EXHIBITION
Distraction
2025
VENUE
Science Gallery Melbourne
YEAR
DISTRACTION: The Exhibition For Your Attention was a major exhibition at Science Gallery Melbourne examining the politics and poetics of attention. Commissioned by Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne, Studio Peter King's design responded to a curatorial brief calling for spatial cacophony — using colour, pattern and form to choreograph fourteen artist commissions within a single, cohesive architectural framework.
Rather than isolating each work as a discrete installation, the plan encouraged peripheral awareness, visual overlap and shifting sightlines. Thresholds were exaggerated and circulation was non-linear, with scaled architectural inserts creating moments of compression and release. A layered field of colour, graphic pattern and sculptural form deliberately competed for focus — a spatial response to the exhibition's central theme.
The existing gallery is defined by structural grids, white surfaces, steel and concrete. Rather than competing with this framework, the design worked in tension with it, using colour and sculptural inserts to disrupt its underlying order and amplify the host architecture rather than erase it.
Fourteen distinct installations were accommodated within a large open shell without constructing new walls. Existing operable partitions, curtains and flooring systems were reconfigured to define zones and manage acoustics — reducing material waste, preserving flexibility, and delivering a high-impact environment through strategic adaptation rather than additional construction.
Client: Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne
Curator: Bern Hall
Exhition Design: Studio Peter King in collaboration with Mono Studio
Graphic Design: io Design Company
Producer: Cody Buchanan
Fabrication: Rightside, Synthesis Design Build, Tetrik Studio, Reveal Productions
Graphics: Decently Exposed, Image Box
Photography by Astrid Mulder courtesy of Science Gallery Melbourne