A chance to think outside the screen

THE simplest task can take the most circuitous route at 62 West Wallaby Street. Breakfast emerges from a series of pulleys and levers, running out of cheese prompts the building of a backyard rocket (plenty of cheese on the moon, apparently), and even getting out of bed calls forth an orchestra of mechanical arms and moving slides.

Welcome to the home of Wallace and Gromit, where a relentlessly inventive spirit sometimes gets in the way of common sense. The endlessly optimistic Wallace - arguably Britain's most beloved inventor - and his long-suffering dog, Gromit, emerged from the creative hothouse of Aardman Animations 23 years ago.

Since then, their madcap claymation capers have fuelled a string of ''cracking'' adventures in the form of short films, commercials, books and pun-loving films including A Matter of Loaf and Death and the Academy Award-winning The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

This month, the pair take up temporary residence at Scienceworks, during an exhibition that aims to tease out the inventor in all of us. Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention, which comes to Melbourne after British stints in London, Glasgow and Newcastle, pairs Wallace's wackier creations - such as the chocolate teapot and glass hammer - with a range of real-life Australian inventions that have changed the way we live.

Set within a human-scale recreation of 62 West Wallaby Street, the exhibition charts the inventor's journey from light-bulb moment to realisation, via product development and patenting.

Wallace & Gromit creative director Merlin Crossingham says the exhibition, like the television series from which it emerged, aims to show that ''everybody has ideas'' and that ''really simple progression of thought touches everything that we interact with''.

Speaking by phone from Aardman's home town of Bristol, Crossingham says ''young children and teenagers have got used to seeing technology and invention and ideas generation as something that happens within a screen, or in a magic way inside a box''.

The series subverts this notion by venturing into backyard sheds where old-fashioned tinkerers still turn their revolutionary ideas into reality. As anchorman of ''the show that puts the merriment into experiment'', the animated Wallace introduces documentary segments featuring everything from bomb-detecting bees to pedal-powered submarines.

Crossingham, who oversaw the television series, says one of his favourite segments entered the whimsical world of Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen, who crafts massive, wind-propelled creatures out of recycled insulation tubing. Watching Jansen's oddly elegant creatures make their way across a windswept beach is, as Crossingham describes it, ''astonishing''.

''He uses the best bits of mechanical science, biology and inventiveness and brings them together in things that move in such a graceful, elegant way.'' Jansen's fantastical creatures, along with the series' more down-to-earth inventions, all sprang from the same inventive spark that put planes in the air and allowed deaf children to hear.

''When you talk to some of these people, they all have a sparkle in their eye,'' Crossingham says. ''All of them have had an amazing journey to get to where they are. If we can do that with just one person, if we're the catalyst that inspires them to follow a little thought of 'what if?' and they start to play with an idea in their mind that maybe one day becomes something, that's what we were wanting to do, really. It's a great thing to try and do with entertainment, to try and seed a little bit of inspiration.''

The local fruits of such inspirational seeds will be evident during Wallace and Gromit's Scienceworks visit, which is being overseen by curator Martin Bush and project manager Vera Gin. Among the Australian inventions being showcased are the black-box flight recorder, the polymer banknote, the multichannel cochlear implant and a children's bike designed by Melburnian Warren Key.

Citing the ''Byk bike'' as the local exhibit he most wishes he'd invented himself, Bush says that when Key had children, ''he suddenly realised there were no good kids' bikes out there, because they'd all been made as adults' bikes made small. Byk is not as fast, but it's much more stable.''

Bush, whose own scientific wonderings began when he saw a lunar eclipse at the age of eight or nine, is the curator of Scienceworks' scientific instrument collection and stresses that invention is not just about creating something from scratch. ''I like the idea of something that's been pretty much the same for 100 years and then someone comes along and looks at it with fresh eyes. One of the main messages of the exhibition is that inventions can come from anywhere. Anyone can be an inventor.''

Another, more subliminal message in this age when every childhood creation is met with lavish parental praise is that failure - a constant for Wallace - is an essential stepping stone.

''In science,'' Gin says, ''we're encouraged to do things a number of times to make sure that [a result] is not just an anomaly. Wallace shows resilience all the time - he invents crazy things, like Gromit's food bowl that's made out of dog biscuits or a barometer that, depending on what the weather is, shows you which hat to wear - and nothing deters him.''

Crossingham agrees that ''the culture we've created doesn't necessarily encourage that inquisitiveness to bubble to the surface''.

''Failure in the context of ideas is actually a positive thing,'' he says. ''In the evolutionary process of an idea, the mistakes you make actually help you improve what you're trying to do.''

As Wallace and Gromit make the journey south, Crossingham is pleased to hear that Melburnians will get to experience one of his favourite exhibits - the modelling-clay station. He recalls being astonished by the number of British visitors, including children, who'd never played around with the material that is, after all, the stuff of Aardman legend.

''A large part of what we wanted to do with the series and the exhibition was just to encourage people to pick something up and play with it, to get your hands dirty,'' he says. ''People would say, 'Oh, I'm no good at that,' but then they'd pick up a piece of clay and make the most wonderful sculptures or characters. At that point they're inventing - they're using their minds to create something and it's a very simple illustration of how easy it is to be creative.''

■Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention is at Scienceworks, May 19-November 11.