WHAT IF faces from the past were visible again, watching us in our streets and laneways?

Unguarded Moments was a multi-site installation that used digital projection and sound to explore the documentary archives of Millers Point and Walsh Bay, captured on film, in photographs, and through oral histories and actuality sound recordings.

In this way, we used new technology to re-inscribe the history of the working port, its waterside workers and its residents back into its present day environment, connecting us to the area’s living history and the ties existing within the community today.

Working with the City of Sydney also enabled us to connect with past and present residents of Millers Point, through a series of community workshops in which we invited people to contribute photos that connected them to the area through time.

We were generously supported in this endeavour by the National Film and Sound Archive (with a particular credit to Simon Drake), the State Records Office and the State Library of NSW. The Maritime Union of Australia gave us permission to use original documentary film footage produced in the 1950s by the union's former film unit, the Waterside Workers Film Federation Unit.

You can check out the original website we set up for the project over here.