This paper presented at SITUATION Symposium will focus on two works by the British artist Martin Creed: Work No.227, The lights going on and off (2000) and Work No.200, Half the air in a given space (1998). I will consider the artist's deployment of air in these works as both a material and a metaphor that might enable a productive engagement with thinking about interior spaces in relation to broader questions concerning ecology and the environment. Creed's works will be situated in relation to Peter Sloterdijk's writings on air and atmosphere.

SITUATION is an event – symposium, exhibition and a series of city occupations – initiated and arranged by the RMIT Interior Design program. SITUATION brings attention to the designing of interiors as a practice engaged in spatial and temporal production; a practice that works in the midst of social, cultural, historical and political forces; a practice open to contingency, chance and change; a practice engaged with singularity and specificity.

SITUATION highlights ideas of ‘event’ and the eventful nature of interiors, lived space-time compositions in constant change; atmospheric compositions as distinct from artefacts; ephemerality; uniqueness; one-offs; a multiplicity of experience. The event aims to contribute to the discipline of interior design at an international level by focusing on these key characteristics of practice, the kinds of research this produces and through this articulates, fosters and advocates opportunities for future practice.