ARTEFACT H10515

Project Description

Artefact H10515, is the Museum’s unique ‘living’ acquisition that explores the diverse ways we source, shape and present collections.

Artefact H10515 moves and breathes contained within the physical boundaries of the display case it inhabits. Visitors can interact with Artefact H10515 by touching the glass case and uploading their own favourite things from within and beyond the Museum via the Thingalyzer. From one day to the next the form of Artefact H10515 will evolve in random and unexpected ways.

Artefact H10515 prowls around feeding on content from a variety of sources from across the internet including the Museum’s own collection to present a constantly changing organism. Artefact H10515 explores alternative ways of presenting and experiencing a collection and incorporating the collection interests of the wider Museum community.

Why is it called H10515? An artefact is defined as an y object made or modified by humans. When naming the artefact in this gallery we turned to Museum’s historical method for numbering and cataloguing objects. From 1889 to 1984 the Museum divided objects into categories such as wool, minerals or vegetable products. Each category was assigned a letter of the alphabet. As an object entered the collection it was given an appropriate letter followed by a number. The last number in the ‘miscellaneous’ group was H10514.