Award of Merit:

Monash University XYX Lab for Keep Running

XYX Lab is a team of experienced designers and design researchers exploring gender-sensitive design practices and theory. Our work operates at the intersection of gender, identity, urban space and advocacy. Through our research and practice, we bring together planners, policy makers, local government and stakeholders to make tangible the experiences of underrepresented communities in urban space and planning. 

XYX Lab is grounded in feminist and queer theory and activated through real-world projects. Equal parts qualitative and quantitative research, we regularly work to collect and analyse data and experiences in order to generate deeper understanding and support our design projects. Our approach is inclusive of all gender and sexual identities. Building equity into urban life requires long-term vision and a strategic – often radical – approach to the design process. We do not seek quick-fix design solutions, but rather seek to offer insights and create moments that contribute towards a larger movement for change.

About the Project

In Late 2021 Monash University XYX Lab were invited by the curators of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) to contribute to their upcoming exhibition, 'Who’s Afraid of Public Space?' (4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022). Leveraging the success of 'HyperSext City' in early 2021— and intersecting our design approach with recent research completed in the 'YourGround' project — the team knew that it could deliver a unique, highly topical and recently researched contribution to the exhibition. In particular the ACCA curatorial team were keen that our contribution would externalise the exhibition, linking the carefully curated spaces inside the show, to the more dynamic, unstructured dialogue of the exterior sites of the city. 

Our contribution, 'Keep Running', extends XYX Lab’s ongoing local and international applied research into gendered spatial inequality, but in unique and publicly accessible ways. It draws attention to the experiences of women and gender-diverse communities by presenting crowd-sourced data and intersectional narratives of gender that affect how public spaces are accessed and occupied. 

While a polished, single A0 poster resides in the ACCA exhibition space, it is the externalised series of poster and billboard interventions on the streets of greater Melbourne that provokes important dialogue around women and gender-diverse people’s right to access public space, and the conditions that cultivate fear and risk. Dynamic graphic representations of statistics concerning the realities of urban [un]safety are augmented by powerful statements drawn from recent, real lived experiences that capture everyday challenges of navigating public spaces that are shaped by a dominant (hetero)sexism. 

In this way the surfaces and sites of the city that all people access are activated to amplify the voices and experiences of a diverse range of people whose concerns are frequently unheard or trivialised. Keep Running is a call to action for communities to develop an understanding of safety and risk in our city, and an opportunity for audiences to consider their own lived experience and/or to develop their understanding, allyship and empathy.

Category: Interact

Designers and Project Team:
Dr Gene Bawden
Dr Nicole Kalms
Dr Gill Matthewson
Isabella Webb
Dr Jess Berry
Dr Timothy Moore