MELBOURNE CENTRAL SHOPPING HUB | MELBOURNE | AUSTRALIA | 2010

A SIX MONTH CREATIVE RESEARCH RESIDENCY IN SHOP 308

Presented, curated and activated by: Caroline Vains, Lynda Roberts, Anthony McInneny as The Department of Counter Culture

Some key projects:

RelationScapes | Design Studio

The Counter Point Program | State of Design Festival 2010

Ecstatic Relationality | Performance-Design, State of Design, opening night

Site Writing workshop & Writing around the Kitchen Table symposium | with Prof. Dr Jane Rendell (Bartlett University, UK)

Refer dedicated tabs on this website for more on each of these projects.

workSHOP was the name of a 6-month design research residency
conducted in a shopfront in Melbourne Central Shopping Centre during 2010. It was a studio, library, exhibition, meeting and presentation space. It investigated and challenged consumer behaviour and commodity
exchange through design works, interventions, screenings and talks.

workSHOP was conceived, curated, programmed, hosted and activated by The Department of Counter Culture (Caroline Vains, Lynda Roberts, Anthony McInneny). We proposed an alternate economy, one that focused on cultural and social capital. We aimed to foster alternate modes of social relations within an otherwise strictly commercial environment.

As part of Melbourne’s annual 10-day State of Design Festival, workSHOP hosted a creative hub called Counter Point on the pedestrian bridge over busy Latrobe Street, in the retail heart of Melbourne city. The hub included three exhibitions, a series of speaker evenings called Here-Say, a library, and a fashion parade.

The workSHOP residency and its projects aimed to bring the social (people, programs) and the spatial together in an urban intervention in order to foster an ethos of relationality.

The project was supported by Melbourne Central Shopping Centre (GPT Group), RMIT University Design Research Institute (DRI), RMIT University School of Architecture & Design, and RMIT University School of Art.

Top photo shows view through shopfront out into mall, photo by Lynda Roberts