Postgraduate Research Conference 2025 | School of Art & Design

Postgraduate Research Conference

Term 1 | 25 - 26 March 2025

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This conference showcases the work of candidates enrolled in our Higher Degree Research (HDR) programs.��

Our HDR cohort invites you to engage with their creative and impactful projects, representing all forms of research across the School. Presented at the Paddington campus from 25 – 26 March 2025, the two-day conference will be complemented by a program of ancillary events.

View the conference program for full details, including presentation abstracts, location information and registration information. ��

DOWNLOAD FULL PROGRAM (PDF)

Tuesday 25 March

Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

Chair: Michael Garbutt

Panel Member: Diana Baker Smith

Presentations

Warren Parry (PhD), 'YOU ARE THE ARTWORK'. Supervisors: Stephen Loo, Paul Thomas.

Sam Burke (PhD), 'New cartographies: a reconsideration of the practice of psychogeography through a gender lens using durational walking, EEG capture and digital technologies'. Supervisors: Ed Scheer, Rochelle Haley.

Tzu-Mei Stewart (PhD), ‘The desire “to make the world a better place” – Utopias and Modern Architectural Imaginaries’. Supervisors:�� Stephen Loo, Livia Rezende.
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Attend in person: Room G06, Patricia O'Shane Building (E19),��Ʊ Kensington campus (). ��
Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

Chair: Bianca Hester

Panel Member: Tim Gregory

Presentations

Remy Faint (MFA), ‘Layered Opacities: silk, abstraction and material histories’. Supervisors: Felicity Fenner, Clare Milledge.

Eva Nolan (PhD), ‘Wild Deserts: Drawing Ecologies and Biodiversity Monitoring in the NSW Arid Zone’. Supervisors: Anna Munster, Emma Robertson.

Skye Wagner (PhD), ‘Overt artifice: Remediation tactics in image-based assemblage practice’. Supervisors: Grant Stevens, Astrid Lorange.

Suzanne Claridge (PhD), ‘Archival Incantations: (re)tracing a counter-history of indenture through archival poetics’ (Presentation only). Supervisors: Astrid Lorange, Verónica Tello.

Wednesday 26 March

Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

Chair: Scott East

Panel Member: Rochelle Haley

Presentations

Kristy Gordon (PhD), ‘Water as Slowness’. Supervisors: Emma Robertson, David Eastwood.

Natasha Dubler (PhD), ‘Resonance, Sound, Affect’. Supervisors: Anna Munster, Adam Hulbert.

Lizzie Crouch (PhD), ‘Connections and caring in creative production: interrogating labours for inclusion in art-science’. Supervisors: Lizzie Muller, Matthew Kearnes.
Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

Join the HDR Team for a discussion of topics relevant to the School of Art & Design HDR cohort, including plans for the next Postgradaute Research Open Week and changes to HDR examinations. ��
Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

Chair: Livia Rezende

Panel Member: Scott Brown

Presentations

Nicole Crouch (PhD), ‘Advocating for Cultural Sustainability through Design Decisions and Creativity’. Supervisors: Alison Gwilt, Fabri Blacklock.

Chantelle Baistow (PhD), ‘Remediating post-extractive environments with a philosophy of care’. Supervisors: Katherine Moline, Zoe Veness.

Danielah Martinez (PhD), ‘Situatedness and Agency in Ageing: Refining Codesign with Older Adults through Relational Care’. Supervisors: Katherine Moline, Reside Oya Demirbilek.

3:15 - 4:15pm | Exhibition Floor Talks

Artists and PhD candidates Mel Deerson and Aulia Yeru talk about their current exhibitions. Meet in the downstairs foyer of ��Ʊ Galleries at 3:15pm. ��

Mel Deerson: The Dream of the Mirror

3:15pm | Foyer, ��Ʊ Galleries, Corner of Oxford Street & Greens Road (Campus Map)

The Dream of the Mirror 2025 is an entirely improvised video shot on an iPhone using DIY and analogue effects. It conjures a kaleidoscopic dream vision using footage shot at Derek Jarman’s garden in Dungeness and surrounding areas. Jarman’s landscapes become a semi-abstract, mystical space viewed through the pane of a stained-glass window. A strange figure gestures among glowing poppies, stones flicker like the refraction of light on glass, and the sea pulses with its own electric field, all through the shining portal of a hand mirror. A music score created by the artist drives the rhythm of the work, drawing on medieval drones and songs, punk distortions and improvised synth experimentations.

_{Image: Mel Deerson, The Dream of the Mirror (still) 2025.}

Aulia Yeru: Sediment

3:45pm | The Black Box, D106, Level 1, Block D (Campus Map)

This exhibition delves into the material and social entanglements of the Cikapundung River through three interconnected approaches. Film soup photography captures the river’s metabolic processes by chemically altering images through immersion in its waters. An installation of indigo-dyed cloth serves as a vessel to trace sediment flows while referencing colonial histories and textile traditions. Documentation and archival materials from the Susur Baur expedition walking project detail the experiences of navigating the river’s path, revealing its urban ecologies and socio-political dimensions. Alongside these works and archives, the exhibition will also present the Cikapundung River through maps and documentation. These works provide a hydrosocial reflection on the river’s agency, memory, and contested landscapes.

_{Image: Aulia Yeru, Aras Putih 6 (still) 2024, 35mm cannister immersed in water sample taken from Cikapundung River, scanned as digital image, edited as moving image, 5 min looped.}

Location: Sherman Postgraduate Studios | Level 4, Block F (Campus Map)

For catering purposes, please ��

Header image: Skye Wagner, Behind Seal Kiss, Above Hind Legs, To Ginger Smile, 2024, Steel mesh, Mixed prints: pigment, inkjet, laser, and offset. Installation detail: Built Photography, 8 June - 25 August 2024, Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne, Australia. Image credit: Skye Wagner

Acknowledgement of Country

��Ʊ School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.

We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.

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