HyperSext City Interactive Exhibition Highlights Gender Prejudice of Urban Spaces.

Data Visualisation is a powerful communication tool. As exemplified in the HyperSext HyperGraphic, above, XYX Lab utilises visualisation techniques to translate data into public, powerful and immediately understood representations of gender-based spatial inequity. The technique makes visible the urgency of the issues that otherwise remain hidden in indecipherable and inaccessible spreadsheets, government reports and digital repositories.

Engaging with the lived experiences of women and their perception of safety in public space Do You Feel Safe? uses statements spoken by a diverse group of women and asks the audience to consider the question of safety from the perspective of women, girls and gender diverse people.

Monash University’s XYX Lab in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture has realised an important interactive exhibition highlighting spatial injustice experienced by women, girls and the LGBTQI+ communities. At a time when the impact of gender, exclusion and sexual violence is front-page news, HyperSext City confronts precisely these challenges and invites us to reimagine and co-design a fair city.

This new exhibition from Australia’s world-first research lab on space, gender and communication elicits the visitors’ unique experiences of the city and encourage reflection while understanding excluded voices.

Based on evidence-based research and lived experiences, this brand-new work by Monash University’s XYX Lab made its debut at the University of Sydney’s Tin Sheds Gallery, on show now until April 9th.

Initially planned for the 2020 Space-Time-Existence Exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale, HyperSext City makes gender data and intersectional narratives visible, demonstrating how these influence our urban spaces’ access and use.

In exploring equity in the public domain, the display invites the audience to contribute their suggestions and solutions to overcome exclusion and lack of access. The exhibition employs data from all over the world, and here in Sydney, to spectacular effect.

“The room-size scale of the hypergraphic ensures visitors see themselves as part of the data, that they’re represented in it,” says HyperSext City creative director Gene Bawden. “Rather than the statistics being dislocated from the public, dispersed through numerous frequently inaccessible reports, they’re drawn together in a confronting and immersive experience.”

Works in the show include video, workshops, installation and a bespoke interactive website built for and launched at the exhibition –The HyperSext Repository interactively collates, documents and references data and research on cities’ gendered experiences.

Through crowd-sourcing, co-creation and material making, HyperSext City amplifies the voices and experiences of a diverse range of people who are frequently rendered powerless in cities and invites us all to make a difference by sharing and understanding our urban experience.

Exhibition HyperSext City runs until Friday 9th April at Tin Sheds Gallery (School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney). For more information, visit hypersextcity.com.

Emphasising the research of the XYX Lab A Billion Views asks that the politics of public space be changed and reframed. This is a call to action. It is our shared responsibility to make an urban environment that is safe for everyone.

This Yellowtrace Promotion is supported by Monash University / XYX Lab. Like everything we do, our partner content is carefully curated to maintain the utmost relevance to our readers. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Yellowtrace.

[Images courtesy of Monash University / XYX Lab.]