What Has The Smart Phone Done For Us Exhibition

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Sat 14 Oct 2017 - Sat 25 Nov 2017

There probably haven't been too many museum exhibitions inspired by a Monty Python Comedy sketch but this newly curated exhibition presented by The City of Liverpool and District Historical Society evokes the famous scene in the Python movie Life of Brian.
OK, besides aqueducts, sanitation, roads, irrigation,
medicine, education, wine and public baths what
have the Romans ever done for us?
Peace!

Well, the Smart Phone has probably given us just about everything apart from peace.



Each display case in the exhibition at the Liverpool Regional Museum has a Smart Phone surrounded by items that it has superceded. The speed that we have adopted the Smart Phone is perhaps best displayed in the audio themed case. The evolution of how we listen to music is on display from 1890's Edison Rolls, vinyl records, radios, reel to reel tape recorders, cassettes, CD's and now, music that is either loaded on your Smart Phone or listened to by surfing Apps like Spotify for random music.

Also on display is Reverend C.F.D. Priddle's Writing Slope. Reverend Priddle was the Rector of St Luke's Church, Liverpool for almost 40 years. The writing slope was probably used by him to write letters on a ship to the mother country in the early 1860s. Today we would check in on Facebook, post a few photos and brag about our holiday in real time.



The communication pod is one where most of us will see items that are still very familiar, yet now rarely used; stamps, landline phones, and a typewriter. It also contains the communication device that belongs to one of the oldest cultures in the world, a pair of Aboriginal message sticks.

So whether it is listening to an almost inexhaustible list of songs, music videos, movies and television serials, using a camera to take photos and videos, send messages, book an Uber, read the news, books and magazines, play games by yourself or anyone in the world, shop for almost anything, walk the streets of the world with Google street view, Tweet nonsense, keep notes, book hotels, Google almost anything, calculate simple or complex mathematical equations, find where the nearest public toilet is, check the weather forecast, order dinner, make a sound recording, listen to any radio station in the world, translate languages, solve crosswords, shine a light, navigate around the world, and even talk to people, apart from all that, what has the Smart Phone done for us?



The exhibition kicks off with the official launch at the Liverpool Regional Museum this Saturday 14 Oct. at 11.30 am.

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!date 14/10/2017 -- 25/11/2017
%wnsydney