Silences on Maps is an exhibition that reveals the hidden facets of Brisbane City.

Generally, maps are considered visual records of specific historical moments in the city. However, they have often excluded and erased groups, identities, and social issues that are not aligned with the creators of these maps.

Geographer J.B. Harley (1988) referred to these instances as “silences on maps”. Historical examples of such practices exist in various places worldwide, particularly in Australia, where the proclamation of Terra Nullius erased Aboriginal people, culture, and identity from the map creating a tabula rasa for colonial practices. Countering these practices, scholars and artists used counter-mapping techniques to map marginalized groups in cities, such as refugees, LGBTQ, and other underrepresented social and ecological issues.

Based on in-depth research on the architectural history of Brisbane’s demolitions in the 70s and 80s and the bordering practices of refugee resettlement within Brisbane and Logan regions, this exhibition proposes new mappings of the city using architectural and artistic mapping methods.

COVID Retrospect aims to encourage post-pandemic change by inviting a number of Australian architects and designers to provide alternative conceptualisations to one of more of their pre-pandemic projects in a speculative design exercise. The hypothetical drawings, sketches and models will be placed alongside drawings of the original output for comparative discussion.

The AEcLab proposes to both curate and simultaneously contribute to the exhibition by critically interpreting the participant’s contributions and creating an artistic response which distils the design solutions and supports the creative works of the exhibition.