What is On Route? – the effect on space by movement into and through cities, exploring modalities that are essential and sometimes marginalized, forms a backdrop to a layered world of experiences, places and peoples.

Am I in transit or transitory? Who has permission to ‘be’ in this condition? What conditions heighten the understanding of the city as we move through it?

This is the negative space of larger city shaping – it is the sights, sounds, speed, smell and touch that defines our perception of movement through space that is both required and left behind by design and planning. This can be highly regulated and, often, form contested public space. The diversity of publics and senses that are On Route exist in both place and time.

A space that is ‘On Route’ is subject to flows that often make it the result of other choices, yet we propose to consider how they may be made ethically, what role energy plays or what ecology could be found (and may have been forgotten) as the design task in itself.

To bring together a cross-disciplinary set of voices, all emerging in their fields, to draw out ideas relating to a specific place in Canberra. In doing so, we hope to create new connections and stories that prompt change.

Our speakers: Lucy Irvine, Nathan Pauletto, Nicholas Eccles, Negar Yazdi, Woody Brenden