-glazed building, design-engineered to a complex geometry, with a unique waste collection and removal system, in one of the Middle East’s biggest developments in Abu Dhabi; an articulated head featuring a robotic arm attached to the image of a human face that ‘chats’ with the visitor; an internet laboratory for engineering students living and working remotely; new technology for producing renewable energy for electricity generators; a new optical device for microscopes that lights up hard-to-detect bacteria; and a new track safety system for a 350km per hour China Fast Train project.

Furniture, fashion, technology and leisure products are among more than twenty HSC student works in designTECH. Humanitarian concerns such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the use of child labour in manufacturing, and health and safety issues such as 2009 swine flu and pool drownings were just a few of the motivating factors that inspired the student works. Some of the unique ideas on show include a homeless shelter designed for natural disasters; a brake device for runaway prams; a supermarket trolley aid for the elderly; a learner driver log iPhone app; and a pool fence alarm system.

Arthurian legends, Paris in World War 11, nun’s habits and the geometry of feminine curves are the key themes inspiring this year’s Student Fashion display. Eight outfits from the final year ranges of top students from four Sydney fashion design schools, provide a glimpse of the exciting potential of the next generation of Australian fashion designers. This year’s most outstanding student designers include Anna Westcott from the Fashion Design Studio, TAFE NSW, Sydney Institute; Crystal Tsoi of Raffles College of Design and Commerce; Karima-Chloe Hazim from the University of Technology, Sydney; and Alexandra West from the Whitehouse Institute of Design. These are names to look for in Australian fashion in the future, like their Student Fashion predecessors Michelle Jank, Toni Maticevski and Dion Lee!

On View: Engineering Excellence (from 2 February 2011 to January 2012)

Designtech (from 19 February to 1 May 2011) Student Fashion (from 12 March to 28 August 2011)

Address: Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney

Telephone: (02) 9217 0111 or infoline (02) 9217 0444

Website: www.powerhousemuseum.com

Hours: 10.00am to 5.00pm (closed Christmas Day)

Admission: General admission $10 adult, $5 child, $6 concession and $25 family. Powerhouse Museum members and children under 4 years admitted free.

Ends

NOTE TO MEDIA: Click on link here http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/media/?p=62 for media backgrounder on all works featuring in Engineering Excellence, Designtech and Student Fashion.

Media information, images or interviews:

Mandy Campbell, Powerhouse Museum, Tel: 02 9217 0551/0422 9299 27 or mandyca@phmgov.au