Deep Time Real Time: The 2025 Alastair Swayn Legacy Exhibition explores design’s relationship to planetary systems through two opposing time scales – ‘deep time’ and ‘real-time’.
Responding to the expansive spaces of Design Hub Gallery, the exhibition features a large-scale installation – designed by architects Simulaa – containing geological and material samples with research works to visualise our relationship to time through material artefacts. Presented alongside the interactive structure are time–based creative works curated through the lens of ecology, energy, and technology.
As global citizens, we continue to struggle with reconciling geological timescales with our everyday lives that, in turn, affects our collective ability to make decisions on regenerative actions for the future. However, in utilising new technologies, we can gather, analyse and visualise data – some in real time – to better understand environmental conditions that would, otherwise, be invisible.
Deep Time Real Time is a call-to-action for the agency of citizen-led ‘time literacy’ to develop new collective societal and design methodologies to respond to the complex challenges of our planet.
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Deep Time Real Time features creative works and research from Fayen D’Evie, Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen, Alicia Frankovich, Emma Jackson, Farzin Lofti-Jam, Nicholas Mangan, Joel Sherwood Spring and Simulaa.
Creative direction by Fleur Watson. Curated by Andre Bonnice, Anna Jankovic and Fleur Watson. Exhibition design by Simulaa. Graphic design by Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen. Access consultancy by Access Lab and Library (ALL).
This exhibition is produced by RMIT Design Hub Gallery with the support of the Alastair Swayn Foundation for the 2025 Alastair Swayn Legacy Exhibition. Supported by RMIT School of Architecture & Urban Design and GSV Drill Core Library.
Image: Deep Time Real Time: The 2025 Alastair Swayn Legacy Exhibition, Graphic design by Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen.
RMIT Design Hub Gallery
RMIT Building 100
Level 2, City Campus
RMIT University
Cnr Swanston and Victoria Streets
Carlton VIC 3053
T: 03 9925 1717
E: hello.designhub@rmit.edu.au
W: designhub.rmit.edu.au
Opening Hours
(during exhibition periods)
Tuesday – Friday: 11am to 5pm
Saturday: 12pm to 4pm
Closed public holidays, Sundays and RMIT Campus closures.
Entry is Free
The Public Galleries Association of Victoria (PGAV) acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands where our office is located, and all Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and Australia. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples enduring traditions and continuing creative cultures. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
We are an LGBTQIA+ friendly organisation that celebrates diversity. We are committed to providing safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive services for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.
