The exhibition Step Back in Time was launched at the Perth Royal Show today and tells the story of rural policing throughout Western Australia.

Part of this exhibition is a collection of 35 paintings by Henry McLaughlin. The paintings are presented as a virtual gallery where patrons can zoom in on them by touching the screen and using the magnifying glass.

In 1970, Henry McLaughlin joined the WA Police Force and his ability as an artist was recognised by the Commissioner who understood that posterity could be preserved in the painting of old Police stations throughout the State.

We took the hi res photos of the paintings, and presented them on an artists table, created specially for the exhibition, and presented on a 32″ touch screen. By touching the list on the right, patrons can select the painting they are interested in. The painting is displayed in the framed area, and a post it note appears with any additional information.

Further touching the painting causes a magnifying glass to fade in and zooms in on the detail of the canvas below.

When the exhibit is unattended for about a minute, it starts to randomly display paintings in the collection.

The Perth Royal Show is open from 26th September to 3rd October. You can find the Police Pavilion at J7 on your show maps.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 6:01 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.