A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

A wooden chakra (spinning wheel) sits on a box inside an orange sound booth. A silver microphone is placed above it and two figures stand either side with the figure on the right holding the chakra.

Sounding the Collection

Powerhouse Renewal

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

A tall rocket with a long trail of burning fuel lifts off from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

Photofields

Across Sydney6—7 Dec
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse 2023

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

Slider thumb2023
Stories

Sounding the Collection

A wooden chakra (spinning wheel) sits on a box inside an orange sound booth. A silver microphone is placed above it and two figures stand either side with the figure on the right holding the chakra.

Sounding the Collection was a response to the extensive digitisation project at Powerhouse which began in 2019, and set out to capture images of 338,000 items from the Powerhouse Collection, allowing for new levels of access. Sounding the Collection focuses on capturing the sonic possibilities of some of these objects.

An open door in a dark room allows a glimpse into an orange sound booth. Three figures dressed in black stand in and near the doorway, huddled around an object.

In the Powerhouse Collection stores in Castle Hill, over 18 months staff would audio record a selection of objects in a small, bright orange sound booth.

Amounting to over 100 recordings designed to be shared publicly, inviting artistic interpretation and collaboration. These recordings allow musicians, researchers and sound designers globally to repurpose and interpret them via a ‘sample pack’ – potentially finding their way into sonic identities, movie soundtracks, foley, pop songs and sound installations.

Sample Pack

Sounding the Collection x Ableton Cover Image

From an automated bird cage, and an art deco clock to toy robots, tuning forks and steam engines, Sounding the Collection is a sonic archive from Powerhouse that brings objects sitting silent in the collection to audition.

The archive hosts over 100 recordings designed to be shared publicly inviting artistic interpretation and collaboration into the sonic archive. These recordings allow musicians, researchers, and sound designers globally to repurpose and interpret them via a ‘sample pack’ – potentially finding their way into sonic identities, movie soundtracks, foley, pop songs, and sound installations.

Ableton Sample Pack

DownloadExternal link

Ableton Note Set

DownloadExternal link

Behind The Scenes

An open door in a dark room allows a glimpse into an orange sound booth. Three figures dressed in black stand in and near the doorway, huddled around an object.

In the Powerhouse Collection stores in Castle Hill, over 18 months staff would audio record a selection of objects in a small, bright orange sound booth.

Amounting to over 100 recordings designed to be shared publicly, inviting artistic interpretation and collaboration. These recordings allow musicians, researchers and sound designers globally to repurpose and interpret them via a ‘sample pack’ – potentially finding their way into sonic identities, movie soundtracks, foley, pop songs and sound installations.

Listen to Samples

From an automaton bird cage and an art deco clock to toy robots, tuning forks and steam engines, Sounding the Collection is a sonic archive from Powerhouse that brings objects sitting silent in the collection to audition.