Everyday Faces
This internet work is featured on the National Museum of Australia website. It can be found at nma
One would assume that if you saw the same person nearly every day for 20 years, you would know them in intimate detail. However, recent surveys reveal the contrary: most Australians simply do not know who is on their currency.
Everyday Faces is a touch-friendly web application that aims to educate the public about Dame Mary Gilmore, who has been the face of the Australian ten dollar bank note since 1993. Gilmore is one of Australia’s most treasured writers and poets, yet many Australians remain ignorant of her contributions.
Everyday Faces embraces the tradition of imagery found on our present bank notes and adapts it to a storytelling framework. When combined with the life-like scale and the natural intuitiveness of a mobile tablet,Everyday Faces lets the bank notes tell their own story.
Inspiration
Initially I didn’t take much notice of Dame Mary Gilmore’s rather modest typewriter in the Landmarks gallery, but then again, that is exactly why I chose it.
Dame Mary Gilmore contributed so much in her lifetime through teaching, writing, poetry and activism, and it struck me as quite fitting that all of these noble pursuits could actually be summed up by her typewriter, as it was through the simple act of writing that she made the most impact on society.
This ties in with my work because it echoes the notion of seemingly insignificant objects having such great stories to tell, and I think that the ten dollar bank note has more to tell us than we think.