God Knows is an intriguing exhibition by ARM Architecture for the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning’s ABP Alumni Retrospective Series. The series celebrates the work of ABP alumni and aims to highlight the extraordinary range and contribution they make to our design culture and built environment.

ARM Architecture’s Stephen Ashton and Howard Raggatt are alumni of the University of Melbourne and in 1988 they co-founded ARM Architecture with Ian McDougall. ARM has since become one of Australia’s leading architecture practices. God Knows is a conceptual representation of selected ARM works (both built and unrealised), the people and personalities behind the ARM studio, and the public and internal perceptions of ARM.

The exhibition will consist of three components – a physical installation of polystyrene packaging on the walls of the gallery, a series of short films projected onto these walls, and a selection of quotes representing various opinions about ARM and our work.

The polystyrene component references how protective packaging objects have informed the design of ARM buildings, most notably the Melbourne Recital Centre. For this exhibition, the walls of the Wunderlich Gallery will be lined with discarded pieces of polystyrene. Located within the array of objects will be custom-made polystyrene representations of ARM buildings, rendered as negative voids within large polystyrene blocks. The second component is a series of projections onto the undulating polystyrene surface. The wall becomes a kinetic screen, upon which there will be old and new ARM short films. These will include high speed 3D animations, Howard Raggatt’s thesis film ‘Not Songs’, media snippets, and interviews with ARM directors and staff specially filmed for this exhibition. Thirdly; quotes (mostly insults taken from online forums) and interviews make up the graphic and acoustic content of the exhibition. They become part of the ARM narrative, a history of challenging community perceptions of architecture, and how the work represents a local identity.

Closing Party
A closing party will be held at the Wunderlich Gallery on Friday July 1 at 6PM. RSVP by 27 June to abp-events{ at }unimelb.edu.au

Open: 9:00am – 5:00pm, Monday to Friday