PRS Opening Event & Keynote Address by Dr Kate Scardifield: Sea Matter / Blue Media

Celebrate the opening of PRS Australia with welcome drinks and finger food in the Design Hub Gallery. Join us in the gallery space for networking opportunities with our community of practice researchers and to view the research of our PhD and Masters by Research Examination candidates. Doors open at 5.30pm.

PRS Australia will then be officially opened by PRS Australia Chair, Associate Professor Andrea Eckersley from 6.30pm in the Design Hub Lecture Theatre. 

We are honoured to host Prof. Kate Scardifield, acclaimed artist and Co-Director of the Material Ecologies Design Lab in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at University of Technology, Sydney.

Sea matter / Blue media considers the peripheral yet essential forces that shape a creative practice, attending to the currents of process that flow between lab, field, studio, and kitchen. This lecture traces how material knowledges emerge—viscous, living, and in flux. Through intertidal encounters, watery methodologies, and submersion, attention is given to biological processes and the ways matter metabolises, drifts, and swells. How do we create the conditions that shape new materials? What elements are vital? Traversing disciplinary spaces of art, science, and design becomes a means of sensing, sustaining, and knowing. Fluidity and overflow unsettle assumptions, revealing what it means to make with living systems, and the transformative possibilities of matter within the water column and along its edge. 

Please note the following order of proceedings

PRS exhibition opening: 5:30pm – 6:30pm, Design Hub Gallery, Level 2
Keynote: 6:30pm - 7:30pm, Design Hub Lecture Theatre, Level 3 
Networking and refreshments: 7:30pm - 8:30pm, Design Hub Gallery, Level 2

Dr. Kate Scardifield

Dr Kate Scardifield is an artist and materials researcher based on Gadigal Land (Warang/Sydney, Australia). Her work charts material transformation and sustainability, merging creative practice with material science to develop innovative, bio-based design systems. She is founder of Deep Blue Bio, a transdisciplinary studio focused on biological processes and complex living systems. Kate is Associate Professor at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Co-Director of the Material Ecologies Design Lab, and part of the Algal Biosystems group at C3. Her projects include algae-based biopolymers and biomaterials from aquaculture waste. Her artistic practice spans textiles, sculpture, and video, with recent exhibitions across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Cover image courtesy of Kate Scardifield
You Don’t Need Me To Tell You 2022 
(Production Still)  

Dual Channel HD Video, Colour 16:9, Stereo Sound, 8:52 Minutes 
Cinematography: Josh Raymond; Sound: Laurence Pike.  

Photo: Robin Hearfield.