Science Gallery Melbourne will be a bold addition to our city, exploring the collision of art and science, and playing a vital role in shifting our understanding of science, art and innovation. Part of the acclaimed Global Science Gallery Network, and embedded in the University of Melbourne, the Gallery will be a dynamic new model for engaging 15-25 year olds with science. The Gallery will open in 2020 as part of a new innovation precinct being developed by the University of Melbourne on the corner of Grattan and Swanston Streets. Mental - the first series of events and installation experiences staged in their new building - will explore the theme of mental health.

This studio will be a collaboration between Industrial Design and Communication Design students and will explore current mental health issues facing young people today. By engaging with experiences of young people with mental health issues and experts in this space, the designers will propose speculative experiences that aim to raise awareness, stimulate discussion and build resilience in young people. The projects will also aim to fulfil the charter of the Science Gallery to be on the cutting edge, where science, art and design collide to create challenging, intriguing and mind expanding experiences.

The studio will provide an opportunity to gain experience in multi-disciplinary collaboration and to apply co-design and human centred design methodologies to the field of mental health.

The research phase will be group based and apply collaborative methods to define the brief and develop design led opportunities to communicate and promote awareness of current mental health issues facing young people.

This studio will involve group research, collaborative ideation, visualising and prototyping experiences that unpack and expose current mental health issues. Students will propose design led activations, experiences and installations for the Science Gallery context.

Students will be required to present research findings and group developed concepts and prototypes. Final individual project outcomes will be presented to a panel comprising designers, academics, mental health experts and representatives of the Science Gallery.

Students will initially work in groups to research mental health and gain a first hand understanding of the mental health challenges facing young people today. Themes such as anxiety, depression, self harm, disengagement from school, impact of social media, the role of sleep, diet and exercise, identity formation and sexuality may be explored through this design-led research.

Students will build on their design-led research to propose and develop projects that range across experiences, prototypes, installations, events and services designed for the Science Gallery context.

Brief 1: Human centred research
Brief 2: Design project
Brief 3: SKO

1. Nigel Cross. (2007). Designerly Ways of Knowing (1 edition). Basel; London: Birkhauser-Architecture.
2. Dorst, Kees, and Nigel Cross. 'Creativity in the Design Process: Co-evolution of Problem-Solution.' Design Studies 22 no. 5 (2001): 425-437. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0142-694X(01)00009-6
3. Dorst, Kees. 'The Core of 'Design Thinking' and its Application.' Design Studies 32, no. 6, (2011): 521–532. Accessed September 21, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.006
4. Pink, Sarah. Doing Sensory Ethnography. London, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2009.

Science Gallery Melbourne

Designing Experiences, Designing for Social Change, Designing Identity, Designing through Image, Designing Publications, Designing Disobedience