Star Voyager

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Paul Minifie and Johan van Schaik (as principals of MvS Architects) produced the exhibition design for 'Star Voyager' ACMI. This was a major exhibition charting the history and future of space exploration as experienced through the moving image. This exhibition design project is critical part of Minifie and Van Schaik's architectural practice, following the tradition of architects such as Charles and Ray Eames, Lily Reich, Carlo Scarpa and Le Corbusier who produced exhibition design as part of their ouevre. This project was an exploratory design process beyond conventional architectural constraints, emphasising instead design as communication strategy. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project explored the link between space exploration, its representation on screen, and its impact on the collective memory, to re-imagine space exploration as an immersive spatial experience. The design strategy for a large collection of artefacts and footages explicitly drew on spatial configurations, artefacts, as well as motifs space exploration. The design worked with simple techniques and frugal materials to create evocative experiences, including NASA artefacts such as a camera that had actually been on the moon, a series of commissioned and curated artworks about space, a collection of space suits, books, images, record covers, a 3D interactive tour across the surface of MARS and a terrarium for oxygen production. The visitors' spatial experience was curated as a series of dramatic moments framing these artefacts. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Minifie and Van Schaik were competitively commissioned based on the presentation of the design concept to the ACMI curators. The exhibition design process was discussed at an ACMI public form, and featured on ACMI's website and the exhibition catalogue. The design was a finalist at the Melbourne Design Awards for 'Installation Design - Exhibit' in 2012.