Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination (Powerhouse Museum, 4 December 2008 – 26 April 2009)
Film fans might not feel that much reluctance to admit to being Star Wars fans any more, but museums obviously still feel a cultural cringe. So, for example, when an exhibition of models, props and costumes from Star Wars tours, there has to be some kind of legitimising excuse. A decade ago there was an exhibition (which I saw at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.) which was based on the links between Star Wars and myth; it was marked by the companion book Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. You know the drill: Star Wars is the latest line in a long list of myths that tell universal blah blah blah blah. The latest exhibition touring the world, currently at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, is Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination. This time the focus is on the links between Star Wars and real-world science. But again, it’s just a pretense. The exhibition, if we’re honest, is really just about exhibiting really cool models.
My recollection is that at the Smithsonian exhibition, they put a very large Star Destroyer model at the very start to kick things off with a bang; the Powerhouse exhibition does the same by using a giant Millennium Falcon to welcome you in. It gets things off to a great start. Other highlights include an X-Wing that is very nearly as impressive as the Falcon; a Star Destroyer (though a smaller model than I saw at the last exhibition); the Rebel Blockade Runner (the first ship you see in the series); an AT-AT; and some iconic costumes including Darth Vader’s suit (although I was amused to note the mock-up they’d set up had him wearing very shabby unpolished shoes; the Dark Lord’s grooming seems to have gone into decline). There are some models and props from the prequels, but a combination of public demand and the increased use of computer-generated imagery for the newer films ensures the balance is tipped well towards the original trilogy. It’s all good stuff – and as good as a book like Lorne Peterson’s Sculpting a Galaxy is, there’s just no substitute for seeing these models in person.
They shouldn’t need to apologise for showing these models, and indeed, contriving an excuse to do so actually detracts from discussion of the legitimate reasons they are of interest. The original Star Wars films are classics of film design, and these models deserve legitimate study for that reason. Even those who criticise the films on other grounds should, if they’re honest, acknowledge the brilliance of the designs Lucas conceived with collaborators such as Ralph MacQuarrie, Colin Cantwell and Joe Johnston. Not only are these designs iconic, they are extraordinarily communicative. They impart ideas for storytelling purposes (the Star Destroyer looks threatening and evil, for example), but they are also full of subtle cues about how the ships and objects we see work, which helps to ground the fantasy world in reality. Lucas’ designers approached the task as industrial designers would, meaning the objects look unusually real for a science fiction film, and saving Lucas from needless exposition. (He never needs to tell us, for example, that an X-Wing is a newer, zippier and better ship than the Y-Wing: the designs do it for him). I’d like to see an exhibition that more fully explored these ships as designed objects: looking for example, at the influence of World War II and postwar fighter design on the look of the X-Wing, or naval design on the Star Destroyer. At the same time, such an exhibition could more fully explore the creative process of designing the ships (for example, the way the Blockade Runner design was planned to be used as the Millennium Falcon, before a late change of plans).
There are gestures in this direction in the exhibition, and the “science” angle gives a better opportunity to touch on these than the “myth” angle did. But I suspect the science stuff in the exhibition will be more of interest to children. There are hands-on exhibits about maglev trains, robots, and hovercraft (including a full-size mockup that can be ridden). These are tied into Star Wars with varying degrees of half-heartedness, but kids will love them. One of the funniest things about watching the exhibition, in fact, was hearing the adult Star Wars fans chide their less-informed children. I heard one kid point at a costume and ask if it was for “a goodie or a baddie.” The response was an indignant: “That’s a stormtrooper! Of course he’s a baddie!” Such is the state of Star Wars fandom.
The exhibition is running at the Powerhouse until 26 April 2009. You can click on any of these photos to go through to flickr, where you can see more of my photos from the exhibition.