UNESCO Memory of the World registers Melbourne art archives

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 2, No. 4  17 March - 14 April 2008 ]

By Katherine Smith

The archives of one of the earliest artists to work with laser sound and images, Joseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski, held partly in the University of Melbourne’s Special Collections, have been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register for Australia.

The J S Ostoja-Kotkowski collections, at the University of Melbourne and the State Library of South Australia, contain files relating to the life and art of the pioneering artist.

The Ostoja-Kotkowski archives are among 11 new Australian additions to the UNESCO Memory of the World project.

Included in the J S Ostoja-Kotkowski collections are papers, programs, pamphlets, photographs, slides and negatives relating to his theatre designs, sculptures, murals, art, film, laser shows, computer graphics, stained glass and photography.

There are also computer discs, original art works, a theatre set model, models of sculptures, papers relating to his immigration and his relationship to his Polish family and the Polish community, and films, videos and audio tapes.

Sound designer and University of Melbourne academic Dr Ros Bandt (Historical Studies) describes the collections as a comprehensive archive of a post-war migrant artist who maintained his connections with Poland.

“He was a prolific artist of enormous diversity and the archives document the breadth of his work and life.

“He was best known for his ground-breaking work in chromasonics, laser kinetics and ‘sound and image’ productions, making him one of the earliest electronic multimedia artists,” she says.

Ostoja-Kotkowski’s works are to be found in many locations around Australia. They include the foyer of Nauru House in Melbourne, a sculptural gateway to Mt Kosciusko in Cooma, NSW, and murals and other works on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne.

Most notably, a vitreous enamel mural incorporating a theremin, one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments, is housed in the foyer to the Loewe Theatre in the Department of Earth Sciences.