Sola West

Day 1

We arrived In Melbourne pretty early in the morning and I was so excited to be there. It was my first time in Australia and I had no idea what to expect. The airport had traveller satisfaction reporting screens in the hallway which used detailed and animated emojis, which I thought was very impressive. On the drive to the hotel, we got to see a lot of really cool buildings. I think one of the highlights of Melbourne was definitely all of the interesting architecture. Another thing we saw on the drive was a playground made of rocks and my friends and I all really appreciated it. It looked both fun and slightly dangerous.

The Side Room

In the LUME, there was a small room off to the side of the main room which was very dark and full of fake plants. It was a nice area to decompress and get away from the bright and somewhat loud projections in the main room.

The Main Room

The main room with the massive light projections was very fun. I thought looking down at the people sitting on the main level from the balcony was entertaining and the presentation itself was interesting. When I was sitting down in this room, I did nearly fall asleep from exhaustion but I made it through.

churchbells.m4a

Day 2

Day 2 was graffiti day, and probably one of my favorite days on the trip. While waiting for the tour guides in the morning, the group was sitting on some stairs in front of a building kitty corner to a church. This church had many bells playing for an excessive amount of time with no discernable melody, which was amusing but also confusing.

Hidden Gems

I think that the main takeaway I had from the street art tour was that the best art wasn't necessarily the biggest or newest pieces but often smaller pieces in places most people don't look. Most of my favorites were small, weathered paste ups close to the ground.

It was super cool to get the opportunity to see a Banksy work up close!

Blender Studios

The studio where we got to do our own art was also very visually interesting and getting to walk around and see what artists were working on was fun.

St. Kilda Festival

This surprise activity was fun because it gave me a push to socialize more with people on the trip. I am really grateful for the opportunity we got to walk around this festival. It had a really exciting atmosphere and there were so many things to see. My group ended up walking pretty far and we got to see skateboarders, a massive concert, and a lot of interesting people.

Day 3

We went kayaking and did the smartphone workshop on day 3. Kayaking was a super fun activity and it felt really good to be able to get out on the river to do some exercise. We got to see many different kinds of buildings and the view from the river was incredible

Photo Editing

This was my favorite photo that I edited. Having the little plastic man and putting him in places was so cute!

Day 4

On day 4, we got to take a tour of the theatre building. The rooms were so massive. It was a majorly awesome scene and seeing the machines moving things on stage was absolutely incredible. The size of the stage was just so incomprehensible.

The Stage

Puppetry Workshop

I learned a lot about myself from this workshop. I realized how much I love puppets and how cool I think puppetry is. I have actually started drawing up plans to create a puppet over summer break because of this workshop and I am super excited about it!

The McQueen Experience

Favorite Concept

I really loved all of the headpieces in this exhibit. They were so unique and would be so fun to wear.

Silhouette

Favorite Outfit

DAY 5- Healesville Sanctuary

The sanctuary was absolutely amazing. It was a much needed break from the city and watching the country roll by on the bus was really calming. It was nice to be able to have this experience along with all of the art related activities.

Day 6

Art Museum Day! We got to see so many paintings. My favorites were those depicting Australia and those made by local artists and Indigenous people because they were unique to this museum, though I also enjoyed seeing some medieval art as well.

Transport

This was not specific to any day of the trip but one thing I wanted to include was the accessibility of public transport. I LOVED Melbournes transportation Infrastructure because they not only had sufficient bike lanes throughout the city, but their cable tramway accessibility in both route and cost was truly something to be envied compared to American systems. I thought it was fantastic. There was also rarely an excessive number of cars on the road which was nice to see.

Mary Poppins

I thought the performers in Mary Poppins were incredible and It was a very enjoyable experience. The most impressive parts to me were:

The set design! The mechanics of the sets were more complicated than any other play/musical I have ever seen.
The puppet! The massive puppet that was larger than the bedroom set itself was so enchanting. I have no idea how they pulled it off and I was completely delighted by it.
When the actor playing Bert was singing a large chunk of a high energy number at the end of the show while in the air both horizontally and upside down. It was an impressive feat that i feel blessed to have witnessed.

Day 7

I was part of the costume design workshop. Day 7 also saw a small local gallery where we learned a lot of interesting things about how the galleries operate and recieve city funding. I had no idea about the process of running and maintaining a nonprofit gallery like the one we saw before that. Later, at night, we got to see the new Avatar movie at a park outdoors. This was a fun night and the CGI in the movie was very impressive. It was some of the most advanced I've seen

Day 8

Leaving Melbourne :(

This interrim trip not only provided me with amazing opportunities to see the inner workings of the Melbourne art scene but also gave me the chance to meet a lot of new people and strengthen bonds with those around me that I did already know. I am so thankful for everything we got to experience together.

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