Australia's official World War I historian Charles Bean never got to see his original vision for the Australian War Memorial created. On Friday, it was unveiled, after a fashion, when journalist Scott Bevan and Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson launched Art of Nation: Australia's official art and photography of the First World War.
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This online interactive experience at the memorial's website (awm.gov.au) was created by a team led by senior curator of art Dr Anthea Gunn working with Queensland digital developer Ortelia Interactive Spaces.
Gunn said, "We've been working on it since April 2016 but I've been thinking about it since 2014."
Art of Nation features a vast online gallery of hundreds of works created by official war artists and photographers, housed in a virtual reimagining of Bean's original sketches for the Australian War Memorial. The memorial - which Bean had envisaged when he was coming home after World War I - was ultimately designed by architects Emil Sodersteen and John Crust and opened in 1941, in the midst of the Second World War.
As well as the works and information about them and their creators, Art of Nation features links so users can follow the artists' wartime journeys, compare the sites depicted then and now using Google Maps, and discover more about the history of the era.
For example, she said, animation was used to show how Frank Hurley created his composite photographs, combining elements from different locations into one shot.
"Bean thought they were fakes."
Lazaros Kastanis, a director of Ortelia Interactive Spaces, said many of the photos and paintings had never been seen by most people until now.
"This is our history - and now it's going to be seen by the public."
Remembrance Day, Saturday November 11 at the Australian War Memorial awm.gov.au.
10.30am-noon: Tickets for the 2017 Remembrance Day National Ceremony in the Parade Ground and surrounds are to be booked at trybooking.com/297858 or on 6243 4327. .About 10 minutes before the commencement of the ceremony, the public will be invited to fill any unoccupied seating that remains. The proceedings may also be viewed from the Memorial lawns or along the fence line of the ceremony. The Memorial will be providing a free shuttle bus service for public use. The service will be operating from Russell Offices and dropping along Fairbairn Avenue, adjacent to the Australian War Memorial.First shuttle departs Russell Offices at 9am with final drop off at the Memorial at 10.20am. Return shuttles from the Memorial to Russell Offices will operate from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Parking at Russell Offices is free and buses are wheelchair accessible. The Memorial will be closed until after the ceremony.
2, 3 and 4pm: In the BAE Systems Theatre, free screenings of the Menin Gate Lions documentary: as the Australians and other Allied soldiers marched into battle they passed two stone statues – the Menin Gate lions – which stood sentinel as Ypres was ruined by German artillery fire around them. Also on Sunday every hour, on the hour from 11am.
4.55pm: The Last Post Ceremony in the Commemorative Courtyard.
