When Stephen Hawking died I immediately thought back to his appearance in hologram form at the Sydney Opera House in 2015, where he was interviewed by fellow physicist Paul Davies. It was a novel use of technology, with a charming Star Trek twist as he was ‘beamed out’ at the end of the interview but … Continue reading Holograms at the Sydney Opera House
IN PRAISE OF ART GALLERIES AND THEIR SHOPS. … It’s more accurate to say that I’m issuing a piece of music merchandise rather than ‘publishing’ my Sydney Opera House book. After the exquisitely architectural hardcover limited edition it’s moving into a handsome but modest paperback edition. And though it will still have many Reg Mombassa … Continue reading In Praise of Galleries and their Shops
I have Virginia Woolf and a rural childhood to thank for the idea that a handsome book was something that could be made swiftly, as needed. Reading her diaries at a young age, with no worldly experience to attach to what I was reading, I doggedly ploughed through rather than savoured them. And I became … Continue reading ELON MUSK’S IDEA OF A PRINTER ON MARS
MAKING CONNECTIONS…Given the 7 year time frame of my book on the Sydney Opera House evolving as a living thing, starting in 2011, I’m able to follow entire chains of connections … from the Ship Song video that opened up the Sydney Opera House to the world via the video directed by Paul Goldman, to … Continue reading Sydney Modern, Art Gallery of NSW
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIC REACH OF MY SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE BOOK. (Image: Walsh Bay from Dawes Point by Reg Mombassa) The Opera House’s renewal is happening within a citywide renewal that I cover in my book. The expanding of the experiences at the cultural institutions around the city is connecting them up as if there’s a force … Continue reading Walsh Bay Renewal
A book about a living, evolving building can never truly be finished. The most it can do is chart a cycle. I tried to write along the arrow of time, keeping everything in the present tense, but while noting the aspects of the life of the building that have had a profound effect that doesn’t … Continue reading The Ship Song Project As World Building
What’s different about my book is that it considers how the Sydney Opera House is brought to life. As the economics of publishing has pushed architecture books towards the profession, with the life, the “program” outside their scope, I describe performances and food culture that could only happen at the Opera House. The resident Australian … Continue reading The Sydney Opera House is a Living Thing
