What does 2018 hold for contemporary arts? Let’s start this new year the right way. The Australian Parliament commences its new year on the week beginning Monday 5 February, with both Houses sitting for four days. At the same time, artists across Australia are showing work in independent and state-owned galleries; in public and unconventional spaces; and in studios and online. Each one of these exhibitions offers perspectives on contemporary Australia that are sensitive and complex, timely and u...
Feb 23, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Everyone loves coffee, but what's the science behind the perfect morning cuppa? This special MMeets event, presented by La Trobe University, brought together a physicist (Dr David Hoxley) and a coffee scientist (Dr Monika Fekete) to explore what makes coffee taste the way it does. Audience members were invited to 'pour over' the science of coffee in this interactive morning workshop, complete with crowd tasting (and scoring!) for adults and curious kids alike. The workshop started with a present...
Feb 23, 2018•38 min
Since 2003, Architects for Peace have pioneered a mission of sustainable urban development based on social justice, solidarity, respect and peace. Listen as they lead this talk about the history and importance of democratic public spaces in urban environments, examining the necessity of places that are free and open to all members of the public and how such spaces foster a sense of community—critical for the reason that humans are said to be making fewer real life connections. Looking at relevan...
Feb 06, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Narrative is a potent source for critical reflection and the dissemination of alternative knowledge and awareness. Narrative possesses a powerful capacity to affect change. And though fiction has been embraced within wider design communities, it continues to hold a peripheral position within mainstream architectural teaching and practice. This one-of-a-kind MTalks explores the role of architecture as storyteller at community levels—considering diverse cultural, LGBTQIA+, gender-nonconforming and...
Feb 06, 2018•1 hr 2 min
PLEASE NOTE: This recording was cut short and is incomplete. It has been edited. Your walls can talk, so what are they saying to your body and mind? Melbourne design, architecture and medicine collided in this exciting event that looked beyond functional approaches to consider health and wellbeing. Join a panel of medical and design experts as they explore the power of design in our devices and living spaces—from homes to workplaces to hospitals and more. Curated by Jo Simkin, senior curator of ...
Feb 06, 2018•27 min
Swimming, floating, playing in the Yarra River (Birrarung)? Nope, we’re not joking—currently in Melbourne, a number of community-led projects are working hard to activate the Yarra’s inner-city reaches. Though each of the projects are different, they all have one aim in common: to restore the river so it can be used for on- and in-water activities that can a) benefit health and wellbeing, b) drive investment to green infrastructure, and c) attract more people to our beautiful, vibrant city. Thes...
Feb 06, 2018•48 min
Swimming, floating, playing in the Yarra River (Birrarung)? Nope, we’re not joking—currently in Melbourne, a number of community-led projects are working hard to activate the Yarra’s inner-city reaches. Though each of the projects are different, they all have one aim in common: to restore the river so it can be used for on- and in-water activities that can a) benefit health and wellbeing, b) drive investment to green infrastructure, and c) attract more people to our beautiful, vibrant city. Thes...
Feb 06, 2018•42 min
Philosopher? Furniture designer? City planner? Generally bored and confused by stuff? This extra-special MMeets is for you. Welcome to the Flat Pack Philosophy Circle: an active thinking space that aims to create an environment in which we can safely engage in conversation and ask questions in the spirit of wisdom, free from the stylised antagonism modelled by our politicians and usual talking heads. Led by Amy Rudder, this conversation invited the public to pull up a seat and free philosophy fr...
Feb 06, 2018•50 min
Author, illustrator and founder of Melbournestyle, Maree Coote reads from Robyn Boid: Architect, her most recent illustrated book. Robyn Boid: Architect tells the story of a small, dedicated bird who loves to build nests and dreams of becoming an architect. A gentle introduction to the world of architecture, kids will love learning about different architectural shapes and what makes good design, while following along with this encouraging tale of creative achievement paired with involved illustr...
Feb 06, 2018•19 min
Signal is a creative studio that provides emerging and established artists with opportunities and spaces for exploration, creation and showcasing. In this MTalks, hear the Signal Young Curators as they drop by MPavilion to chat with artists from the Signal Summer Program about their inspirations, creative processes and careers: featuring a dizzying bunch of artists including Yandell Walton, Amy Jo Jory, Michael Fikaris and more.
Jan 29, 2018•57 min
Beekeeper and artist Nic Dowse is joined by artist Zhu Ohmu, both of multi-disciplinary Honey Fingers Collective, for an MTalks that explores our human relationship with nature. This discussion explores how urban beekeeping—and making things like insect hotels, swarm traps, possum boxes and bee hives—can teach us new ways to think about non-human beings, urban ecologies, urban food webs and the city-versus-nature divide. Nic and Zhu will guide us through the notions that getting involved in acti...
Jan 29, 2018•52 min
In January 2018, Soft Baroque—a.k.a. London-based creative duo Saša Štucin and Nicholas Gardner—brought their tentacular manipulations of interior design, furniture design and visual art to MPavilion with Foamy Feeling, an installation created specifically for Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten / OMA’s amphitheatre-inspired MPavilion 2017. In this one-off artist talk, Saša and Nicholas appeared in conversation with MPavilion’s Jessie French, ruminating on the origins of their collaboration, their ...
Jan 29, 2018•25 min
Common Good is a major design exhibition opening in March 2018 at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. The exhibition explores the diversity of design practice from the Asia-Pacific region, through an expansive selection of innovative projects including material explorations, contemporary craft, video game design, speculative practice and large-scale architectural interventions. In this star-studded MTalks event, Common Good curator Keinton Butler led a panel of internationally rec...
Jan 29, 2018•1 hr 20 min
Having a baby changes your perception of the city. Suddenly, things become less accessible: trams are difficult to lift a pram into, there’s no space in your favourite cafe to change a nappy and events happen at night while you soothe your baby to sleep—and so the trials of new parenthood are mostly screened off from public view. (Some public institutions do offer parenting facilities, but they’re usually hidden away next to the toilets.) Collaborative duo Guest, Riggs will invert this private s...
Jan 29, 2018•1 hr 20 min
With Trump leading a war on reality in the United States, Pauline Hanson staging #BurqaGate closer to home, and Tony Abbott suggesting he could be drafted back into leadership, the volatile and often unthinkable year of 2017 has been one for the history books. Join esteemed journalist and chief political correspondent for The Conversation, Michelle Grattan, and The Conversation‘s politics editor, Amanda Dunn, as they take centre-stage in the MPavilion amphitheatre to discuss the key political mo...
Dec 19, 2017•1 hr 3 min
Our MTalks series meets Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)’s Boiler Room series as MUMA presents a lecture by artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, coinciding with their participation in the international exhibition The humours at MUMA from 7 October to 16 December 2017. Mary Reid Kelley combines painting, performance and distinctive wordplay-rich poetry in graphically stylised black-and-white videos. Made in collaboration with her partner Patrick Kelley, her videos playfully jumble h...
Dec 19, 2017•33 min
Our MTalks series meets Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)’s Boiler Room series as MUMA presents a lecture by artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, coinciding with their participation in the international exhibition The humours at MUMA from 7 October to 16 December 2017. Mary Reid Kelley combines painting, performance and distinctive wordplay-rich poetry in graphically stylised black-and-white videos. Made in collaboration with her partner Patrick Kelley, her videos playfully jumble h...
Dec 19, 2017•32 min
Join us at MPavilion for an exploration of the potential intersections of landscape architecture and deliberative development, presented by AILA Cultivate—a committee of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) that aims to expand ideas of landscape architecture beyond traditional practice. Deliberative development, a designer-led development process introduced to mainstream Melbourne by Nightingale Housing, is introducing a new vocabulary of spaces to Melbourne’s suburbs. Deliber...
Dec 19, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Having a baby changes your perception of the city. Suddenly, things become less accessible: trams are difficult to lift a pram into, there’s no space in your favourite cafe to change a nappy and events happen at night while you soothe your baby to sleep—and so the trials of new parenthood are mostly screened off from public view. (Some public institutions do offer parenting facilities, but they’re usually hidden away next to the toilets.) Collaborative duo Guest, Riggs will invert this private s...
Dec 19, 2017•1 hr
Having a baby changes your perception of the city. Suddenly, things become less accessible: trams are difficult to lift a pram into, there’s no space in your favourite cafe to change a nappy and events happen at night while you soothe your baby to sleep—and so the trials of new parenthood are mostly screened off from public view. (Some public institutions do offer parenting facilities, but they’re usually hidden away next to the toilets.) Collaborative duo Guest, Riggs will invert this private s...
Dec 19, 2017•56 min
In this Monday night MTalks, Contemporary Art Organisations Australia (CAOA) brings together an esteemed panel of speakers to explore the present-day visual arts ecology from the perspective of independent, not-for-profit, and artist-run sectors. Independent visual arts organisations occupy a space in the arts ecology—at the intersection of production and development—that necessitates a responsive and agile approach. Considering this unique position, how can the sector maintain equilibrium in a ...
Dec 19, 2017•1 hr 8 min
With the long-held title of ‘world’s most liveable city’, Melbourne regularly attracts international interest as an economically viable space for exploration. In the eighties and nineties, an appetite for the international architectural elite drew the likes of I.M. Pei and Kisho Kurokawa to Melbourne. More recently, OMA—and its research arm, AMO—turned its attention towards Australia, describing it as the next frontier of architectural opportunity and possibility. In Melbourne, we’re fortunate t...
Dec 19, 2017•1 hr 23 min
Good design is essential for creating sustainable, inclusive, healthy and beautiful places, but can we actually measure ‘good design’? And if so, how should this influence how we design places? The Office of the Victorian Government Architect brings us a fast-paced MTalks panel discussion exploring the tangible and intangible benefits of good design for health, education, public spaces, transport and neighbourhoods. For each of these themes, a design champion in government-led projects and a des...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Our current historical moment is one of profound global friction and uncertainty. From the ugly spectre of heightened tension in the Korean peninsula, underlined by the threat of nuclear weapons, to US President Donald Trump’s recent threats to drop the Iran Deal, the grave threat of nuclear conflict looms worryingly large. In the face of these perilous times, the growing imperative of a coordinated global ban on nuclear weapons is undeniable. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, the Internati...
Dec 10, 2017•53 min
New for MPavilion 2017: Friday night debates. We put leading and emerging minds in architecture behind the microphones and pit them head-to-head in a series of debates on architecture. On this Friday night, a six-person panel of established architects considers a critical issue in Australia today: affordable housing. The proposition posits: Is affordable housing just for the middle class? How can existing development methods and alternative housing options offer solutions to this zeitgeist dilem...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Join Alexis Wright, award-winning author of Carpentaria and The Swan Book, in conversation with Readings bookseller Chris Dite to speak about her new book Tracker: Stories of Tracker Tilmouth—to be launched by Indigenous activist Jacqui Katona. Tracker is a collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker and entrepreneur Tracker Tilmouth, who died in Darwin in 2015 at the age of 62. Tracker was a visionary, a strategist and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irrever...
Dec 10, 2017•30 min
The ‘smart’ city, the ‘liveable’ city, the ‘sustainable’ city—are these empty concepts, utopian metaphors or strategic objectives? And can cities be all these things at the same time, or are they dynamic emergent services that cities strive to provide their citizens? This panel discussion—curated by Swinburne University of Technology and moderated by Peter Graham, deputy director of Swinburne’s Centre for Urban Transitions—will address these issues by focussing on the concept of a ‘responsive’ c...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr 27 min
In the midst of the Australian government’s widely criticised postal plebiscite on marriage equality, the ‘Yes’ campaign mobilised thousands of people—many involved in a political campaign for the first time in their lives. Now that the ‘yes’ result is in, where will these energies turn after the poll? And what will be the marriage equality movement’s next priorities? In this special MTalks session, ABC broadcaster and anthropologist Sally Warhaft will facilitate a discussion with Dennis Altman,...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr
The drive towards smart cities is accelerating all over the world, with governments and private enterprises becoming increasingly eager to take part in the technology-driven push for more sustainable, efficient, clean and safe cities. But where does the ‘smart citizen’ come into the picture? This public forum will explore a citizen-centric view of smart cities, looking at how interaction designers, architects, software engineers and interactive media specialists can create opportunities and shap...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr 14 min
Macau has undergone major shifts over the past 500 years. From merchant port of refuge and gateway for Jesuit missionaries to a 20th-century modernist Portuguese province—it has always been a place traversed by poets and artists. The Macau of today is a phantasmagoric site for gambling that rivals Las Vegas. Come down to MPavilion for an enlightening conversation between artist John Young, novelist Brian Castro and writer/curator and Honorary Fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts, Universi...
Nov 25, 2017•44 min
