Focus & Blur

Focus & Blur explores the extraction and augmentation of atmospheric effects within existing architectural space. Three experiential installations designed by graduate researcher Anneke Prins, Fragment, Fracture, and Fuse, will be presented over the course of the exhibition. Through reflection, refraction and shadow the installations will transform the lower basement of the Melbourne School of Design, acting to shift human perception and experience.

This exhibition is an active research project as part of an ongoing PhD in Architecture, Building and Planning entitled Actualising the Virtual: Re-engaging the Sensing Body Within Architectural Space Through the Manipulation of Atmospheres. The research is concerned with the human body and ephemeral experiences in architecture. It aims to discover how we can create or curate tangible atmospheres within existing architectural space. Anneke will be on site throughout the exhibition on specific days to observe viewer responses; documented through drawings, photography and film. Further information can be found HERE.

Focus & Blur opens 16 September and closes 3 October

1. Fragment 16 September to 19 September
2. Fracture 23 September to 26 September
3. Fuse 30 September to 3 October

[Exhibition closed each Friday]

Research Observation

Monday 9 - 11am, 1 - 3pm, 4 - 6pm
Tuesday 12.30 - 2pm
Wednesday 1 - 2.30pm
Thursday 10am - 12pm, 3 - 5pm

You may opt out of the photography and/or filming and may withdraw from the research at any time by discussing with the researcher on site during the observation times or contacting the researcher at anneke.prins@unimelb.edu.au

Please consider attending the exhibition outside of observation times listed should you wish to view the installations without participating in the research.

This research is funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and a University of Melbourne ABP Graduate Research Creative Work and Exhibition Grant.

Artist Bio:
Anneke Prins is an architecture graduate researcher, interdisciplinary artist and designer, and design educator from New Zealand who is currently researching and teaching in Melbourne.

Through drawing, photography, sculpture and experiential installation her research explores the human body and its experience of atmosphere; aiming to discover how we can curate tangible atmospheric experiences within architecture. She is developing this research as a PhD in Architecture, Building and Planning candidate at The University of Melbourne with the guidance of her supervisors Professor Paul Walker and Dr Alex Selenitsch.

Her sculptural work has been displayed within the Melbourne School of Design and Victoria University of Wellington, activating disused and unassuming spaces through spatially affective design. Focus & Blur is her first exhibition.