create / curate

Stephanie Liddicoat

Studio Outline:

The studio asks students to interrogate preconceived notions of architecture and unpack these through the vehicle of exhibition design. Through real client engagement with artists and exhibition management students, you will be designing a series of exhibitions at different scales, culminating in a final design project at a public scale. The work will explore the situation of exhibition design within a broader theoretical and cultural-historical framework and develop an architectural vocabulary that respects the dynamism and narrative components of curation. Students will develop skills in relation to spatial narratives, critically approaching the role of design in relation to human behaviour, client engagement and response to design briefs, and reflective practice in refining a design response and evaluating design ideas.

Studio Leaders

STEPHANIE LIDDICOAT graduated with a Master of Architecture, with her final thesis examining the design of environments for mental health; her PhD thesis explored this further, developing design strategies for this field. Stephanie has several years experience working in architectural practice in Melbourne, and has been teaching and lecturing at the University of Melbourne at masters level since 2010. Stephanie has experience in engagement with creative disciplines through several research projects for conferences and journals, many of which examined the intersection of architecture with art, interior design, exhibition, cinematography and atmosphere.

Learning Outcomes:

The studio explores exhibition design firstly at a small scale, with visits to archives and the making of critical responses to this. Students will all design and install an exhibition of their own at the Grainger Museum, an excellent opportunity to interact with curators and have an exhibition on their resume. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in a series of talks as part of the exhibition. The final format of the work is a fully developed exhibition design proposal for the Science Gallery Melbourne. This is completed in collaboration with input from the School of Culture and Communication and the Faculty of Biosciences. There will also be input from curators and exhibition designers to assist in developing the work. This studio has been structured to emphasise the process of research through design and includes opportunities to experiment across mediums, to generate work quickly and critically, and to promote reflection on the work produced in order to refine it.

Reading and Reference:

• Basu, Paul and MacDonald, Sharon, Exhibition Experiments (Blackwell, 2017).
• Rouette, Georgia, Exhibitions: A Practical Guide for Small Museums and Galleries (Museums Australia, 2007).
• Lord, B and Lord, G, The Manual of Museum Exhibition (Alta Mira, 2001).
• Colin St John Wilson, Architectural Reflections: Studies in the Philosophy and Practice of Architecture (Elsevier Science: 1992), vii – xvi & 1-19.
• Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Orion Press, 1964).
• Koh, Rachel and Tan, Stacey, Haute Spaces: Exhibitions (Dopress Books, 2011).

Field Trip

DATE: Week 2
COST: $0

ST1/01 Monday 3:15pm - 6:15pm, MSD Room 240
ST2/01 Thursday 10:00am - 1:00pm, MSD Room 240

Contact Handbook Key Dates