Sarah Edwards - Inside the hummingbird

Sarah Edwards –Final

Transcription by Alice Bell

VISUAL: Inside the hummingbird. PhD student Sarah Edwards work with Melbourne Museum

explores how understandings of natural history can inform contemporary art practice. RMIT

University logo.

AUDIO: ambient electronic music plays quietly in the background through the duration of the video.

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in a chair a modern lecture theatre, talking at an

angle slightly off camera.

SARAH: Hi I’m Sarah Edwards and I’m doing my PhD here at RMIT University. My project is entitled

‘Thirteen ways to look at a hummingbird: the natural history museum as a contemporary art

medium’ and my industry partner is Museum Victoria.

VISUAL: Video close up of a hand turning a mental handle.

SARAH: So part of my research is looking at ecological issues…

VISUAL: Video cuts to wider shot of Sarah using the handle to open metal compactus of

miscellaneous objects in a light-filled room.

SARAH:…and the fact that the museum is becoming…

VISUAL: Video close up plans across from the stripped back to the face of a taxidermy Tasmanian

Tiger inside the metal shelving.

SARAH:…in some instances the sole repository for animals that have become extinct in the wild or

that you can’t find all around the world.

VISUAL: Video close up of hands pulling on blue plastic gloves.

SARAH: My research though focuses specifically on…

VISUAL: Video close up of two sets of hands wearing blue gloves unlocking then opening a metal

drawer.

SARAH: …how so the areas that you don’t see…

VISUAL: Video close up of two sets of hands wearing blue gloves pulling open a drawer full of sets of

bird specimens

SARAH: …as a general visitor to the museum which is a unique and wonderful way of….

VISUAL: Video of Sarah placing one of the bird specimens in her hand and moving her hands so that

so that the bird and its paper tag are visible to the camera.

SARAH:… being able to find out more about how objects move from being collected in the wild and…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in the lecture theatre, talking at an angle slightly off

camera.

SARAH: …are transformed into natural history specimens.

VISUAL: Video close up of Dr. Katie Smith, Collection Manager, Melbourne Museum standing, talking

direct to camera. Alongside and behind her are numbered open metal shelves with filled with animal

specimens. Katie slowly shakes her head and moves her hands as she speaks to accentuate her

phrasing.

KATIE: The vertebrate section we have over 100,000 specimens so it’s a huge collection spanning…

VISUAL: Video pans across a shelf of sets of small animal skeletons mounted on boards with white

paper tags attached to their skeletons with string.

KATIE:… at least 200 years so from when the museum first opened…

VISUAL: Video close up of the head of a fanged, otter-like taxidermy creature.

KATIE:…so you can image that’s a lot of things…

VISUAL: Video close up of a taxidermy possum-like creature mounted on a tree branch.

KATIE:… for us to be looking after.

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in the lecture theatre, talking at an angle slightly off

camera.

SARAH: It’s incredibly generous of an organisation…

VISUAL: Video tighter close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in the lecture theatre, talking just off camera.

SARAH… because I can’t just go in unsupervised, I have to be supervised, not because they don’t

trust me but because it’s the nature of how...

VISUAL: Katie and Sarah are standing within the rows of metal shelves of animal specimens, Sarah

reaches for the paper tag on one of the shelved items as the camera pans across the shelves.

SARAH: …collections are managed and so someone needs to assist me getting into a collection store

and…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in the lecture theatre, talking just off camera.

SARAH …I can be left alone to do what I need to with a particular collection but I can’t just go in and

open…

VISUAL: Video pulls into focus a facial skeleton of an ape-like creature hunched over its skeletal

body.

SARAH…cabinets and move things around because it’s, yeah that would create chaos.

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting, talking just off camera.

SARAH: With the hummingbird I asked if we could X-ray them…

VISUAL: Video pans across hummingbird specimens stacked flat side by side against a faint grey

background.

SARAH… and I assumed the museum had an X-ray machine and that wasn’t the case so we went to…

VISUAL: Video tighter close up of Sarah Edwards sitting, talking just off camera.

SARAH:…the X-ray department at the Royal Melbourne hospital and were able to [not only] X-ray

some hummingbirds but some ravens and other animals as well that they wanted to have a look at…

VISUAL: Video footage of digital black and white X-rays of bird skeletons.

SARAH …the armature of the animals and it turned out that they could see through the X-rays that

specimens in the 1800s had, they’d used lead…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in the lecture theatre, talking just off camera.

SARAH: …in the glass eyes and things that they didn’t actually know about the animals so it sort of

had…

VISUAL: Video of the front of the Melbourne Museum glass building pans across to Sarah standing

outside.

SARAH: …this cross-fertilisation of, yeah, benefit to both agencies.

VISUAL: Video close up of Dr. Katie Smith, standing against the numbered shelves talking direct to

camera, as before.

KATIE: So these linkage partnerships with universities are really important because they provide us

with a chance to…

VISUAL: Close up of Katie and Sarah looking at a small, pig-like brown taxidermy animal in the metal

shelving, talking to each other

KATIE:…bring in people with different areas of expertise but also that are currently studying it…

VISUAL: Video close up of Dr. Katie Smith, standing against the numbered shelves talking direct to

camera, as before.

KATIE: …so they are up with newer practices and they’re also usually extremely enthusiastic,

competent and reliable so you’re working with collections that are really old and valuable so it’s

really good having people that are really interested in making the collection better…

VISUAL: Video tighter lose up of Dr. Katie Smith, standing against the numbered shelves talking

direct to camera.

KATIE: …even they might provide ideas about things that you hadn’t even thought of yourself they

might bring new fresh ideas.

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah standing outside with green trees in the background, she is smiling

and then laughing.

SARAH: I think that it’s really important to think really deeply about what it is that you’re interested

in and think creatively about…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in a chair a modern lecture theatre, talking at an

angle slightly off camera.

SARAH :…where, what sort of place might enhance or enrich..

VISUAL: Katie and Sarah are standing within the rows of metal shelves of animal specimens in the

artificially-lit room, the camera pans across the shelves.

SARAH: ...or bring something really new and exciting to your understanding of what you’re doing.

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in a chair a modern lecture theatre, talking at an

angle slightly off camera, as before.

SARAH: The opportunities that I’ve been afforded through my PhD research…

VISUAL: Close up of small monkey-like creature on all fours in the metal shelves pans across to Katie

and Sarah reviewing other specimens.

SARAH :…partnering between RMIT University and the Museum has really enriched…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in lecture theatre, as before.

SARAH:…my firsthand experience and knowledge of my subject matter so I have a firsthand, direct

experience working within the collections at the Museum which enable and enhance what I can

produce as an artist…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah walking through the automated glass doors at the entrance to

Melbourne Museum.

SARAH:…within my RMIT University coursework.

VISUAL: Video wide shot of Sarah inside the Melbourne Museum walking into the open space

SARAH: I think it brings a real sincerity and…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in lecture theatre, as before.

SARAH: …credibility to the work that I’m producing it’s not just having looked in a book and been

copying from a book but being able to look at a live specimen or a real specimen and being able to…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah standing outside the entrance to Melbourne Museum, smiling, holds

up her Melbourne Museum student identification to the camera, the lanyard is blowing in the wind.

SARAH:…bring that into my art practices has been invaluable…

VISUAL: Video close up of Sarah Edwards sitting in lecture theatre, as before.

SARAH:…my practice wouldn’t be what it is without that, my connection between the University and

the Museum.

VISUAL: Kind support from Melbourne Museum logo and RMIT University.

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