The Hybrid Museum: Libraries as Collaborative Knowledge Makers

19th International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, Chau Chak Wing Museum; 24 September 2026

Abstract: UNSW Library’s Exhibitions Program bridges academic research and cultural collections to translate complex scholarly work into engaging exhibitions. This model, which we frame as a hybrid museum, defines a new mode of knowledge production by transforming the Library into an active cultural producer. Research is not confined to text-based outputs, instead, through exhibitions, it becomes visible, material, and shared.

We will present three case studies demonstrating how these projects establish a dynamic space for knowledge creation and discovery:

Materials Revolution (2025): A collaboration with the SMaRT Centre that drew together material science technologies with rare industrial texts. By integrating SMaRT Centre research directly into the exhibition infrastructure, the Library moved beyond simply discussing the circular economy to physically embodying it through a sustainable, eco-friendly design.

Living Water (2024): an interdisciplinary project synthesising insights from five different faculties. The Library served as a neutral environment where environmental challenges could be examined collaboratively, rather than within isolated academic frameworks.

Care is a Relationship (2023): Through partnership with the Black Dog Institute, the Library extended its work into the field of social practice. Clinical mental health data was translated into accessible public displays and workshops, demonstrating how research can be communicated in ways that resonate with diverse audiences.

These case studies demonstrate a powerful hybrid-museum model that leverages the Library’s centralised, neutral space to merge academic faculties (Science, Engineering, Law, Arts) with cultural collections. It is also an opportunity for students to encounter leading research and ideas outside their nominated disciplines. This turns abstract research into a shared, tangible experience, where knowledge is collaboratively co-authored by experts and made accessible to everyone. 

This presentation will offer a framework for other GLAMR institutions seeking to use hybrid spaces to facilitate dialogue and meaningful cross-institutional knowledge transfer. Through exhibitions, UNSW Library becomes an open, accessible site where diverse stakeholders are actively represented as knowledge holders and makers.

Curating collections, stories and impact: Exhibitions in Australian academic libraries

ALIA (Australian National 2026, Sydney, NSW; 14 May 2026

Abstract: Over the past decade, academic libraries in Australia have increasingly invested in exhibition-making teams and infrastructure. These growing exhibition programs represent a national shift in how academic libraries are positioning themselves within their university communities and to external audiences. As the role of exhibitions has expanded in library services, spaces and institutional identity, these programs have become important platforms for community engagement, scholarly communication and the discovery of unique collections.

This panel of library exhibition specialists from seven different universities across the country will explore this trend and discuss how the remit of exhibitions differs between their institutional contexts. Across these libraries, exhibitions span research showcases, archives, special collections and experiential learning. This panel will trace how these priorities have shifted over the past decade and offer a practical insight into what it means to curate a library exhibition in 2026.

Exhibiting Knowledge: An Experiential Approach to Research Engagement

ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) National 2026, Sydney, NSW; 13 May 2026

Abstract: UNSW Library’s Exhibitions Program bridges academic research and student engagement by collaborating with experts to translate complex scholarly work into engaging exhibitions. This approach not only makes research more accessible and understandable but also actively repositions our scholarly collections, including Special Collections, to create unique and enriching research, teaching, and learning experiences.

The Library’s program is underpinned by principles of inclusive pedagogies and sustainable practices, ensuring our initiatives are accessible to diverse learners. Our interactive, immersive exhibitions are evolving projects that generate new knowledge through community involvement. This approach allows a deeper, more dimensional exploration of themes for students. To further this, we leverage exhibitions as powerful educational tools by creating an Experiential Learning program, which is a hands-on, object-based learning initiative designed to develop critical literacy, analytical, and interpretive skills. We collaborate with academics to create workshops that directly link exhibition content to course outcomes, helping students deepen their understanding and allowing academics to assess critical thinking.

Our presentation will demonstrate this process through three recent case studies:
The exhibition Living Water exemplified our approach to making interdisciplinary research tangible. It brought together work from five faculties, connecting research across various environments and disciplines to showcase how scientists, engineers, artists, and policymakers address complex environmental challenges. We complemented this project with Deep Illustrations, a display featuring historical scientific illustrations and rare volumes from our Special Collections. The exhibitions enabled students to connect contemporary research with its historical lineage in scientific inquiry.

Similarly, the Materials Revolution exhibition showcased cutting-edge research from UNSW SMaRT Centre, revolutionising recycling science by developing innovative solutions for problematic wastes not subject to conventional recycling. To provide historical context, we presented displays at other Library sites featuring texts, diagrams, and illustrations from the Library’s collection to consider radical technological shifts from the 18th century to the present. The Industrial Revolution and Technological Revolution displays connected historical precedents with current scientific frontiers, offering students a layered understanding of innovation.

Our current exhibition, Revealing Riversleigh, focuses on UNSW’s world-leading palaeontological research in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. To enrich this narrative, we curated Drawn to Extinction, a display featuring rare historical illustrations and scientific drawings of the Tasmanian tiger. The display helped contextualise the Riversleigh fossils within the broader history of how we have documented and understood evolution, adaptation, and extinction. The projects encourage students to consider both the scientific process and the cultural aspects of knowledge creation, generating a powerful narrative about the fragility of life, and the importance of conservation efforts in the face of climate change.

This presentation will demonstrate how the UNSW Library’s Exhibitions Program is a powerful tool for community engagement and for transforming the perception and use of our scholarly collections. We create dynamic, immersive, and pedagogically sound experiences that enrich the research and learning ecosystem for the University community. Our Exhibitions Program highlights the significance of collections by drawing upon them to explore contemporary societal issues, creating a space for open dialogue and knowledge sharing.

From Lab to Gallery: Translating STEM Research into Recyclable Exhibition Assets

GLAMSLAM 2026, Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW; 23 April 2026.

Abstract: Integrating sustainable principles into exhibition design requires moving beyond thematic content to physically embodying the circular economy within the production process itself. The Materials Revolution exhibition at UNSW Library achieved this by translating SMaRT Centre research into functional display assets, replacing standard materials with recyclable elements such as 3D-printed e-waste clips and plinths made from reprocessed HDPE. This approach demonstrates how aligning STEM innovation with creative practice can transform the gallery into a demonstrable model for sustainability.

Sustainable Exhibition Design: Educating Through Eco-Friendly Practices

THETA (The Higher Education Technology Agenda) Conference Winds of Change, Perth, WA; 26 May 2025
↳ Audience Favourite Presentation Award; Richard D’Avigdor Conference Award 2024.

Abstract: UNSW Library’s Exhibitions Program, launched in 2017, collaborates with partners across the university to develop and stage exhibitions that highlight diverse research outcomes and collections. Exhibitions serve as powerful educational tools by providing interactive and engaging ways to present information and allowing students to engage with content in a hands-on manner. The Exhibitions Program establishes the Library as a cultural centre point on campus where students, researchers, and the broader community can connect. It is also an opportunity for students to encounter leading research and ideas outside their nominated disciplines.

In 2025, UNSW Library will present an exhibition developed with the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) to showcase Professor Veena Sahajwalla’s research that revolutionises recycling science and contributes to a more sustainable future. SMaRT technologies, including Green Steel and Green Ceramics, foster sustainable manufacturing practices and contribute to a circular economy. The exhibition will foreground SMaRT’s research and highly collaborative practical solutions that reframe thinking about waste to recognise the value in materials that were once discarded but can be re-manufactured into new products.

Our approach towards delivering an exhibition that educates audiences about recycling science and sustainability involves using eco-friendly materials, such as reclaimed or upcycled items, and recyclable products to minimise our environmental impact. While we regularly reuse frames and other display assets previously saved from becoming waste, we are exploring new ways of locally manufacturing didactic panels with materials utilised by SMaRT that can recycled at the show’s close. By adopting and integrating these strategies as a core component of the exhibition, we can reduce our carbon footprint while educating audiences about sustainable practices through demonstrable, real-world applications. 

UNSW Library’s engagement program for Care is a relationship was recognised with a Highly Commended Award at Museums & Galleries of NSW IMAGinE Awards 2024.

M&G NSW IMAGinE Awards 2024:

• IMAGinE Awards catalogue
• IMAGinE Awards winners
• IMAGinE Awards nominee
• Library team with award
• UNSW Library website
• Crafting Care Workshop series

< UNSW Library 2024 award

For the 2023 exhibition, Care is a relationship, UNSW Library worked in collaboration with Black Dog Institute and SPHERE to host a series of 3 workshops facilitated by artist-in-residence, Michele Elliot, that explored ideas of care and caregiving through craft. Work created in the sessions formed part of the collaborative artwork A Cloak of Care that evolved throughout the exhibition. In addition, there was a dedicated makerspace set up in the gallery where students could drop-in and participate at any time during Library opening hours. 

Project Team:

Michele Elliot, Artist-in-Residence
Jane Eliasson, Visual Communications & Publications Coordinator, UNSW Library
Megan R. Fizell, Curator, Special Collections & Exhibitions, UNSW Library
Jane Knowles, Associate Director, Research Collections and Exhibitions, UNSW Library
Emily Morandini, Exhibitions Coordinator, UNSW Library
Priya Vaughan, Post Doctoral Fellow, Black Dog Institute
Chloe Watfern, Policy Post Doctoral Fellow, Black Dog Institute

From Science to Art: Interdisciplinary Exhibitions at UNSW Library

ArlisANZ (Arts Libraries Society / Australia and New Zealand) 2024 Conference BEING SEEN, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney; 28 November 2024

Abstract: UNSW Library’s Exhibitions Program establishes the Library as a cultural centre point on campus where students, researchers, and the broader community intersect. It is also an opportunity for students to encounter leading research and ideas outside their nominated disciplines. 

This presentation will cover three recent exhibitions at UNSW Library, namely Sonus Maris (2023), Care is a relationship (2023) and Living Water (2024). These exhibitions draw on collaborative exhibition development and design methods to produce engaging multidisciplinary projects. UNSW’s key research outcomes address global challenges in fields like biomedical sciences, environmental sustainability, advanced materials, and social policy. We demonstrate how the Library’s Exhibitions Program gives visibility to this work by showcasing research that fuses art, science, and engineering through multisensory displays and related public programs such as talks, workshops, and object-based learning sessions. These collaborative exhibitions reconceptualise research by partnering with academics, creatives, and communities, making content accessible to a broader audience and creating connections between people, disciplines, and faculties across campus.

This project experiments with synaesthetic writing to test the potential of language to express the perceptual qualities present in multisensory art encounters.(1) Following the increased reliance on web-based media to present contemporary art during the COVID-19 pandemic, the project responds to the growing demand to develop and expand the ways institutions represent and describe artworks online. 

I began thinking about the sensory information omitted from web-based documentation of artworks in 2021 after seeing photographs of two scented artworks. First is a photograph of artist and curator Eleanor Zurwoski’s collaborative work That Feeling of Being Kneaded (2019) in the exhibition materials for A call to rise (2021) at Firstdraft, Gadigal land/Sydney.(2) Zurwoski’s installation includes a jar containing a live, 14-year-old sourdough starter. Having spent the previous year nurturing my own starter throughout successive COVID-19 lockdowns, memories from my own lived experience supplied the sour yeasty smell that was sure to accompany the installation. In this instance, my sense of sight intercommunicated with my sense of smell to furnish the missing sensory aspects of the artwork, thus highlighting the important role memory plays in perception. 

Second is artist Brydie Greedy’s MFA work in the 2021 Postgrad Show at the National Art School (NAS). The photograph posted by NAS depicts a white cloud suspended in the middle of a gallery space amongst curved stretched canvases.(3) The caption simply describes it as an immersive scent installation and notably omits details about the sensory experience of the work. I was left wondering what it smelled like and if it involved other sensory impressions when walking through the mist. Could you feel droplets on the skin? Did it feel wet or cold? Did the scent linger on the body throughout the rest of the day? Did the cloud billow and move, swirling around and away from bodies as audiences moved through the space? Or was the artwork largely invisible when near, like the way flying through clouds causes them to disappear?

With these questions in mind, I became curious to see if language could be used to convey the haptic, sonic, olfactory, and gustatory dimensions of art. Thinking about how a description of a meal can cause one’s mouth to salivate or how an image of food can invoke an impression of its taste, I set out to explore the potential of synaesthetic perception to produce cross-modal correspondences (or intercommunication) between the senses as a means to facilitate a deeper understanding of an object. Artists experimenting and exhibiting multisensory art expand the parameters of art beyond visual experience alone. The active participation required for the perception of sensory art practices configures the viewer as embodied; audiences are not merely seeing the artwork but tasting, touching, smelling, and sometimes hearing the materials that make up the work. 

I began by researching the application of creative language in audio descriptions to make images accessible to audiences who cannot visually perceive them. When drafting text to describe art for audiences who are blind, partially sighted, or who have low-vision, writers sometimes use similes and poetic language to draw comparisons and vivify the art forms. For example, by describing the colours of orange, yellow, or green as citrusy, one can get a sense of the brightness of the hue by correlating it with the acidic taste. Similarly, describing grey as smoky grey can evoke a multitude of sensations; the light brush of a wisp of smoke, the suffocating miasma of thick choaking smog, or the acrid smell of bushfires. Important to this form of descriptive language is the reader’s prior experience, if they do not have a sensory-related memory of a citrusy taste or smell of smoke, the expressive comparisons do not contribute toward their perception of the artwork.

The senses also have the potential to intercommunicate in a phenomenon is known as synaesthesia; a condition whereby the stimulation of one sense can involuntary trigger an unrelated sensory reaction. Philosopher André Abath makes a distinction between what he calls ‘synaesthesia proper’ and ‘sensory union’. To define synaesthesia proper, Abath cites the work of neurologist Richard Cytowic who describes the phenomenon as “the rare capacity to hear colors, taste shapes, or experience other equally startling sensory blendings whose quality seems difficult for most of us to imagine.”(4) Notable in this form of synaesthesia the arbitrariness of the sensory blending. There are no conventions or formulas to chart the sensory blendings of synaesthesia proper, each sensory linkage is unique to the individual.

Abath’s second form of synaesthesia, called ‘sensory union’, is a relatively commonplace occurrence. To describe sensory union, Abath gives examples of our tendency to correlate certain colours as warmer or cooler (a union between sight and touch) or the sound of words like ‘bouba’ or ‘kiki’ with rounded or jagged shapes respectively.(5) In the literary arts, this is known as linguistic or metaphorical synesthesia. By focusing on sensory language that speaks to the five human senses and by combining the descriptive words to generate synaesthetic pairings like ‘chilly gaze’ or ‘loud colour’, the following two case studies will seek to generate cross-sensory exchanges through the written descriptions.

Case Study 1: Monica Rani Rudhar, I Cook A Lot Of All These Foods (2022)

Sensory keywords: scratchy, cushioned, hushed, toasty, spicy, earthy, pristine, quiet, muted, symmetric, warm, astringent, camphoric, formal, soft, pale, homely, mottled, ornate, resplendent, spacious, tapering, triangular, stillness, static

Synaesthetic pairings: warm earthy (touch – smell), quiet formality (sound – vision), hushed softness (sound – touch), mottled perfume (vision – smell), gentle murmur (touch – sound) 

Audiences enter Monica Rani Rudhar’s full-room installation, I Cook A Lot Of All These Foods (2022), shoeless, the soles of their feet receptive to the texture and sensations of the stiff carpet fibres. A hushed softness blankets the room, the lace curtains admitting a diffused light and the gentle murmur of voices and sounds of food preparation filling the space. The polished wood furniture lends a quiet formality to the domestic scene, and the scent of toasted spices hangs in the air, the warm earthy smell forming a mottled perfume with the odour of mothballs.

Case Study 2: erincox and blackwd, Our bodies are the instruments (2022)*

* Notably, the artist statement for Our bodies are the instruments addresses the correlation between sound and shape: “Many of us relate sounds with shape and size, envisioning deep bass sounds with larger forms and high sharp sounds with slight.”(6)

Sensory keywords: tinkle, loud, cacophony, din, dissonance, echo, angular, radiating, rippling, shimmer, sparkly, harmonic, pinging, singing, vibrating, shifting, reverberation, strumming, throbbing, streaming, flowing, still, frozen 

Synaesthetic pairings: frozen pose (touch – vision), shimmering harmonies (vision – sound), rippling dissonance (vision – sound), twinkling vibrations (sound – touch)

The bodies filtered and processed through erincox and blackwd’s algorithm in Our bodies are the instruments (2022) generate twinkling vibrations that enable audiences to hear and feel their three-dimensionality. After pressing a glowing green button, subjects move into position while a camera digitally captures their silhouette. The screen, revealing their frozen pose, depicts the sonified data running like raindrops along the contours of their digital body. The score shifts from shimmering harmonies to a rippling dissonance as the digitised notes hit the contorted figures.

(1) This paper draws on research about synaesthesia and the senses from my PhD. See Megan R. Fizell, “Gastronomic Body: Sensory and sociocultural dimensions of food art,” (PhD dissertation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2021).
(2) Hannah Jenkins, “Making and breaking bread with Eleanor Zurowski,” Firstdraft, accessed 11 June 2021, https://firstdraft.org.au/news/making-and-breaking-bread-with-eleanor-zurowski. 
(3) National Art School (@nas_au), “As part of The Postgrad Show 2021, MFA student Brydie Greedy (@greedy________) is presenting a multi-sensory experience throughout the duration of the exhibition,” Instagram, 24 January 2022, accessed 24 January 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/CZF7616vnqN/. 
(4) Richard Cytowic, quoted in André J. Abath, “Merleau-Ponty and the Problem of Synaesthesia,” in Sensory Blending: On Synaesthesia and related phenomena, ed. Ophelia Deroy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 152.
(5) Abath, “Merleau-Ponty and the Problem of Synaesthesia,” 152.
(6) “A(Di)pology,” Firstdraft, accessed 16 December 2022, https://firstdraft.org.au/s/2022-Roomsheets_LGFAC_Updated.pdf.

Project Proposal: This project begins by posing the question, what would sensory closed captioning look like, sound like, or feel like? By responding to the growing theoretical and curatorial interest in sensory art, this project aims to develop ways to convey the haptic, sonic, olfactory, and gustatory dimensions of art through experimental writing. I will explore the potential of synaesthetic perception to produce cross-modal correspondences (or intercommunication) between the senses as a means to facilitate a deeper understanding of an object. An example of this in practice is how a description of a meal can cause one’s mouth to salivate or how an image of food can invoke an impression of its taste.

The project will respond to upcoming Firstdraft exhibitions that feature sensory art to experiment with synaesthetic writing in art criticism. With many arts organisations now including written captions alongside Instagram posts and other visual media, I see this project sitting alongside the increasing drive to encourage accessibility across the arts sector. The project will test the potential of language to express intersensory exchanges while generating an approach to produce sensory closed captioning. 

Project Outcome:

Feeling images and sensing words (2023).

Case Study 1: Monica Rani Rudhar, I Cook A Lot Of All These Foods (2022)

Case Study 2: erincox and blackwd, Our bodies are the instruments (2022)

Exhibition: Aftertaste, 15 April to 12 August 2023
Location: Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, Cabrogal/Fairfield
Public Programs: A Seat at the Table: Aftertaste Community Day
Date: 15 July 2023, 10-4pm
FCMG Programs Officer: San May

After Adelaide Hendle: Anzac biscuit mou(u)rning tea with Lindsay Kelley 

An artist talk and Anzac biscuit tasting with Lindsay Kelley (10:30 am – 11:30 am)

Takeaway Recreations with Siying Zhou

A lunchtime workshop led by Siying Zhou to transform selected Chinese takeaways purchased from local Fairfield restaurant, Lai Sun, into dishes that represent participants’ culture or history (12:00 – 2:00 pm)

The Origins of Sweet and Sour Pork with Jane Fan

Learn the history of Chinese sweet & sour pork through a cooking demonstration and tasting (1:00 pm – 3:00 pm)

Learning from hydrosols with Justine Youssef

Justine Youssef guided participants in distilling a scented oil from plants collected on the grounds of FCMG (2:00 pm – 2:40 pm)

Lebanese Coffee & Diaspora Stories with Reanne Chidiac

Reanne Chidiac invited guests to share their stories over Lebanese coffee and sweets (3:00 pm – 3:40 pm). The event began a live demonstration on how to prepare Lebanese coffee and included a reading of Chidiac’s story “Arabizi” published in the anthology “Between Two Worlds”.