Disruptive Methods brings together UTS researchers and collaborators from Brighton, Canberra, Edinburgh, New York, and São Paulo for two days of critical inquiry — interrogating and reimagining the tools, systems and methods through which we understand and shape the world.

A program of roundtables, workshops, and performances explore topics including decolonial mapping, augmented reality for social justice, visualising cultural metadata and AI ethics. The program features a Data Salon, co-hosted by the Sydney Culture Network in the UTS Data Arena, and an exhibition of HDR 'Objects of Research'. A storytelling event at Knox Street Bar showcases non-traditional approaches to communicating research, in a social setting. The workshop stream provides hands-on experience of disruptive methods, including a dice-based game for exploring ethical AI and an erasure and redaction workshop.

THURSDAY 25 JUNE

Refreshments and viewing of work from 9.30am.

Architecture Lobby, L5, UTS Building 6, 702 Harris Street.

10–11.30am: VISUALISING PRESENCE AND ABSENCE

Countermaps produced through UTS Architecture and Landscape Architecture studio teaching.

A roundtable conversation, accompanied by a showcase of counter-mapping work, including large format prints and documentary films:

'Counter-Mapping: A Field Survey'. Dr Endriana Audisho, Matte Ager-McConnell and Tom Woodhead (UTS Architecture).
'Anarchival Art and Colonial Visibility in Brazil and Australia'. Dr Victor Murari, (the Decolonial Atlas, Brazil).
'Black Diasporas Warrane-Sydney project'. Kholi Dhliwayo (afroOURban Art).

11.45am–1pm: DISRUPTING BODIES IN SPACE

Left: John Morrison. Right: Andrew Burrell

Short presentations from Dr Andrew Burrell and Dr John Morrison followed by a critical dialogue.

'Xenotone: Speculative ecologies between the physical and the virtual'. Dr Andrew Burrell (UTS Design).
'Bodies, Borders, and Belonging: An Augmented Reality music video co-developed with young men affected by violence.' Dr John Morrison. (Edinburgh Napier University)

1–2pm: Lunch and Exhibition viewing:

Opportunity to discuss Objects of Research exhibition with PhD and MA candidates exhibiting work from their research practices.

2 – 3.30pm: REIMAGINING THE ORDER OF THINGS

Left: Linda Matthews. Right: Mitchell Whitelaw and Adrian Mackenzie.

Project presentations and discussion ranging from reimagining systems cities and the bodies that move them them, to the taxonomic organisation of the Atlas of Living Australia:

'The End of the Line.' A/Prof. Linda Matthews (UTS Architecture)
'ALA Lens and BioCLIP: reordering species in place and space'. Prof. Mitchell Whitelaw (ANU School of Art and Design).
'Feminist Killjoy Flaneuserie'. Dr Sally Sutherland (University of Brighton).

DATA SALON: DISRUPTING CULTURAL METADATA

4 – 5.30pm: Project Share and workshop
UTS Data Arena, L2, UTS Building 11, 81-117 Broadway.

Left: Thomas Ricciardiello. Right: Sarah Jane Jones.

Data Salon is a Sydney Culture Network program for GLAM professionals interested in the creative and critical uses of cultural data. This session showcases researchers engaging with fragmented archival material: from typographic trails revealing long-absent trees, to hands-on activities that invite participants to write descriptions for objects that have little to say for themselves. We'll work with the Australian Museum's Harry Burrell Glass Plate Negative collection – images with scarce accompanying metadata – as provocations for thinking about absence, interpretation, and the creative possibilities that emerge when the catalogue runs dry.

Presentations in the UTS Data Arena, a 360º panoramic, 3D stereoscopic, multi-user interactive theatre, include Thomas Ricciardiello's 'Weapons of Slow Destruction', Mitchell Whitelaw and Adrian Mackenzie's ALA Lens, Sarah Jane Jones' 'Type Trails' and new work from Justin Harvey. A participatory speculative metadata workshop will be led by Monica Monin and Zoë Sadokierski.

6–8pm: DISRUPTIVE STORYTELLING SALON AT KNOX STREET BAR
11 Knox Street (Corner, Shepherd St, Chippendale

The Disruptive Storytelling Salon is an event featuring short performance lectures and visual narratives — five to ten minutes each — where presenters share stories drawn from the research practices. Past tales have followed a goose down the Cook's River, unpacked the inner life of mould in a Sydney terrace, and somehow managed to make audiences laugh and cry in the same breath. Speakers include Andrew Burrell, Dave Drayton, Delia Falconer, Corey Lange and Zoë Sadokierski.

FRIDAY 26 JUNE

Refreshments and viewing of work from 9.30am.

Design Lobby, L6, UTS Building 6, 702 Harris Street.

Erasure / Redaction Workshop: 10–11.30

Dave Drayton (UTS Writing) leads a hands-on workshop exploring erasure / redaction techniques to obscure or remove text from documents as a narrative technique.

AI Ethical Encounters: A Heuristic Approach to Critical Design Reflection
Workshop: 11.30 – 1pm

John Morrison (Edinburgh Napier University) leads a dice-based framework for thinking critically about AI. Ten ethical dimensions structure the conversation: consent, labour, ecology, authorship, bias, transparency, authority, futures, relationships, and inclusive learning. Two blank faces invite participants to name what matters most to them. The mechanic is direct. Roll two dice. Two dimensions land. Their intersection generates a question that neither produces alone. Roll again for deeper probing questions. Respond from your own position. Others introduce complications. The conversation builds. Participants leave with direct experience of the heuristic and a critical vocabulary for integrating ethical reflection into their own practice. It works in multiple contexts: a designer questioning their own workflow, a teaching team shaping AI policy, or an organisation developing ethical governance. https://liminalstudios.xyz/portfolio/aidice

2–4pm Objects of Research talks.

HDR candidates from across the university share the stories behind the objects on display in the L6 foyer space.

Contact the host of Disruptive Methods

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