Melech Ravitch's Star Theatre Revisited in Darwin Australia

Today we found the relics of the Star Theatre here in Darwin. This is the site that Melech Ravitch photographed in 1933 and the last of the 90 photographs that he took on his journey across Australia. If you look closely you can see the faint outline of a star on top of the  building that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Mogen David. Ravitch thought that this was a sign that a Jewish settlement was destined for the Australian Northern Territory. Ravitch predates Steinberg and soujourned to these parts via weeks and weeks of travel by train and mail truck. What a crazy poet he was. He was part of the Yiddish literary scene in Warsaw with contemporaries such I.B. Singer and helped to give him his start. We are making a virtual pavilion in his honour as part of Imaginary Jewish Homelands to mark his importance to the Kimberley plan. 

Darwin: Gateway to the Kimberleys - we're here for three days on our way to Kununurra

Lunch with Tony, Caroline Isaacson's Grandchild

Our time in Melbourne couldn't be more fulfilling. First we see Critchley Parker's diary and now we're having lunch with the donor, Caroline Isaacson's grandchild, Tony Isaacson. Tony offered to take us to see Critchley Parker's homestead an hour outside of Melbourne. Tony is an avid bush walker and has visited Critchley's grave site at Port Davey. If the weather is good then we aim to visit Port Davey on the Tasmanian leg of our journey in about 3 weeks from now.

Missing Diary FOUND! Progress on Tasmanian Leg of Project.

The entrance to the State Library of Victoria where the diary was recently donated

When the Kimberley Plan was stalled, Critchley Parker Jr. and Caroline Isaacson redirected Steinberg to Tasmania as a possibility for Jewish settlement and specifically the western part of the island at Port Davey.

Critchley Parker was a righteous gentile who was in love with a Jewish woman - the journalist Caroline Isaacson.  In January 1941, Parker organized an expedition to Port Davey with Steinberg, Isaacson and scientists to survey the land to see if it was viable for a Jewish refuge in order to save European Jews from the Holocaust.  Parker returned by himself the next year and he died on the site, leaving behind a diary with visions of Le'Corbusier buildings and a stadium to hold the Tasmian games. The diary was given to Caroline Isaacson after having been found next to his body, however, it went missing for decades.  

Just one week before our departure we were notified by the The State Library of Victoria's Greg Gerrand (who is the coordinator of collections) that Tony Isaacson (Caroline's grandson)had donated the missing diary upon the death of his father.

The State Library of Victoria had a transcription of the diary but the original had been thought to be lost. Just two weeks before leaving on our trip to Australia, Louis found out that both Peter Isaacson and his sister Joan had past away in April of this year.  This made us feel like our timing was off because it would have been nice to meet the children of Caroline Isaacson.  However, our timing couldn't haven't been better because it turned out that Peter Isaacson had the diary all along.   Tony's donation happened just a few days before our departure to Melbourne and then on our second day we were able to see it.  So instead of working with the transcript that was made in 1997 (as we had expected), we got to inspect the original! It sent chills through me to see Critchley's handwriting and knowing that these were his last words.

It's all about the Gear

Just bought two camera bags for the big trip as well as two 360 cameras. One for stills and one for video- can't wait to get to the Kimberleys to start making content for our VR worlds. 

Hololens

Today we tried the Hololens at Microsoft in Mississauga Ontario ( about a 40 minute drive west of Toronto). I went in feeling quite skeptical about all the hype I had heard but left feeling like this might be the perfect HMD ( Head Mounted Display) for our project especially if we can use it in situ on the very land that Steinberg proposed for a Jewish refugee settlement. I couldn't help but get excited about travelling to the Kimberleys, donning the Hololens and seeing all of our models in situ. The perfect device on which to view all of the content we've been making over these last two years. Unlike the HTC Vive, this device allows you to see reality with added virtual content- true mix reality. For our purpose this is really fantastic, however, there are a ton of questions to be answered. Will the device work outside? Theoretically is should if it can scan trees or some other visible marker in the landscape that allows it to position you in the world. One major problem is that it won't work in daylight- liken it to how hard it is to work on a laptop or other device while in sunlight. However, we could use it at dusk. A lot to think about... The beauty of it is that it is untethered and we can do video capture of exactly what our eyes are seeing. The field of view doesn't include peripheral vision so there's still a letter box that augments appear within but with the right lighting the rectangle does seem to vanish, or at least it diminishes. We'll see if this is the one to use or if the HTC Vive is the way to go. In either case it will take a fair amount of development in Unity. More as it happens...

Australia, Summer 2017

We've plotted our trip to Australia this summer. We'll arrive in Melbourne on July 16th, head up to Darwin on July 20th, then head to our research site in the Kimberleys which is a town called Kununurra with a population of about five thousand. This is the centre of Durack cattle country, the seven million acres which was to be sold to the Freeland League. We'll stay in the region for two weeks to document the landscape, making 360 video for the backdrop of the virtual reality world,  test out some augmented reality and of course to meet some of the residents of Kununurra. I wonder how many have heard of the plan to turn this region into a Jewish refuge during WWII. We'll find out! After our leg in the Kimberleys we return to Melbourne to do research at the Victoria State Library and then we travel to Hobart, Tasmania to do further research on Critchley Parker Jr. and his idea to settle the Jews in Port Davey. More as it happens...

 

Go to Google Map of Australia Itinerary