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Home > Collective Isolation Project, week 17: Electric dreams

Collective Isolation Project, week 17: Electric dreams

A woman feeds a man a cracker as they play records on a turntable
14 August 2020

During lockdown, technology is a friend to many. As a society in lockdown, we have come to depend on it.

We're not just talking about the tech giants here. Whether it's Zoom work meetings or streaming TV, phonecalls with distant loved ones, ordering dinner online, playing records/tapes/streaming audio, printing documents, powering your home with solar, scrolling through social feeds or swearing at the NBN network, technology enters our homes in many forms and our lives are unimaginable without it.

So tell us: what's the techology that you're most grateful for during lockdown? Whether it's digital, analogue or mechanical, we'd like to hear what's making a difference for you while you're physically isolated.

Share your response at our Facebook Memory Bank group and tag us with #SLVMemoryBank.

About this image

One hopes this young man and woman reclining on the floor beside a portable record player, eating shortbread biscuits, will brush the crumbs from the record before they lower the needle (the photo is by Mark Strizic, 1966). With online streaming you don't need to worry about mess, and if you're a State Library member with a Victorian address, you can access most of our music databases from home.

These databases offer a jaw-dropping smorgasbord of music including Western classical, jazz, world music, folk music, pop music in most genres and archival sound recordings. You can also watch dance and opera performances, read art magazines and scrutinise classical scores. 

To dive into this treasure trove of online resources, you'll need to join the Library and have a Victorian residential address.

How to respond

Please feel welcome to respond as creatively or literally as you wish.

If you contribute, we may contact you to discuss collecting and using your images, stories, objects and experiences. We may not be able to accept everything, but we will endeavour to do so! With your permission, your contributions may be added to the State Collection or used in future Library programs.

About The Collective Isolation Project

The Collective Isolation Project aims to cement this current moment in history, and is our inaugural Memory Bank campaign.

Find out more about Memory Bank, including details about how to contribute each week.

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