Texts, stories and culture -- Australian TV miniatures
Recommended for Year levels: 7-10
Learning areas: English and EAL
This resource can be adapted for Humanities and Media curriculum.
Capabilities: Intercultural Capability
In this resource, you'll explore the TV miniatures displayed in The Story of the Moving Image exhibition and consider how the story of Australian television relates to you.
These learning activities encourage you to investigate depictions of Australian television history, and reflect on how they represent culture. During your visit to The Story of the Moving Image, you will view and 'read' the TV miniatures as text, relating them to your personal histories and interrogating the cultural perspectives presented in these dioramas.
This resource offers activities for before, during, and after your visit.
If you can't make it to ACMI, you can engage in these activities by examining the images of the TV miniatures in the ACMI collection (1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s) and the relevant constellations. Explore also The Story of the Moving Image online experience with a focus on the story of Australian Television.
Teachers: select and adjust activities to support your students and learning program. You can find curriculum links and learning goals in the document below.
Before your visit
What is a text?
The word ‘text’ has many shades of meaning. Even a quick search on the web will show the variety of ways we use the word. We can send ‘texts’ to our friends about the latest events in our lives. We can describe the printed content of a storybook as the ‘text’ in contrast to the pictures. We can also study ‘texts’ at school in English and in other subjects.
But what actually is a ‘text’? Some would say it’s simply anything that communicates a message.
A text can come in many forms. While most of us may often only think about texts that use written and spoken language (like books and films), a text can be a variety of visual and multimodal representations.
In this resource, you will look at a display in The Story of the Moving Image exhibition at ACMI as a text. Seen through this lens, you will make discoveries based on a range of perspectives and experiences.
| 1. What do you think counts as a text? List as many different types of texts as you can. |
| 2. As a class, discuss whether or not you think the following things could be considered a text and why: a street sign, an item of clothing, and a model train set. (This could also be a think, pair share task.) |
Find out about ACMI's TV miniatures
In The Story of the Moving Image exhibition, you will find a display of six miniature sitting rooms presented as dioramas arranged behind TV screens evoking different eras.
Each diorama represents a decade of Australian TV history, and each includes a tiny TV set screening an iconic Australian TV show from the relevant decade.
These are the texts that will inspire (a) your personal reflection about the role television plays in your life and (b) your interview with an older person.
Watch the video (below) and listen to what Emily Boutard has to say about making this display.
You can also read the video transcript here
| 3. What do the ACMI dioramas show and what is the purpose of the display? |
| 4. What role (if any) does television play in your daily life? |
| 5. Conduct an interview with an older family member, friend or member of your community about the role television played in their lives when they were the same age as you are now. Take dot-point notes and think about how their experience with TV compares to yours. You can use the note-taking template below to help you organise your notes. Take note of the decade that your interviewee refers to, as this will be important when you continue your investigation during your visit to ACMI. |
During your visit
View the TV miniatures
Explore the dioramas in the exhibit. Look carefully at the miniature of the decade(s) relevant to your interview.
| 6. Does the diorama of your focus decade reflect what you've learned about in your interview? |
| 7. In what ways is it similar and different? |
| 8. What factors could inform these similarities and differences? |
Dioramas as text: See Think Me We
During your visit to The Story of the Moving Image exhibit, pay close attention to the TV dioramas. You are going to consider this display as a text, something that is communicating a message to viewers.
To help structure and explore your thinking about the dioramas, you will be using a thinking routine called See Think Me We.
SEE: Look closely at the display. What do you notice? Make lots of observations.
- Tap on each object on the screen and collect it with your Lens.
THINK: What thoughts do you have about the display?
- What do you find interesting about the display? Is anything surprising?
- Thinking about the display as a text (or a collection of texts), what do you think it’s trying to communicate to the audience?
- Which one is your favourite and why?
ME: What connections can you make between yourself and the display?
- What objects or rooms in the display are familiar to you? Do you feel particularly drawn to any of these?
- Is there anything unfamiliar about any of these dioramas?
WE: How might the display be connected to bigger stories – about our world and our place in it?
- Look around the rest of the SOMI exhibit. Can you make any connections to the bigger story of the moving image?
- Texts, particularly literary texts, often communicate broader ideas about our world. What themes or big ideas do you think these dioramas explore? What themes or big ideas do you think these dioramas could explore?
Download the See Think Me We worksheet
Analysing the text
When we interpret and study texts, we question and investigate different aspects of the text to analyse what it is communicating to the audience.
This means we are thinking about representation. Representation means the way that something is shown or described. Representations are never a mirror of the real world but the product of choices and assumptions and are often influenced by the beliefs and values of the time in which they are created.
| 9. What critical questions could you ask about the dioramas? |
| 10. Are the lounge rooms on display representative of all Australians during each of the decades? What could be problematic or challenging about having cliched representations of ‘Australian’ living rooms through the decades? Give examples to support your answer. |
| 11. A stereotype is a general (often unfair and untrue) belief about a group of people. Do you think the living rooms displayed are stereotypical? If so, which parts of the dioramas give you this impression? Who is it stereotyping (i.e. Whose ‘place’ in the world is it showing)? Explain with examples. |
Extension activity – the bigger picture
During your visit: TV through the Decades
When interpreting and analysing texts, context is often crucial to making sense of the messages being communicated. This includes understanding the historical, social, cultural and/or political background of the creation of the text (in this case, the dioramas), as well as that of the time period being represented.
Choose a decade that is represented in the TV miniatures (1950s-2000s) and answer the following questions while exploring the rest of the gallery.
Teachers: We've used Roman numerals to highlight that these are extension activities.
| 12. What else was happening in screen/moving image culture in this decade? What is happening with the camera, with the film industry, with advertising, with entertainment and art? |
| I3. Go to the Moving Minds exhibit. What is happening in Australia and around the world in this decade? What social issues and movements are being documented? What kinds of social videos are important? |
After your visit
Share your discoveries
After exploring the exhibit and investigating the TV miniatures, take the time to reflect as a class on your discoveries. Because texts are open to many different perspectives and interpretations, class discussion will reveal different elements of the exhibit and a range of connections and responses.
Use the collection and constellations saved on your Lens to support your engagement with the following questions. You may also like to explore The Story of the Moving Image online experience, particularly the section on Australian Television.
| 14. As a class, discuss your observations and thoughts about the TV dioramas. How would you describe the version of Australia and/or Australians that has been presented in the display? |
| 15. Do you see your own cultural histories and experiences reflected in the display? Explain. |
| 16. In pairs discuss what kind of display would reflect your life and experience. |
| 17. Write a brief for the ACMI curators describing how and where you watch TV and how this could be represented in a diorama. |
Extension activity -- the bigger picture
Post-visit: TV through the Decades
If you chose to do the extension activity during your visit, reflect on your discoveries in the gallery and how they relate to the picture of Australian TV shown in the dioramas. You may like to view them again in ACMI’s online collection: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s.
Note: as you reflect on your discoveries, you can build further understanding by exploring the section on Social Video in The Story of the Moving Image online experience.
Analysing the text
When we interpret and study texts, we question and investigate different aspects of the text to analyse what it is communicating to the audience.
The questions (below) are designed to help you with your analysis and critical thinking. You may like to compare your discoveries with those of a partner and consider the similarities and differences in your discoveries and responses.
| 18. What connections did you draw between the dioramas and what else was happening in moving image culture? Are your other discoveries consistent with the representation of Australian lounge rooms and TV culture shown in the dioramas? |
| 19. Discuss your observations of the Moving Minds exhibit. What was happening in your chosen decade? What was being recorded? What does this tell you about what issues are important to people in Australia and/or worldwide? |
| 20. What impression did you get of the social, cultural and/or political situation in Australia during your chosen decade? Consider what the diorama is implying about how Australians live, what their concerns are, what issues are important to them and how they see the world around them. |
| 21. Do you think what is shown in the Moving Minds exhibit matches or pushes against the representation of the home and television shown in the miniatures? (i.e. Is the image of society presented in the Moving Minds exhibit inconsistent with the image communicated in the TV miniatures display?) What similarities and differences do you see? |
| 22. Do you think it is possible to capture social issues and movements in a text like a TV miniature display? Consider whether the dioramas could incorporate elements of the Moving Minds exhibit and (if you think it can!) how those could be expressed in the display. |
Create
Make your own TV diorama
It’s time to get creative! Make your own diorama, recreating your space for watching your favourite television shows and/or movies. Consider how your relationship with the screen is influenced by your personal, social, and cultural experiences.
| 23. Is there a TV in your space or is it a different technological device? |
| 24. If you had a mini screen in your diorama, what would be playing on it? |
| 25. How could you use different visual elements to communicate your experiences with the screen? |
Some inspiration
Check out this tutorial for making dioramas.
If you’re interested in creating your diorama digitally, explore the free online room planner. (This is free resource, but an account is needed to save work and take snapshots.)
Author acknowledgement
Thank you to pre-service teacher Esther Zhao, who worked with our ACMI Education team to create this resource as part of her Master of Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.