RMIT College of Design and Social Context

Congratulations to RMIT University Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Thami Croeser from the RMIT Centre for Urban Research and RMIT School of Global, Urban and Social Studies on receiving TREENET’s Gold Leaf Award! As Australia’s peak body for urban forestry, the Gold Leaf Award recognises Thami’s immense contribution to nature-sensitive urban design research and advocacy. Thami will be speaking at Porous Lane’s upcoming event on 22 October, Permeable Pavements for a Resilient Urban Future. He'll be sharing his insights on how permeable paving can protect cities from heat and will explore the challenges of delivering effective urban canopies, the importance of plant density and how healthier long-lived trees can transform our cities. #UrbanForestry #UrbanCanopies #PermeablePavements #ClimateChange 

'How can artistic practice serve as both archive and prophecy? What is contemporary art’s dual role in documenting past movements and imagining speculative futures?'   These complex and profound questions drove conversations at ‘Looking Back, Looking Forward’, a research symposium recently held at RMIT University's City Campus by the Migration + Mobility + Art stream of RMIT Art’s research group, Contemporary Art and Social Migration (CAST).     At a time when migration and mobility have become increasingly contested issues, the symposium brought together academic scholars, artists and cultural practitioners to examine critical intersections between movement, displacement and artistic production.     Keynote speaker, artist and academic Kirsten Lyttle Garner joined panellists Ming Liew, Mita Chowdhury, Jody Haines, Emily Parsons-Lord, Heather Hesterman and Hootan Heydari to highlight art’s transformative potential as both witness and catalyst.    Conversations were accompanied by an incredible feast from Asylum Seekers Resource Centre Catering, celebrating the community’s cultural diversity while supporting employment pathways for newly arrived immigrant communities. 📷 by Pia Johnson Tammy Wong Hulbert | Pia Johnson | Clare McCracken, PhD | Gemma Tsang | Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

We were honoured to be joined at RMIT University's Storey Hall recently by renowned linguist Professor Emily M. Bender, who spoke to our audience on how chatbots really work. A Professor of Linguistics and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Computer Science and the Information School at the University of Washington, Bender brought linguistic insights to light, allowing audiences to cut through the hype about "AI" and facilitate understanding of the actual functionality of the systems being sold under that name. Drawing on what linguists know about language and how we use it, her keynote demystified the technologies dominating today’s headlines. The keynote is now available to listen back on ABC Big Ideas: https://lnkd.in/emvWy-sK Lisa M. Given (FASSA, FASIST) | Falk Scholer| Kobi Leins (PhD, GAICD)

RMIT University is proud to partner with the Municipal Association of Victoria on the inaugural MAVlab Innovation Awards.  This support is part of RMIT’s growing collaboration with MAV, bringing together our thought leaders, capacity builders, networkers and advocates and aligning our mutual goals: addressing key societal challenges through innovative and inclusive solutions. Tom Bentley, RMIT’s Vice-President, Strategy and Community Impact, is a judge of the awards.     Congratulations to all the finalists in The Systems and Cycles Award for Regenerative Design, for which RMIT is awards partner:     ♻️ Soft Plastics Circular Contract, Brimbank City Council  🏊 Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre, Darebin City Council  🍽️ Queen Victoria Market Circular Economy Precinct, City of Melbourne.     We’re looking forward to joining all of the finalists at the #MAVlab Innovation Awards Celebration on Wednesday 8 October, where the winners will be announced.      Bonnie Shaw Gemma Baxter Tom Bentley Naomi Stead Kiri Delly #MAVlab #LocalGovernment #CircularEconomy #RegenerativeFutures

We’re only a week away from the College’s much anticipated, twice-yearly Higher Degree by Research (HDR) event, Practice Research Symposium (PRS) Asia. The event will convene HDR candidates, supervisors, and expert critics from RMIT University’s Schools of Design; Architecture & Urban Design; and Media & Communication, hosted by RMIT University Vietnam’s School of Communication & Design in Ho Chi Minh City. We’re proud to spotlight two PhD candidates who will present their research for examination alongside other candidates delivering milestone and work-in-progress presentations: 🎓 Anneli Giencke from the School of Architecture and Urban Design will present her research, ‘Projecting Architecture: The Spatial Dialectics of Drawing and Model’, which explores her own creative practice and understanding of architecture as multifaceted layers of drawings brought into three dimensions through model making and establishes a new way of designing through the transformable interplay of tangible and intangible design elements. 🎓 Thierry Bernard from the School of Design in Melbourne and the School of Communication & Design in Vietnam will present his research, ‘More-Than-Noise: Listening with Saigon Soundscapes’, which reflects the transformation of his creative practice, shaped by the soundscape of Ho Chi Minh City’s urban noise. His research identifies four key sound concepts: Listening, Interior/Exterior, Verticality, and Thần (a Vietnamese term designating the spirit of the land), and reframes noise as an affective, cultural, and spatial event. Following the PhD student presentations, a keynote panel discussion will discuss the idea of ‘community’ and how it shapes creative methodologies, knowledge, different disciplines and the scope and scale of creative work. Panellists include transdisciplinary artist and researcher Associate Professor Luz Maria Sanchez Cardona, researcher and teacher, Associate Professor Riet Eeckhout and local interdisciplinary designer, Cécile Ngọc Sương Perdu. 📍 Nina Next Space, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 📅 Friday 19 September 🎟️ FREE (registrations required) Milestone and work-in-progress presentations from other PhD candidates will occur at the RMIT University Vietnam Saigon South Campus. Please join us in wishing all the presenters luck for this significant moment in their Practice Research journey! 📸 Images 2/3 of Dr Michael Budig’s examination at PRS Asia, March 2025. #PRSAsia #PracticeResearchSymposium #Architecture #Design

Replaying Japan – the world’s leading conference exploring Japanese games culture, education and industry – was recently held in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time at RMIT University. Hosted by RMIT’s Digital Design discipline, located in the School of Design, #Replaying_Japan brought together a wide range of international researchers and creators to present and exchange their work centred around the theme: ‘Homebrew: hobbyist games, hacks and (other) homegrown activities.’    A number of academics from across RMIT presented, exploring topics from mental health conversations in #Twitch streaming (Emma Witkowski), traditional university street games (Aramiha Harwood, Troy Innocent and Lester Asperga), to exploring our memories through Read-Only Memory (ROM) hacking of The #LegendofZelda game (James Manning).    “Hosting Replaying Japan at RMIT for the first time was an incredible opportunity to showcase RMIT’s industry leading Games program and researchers, and hear from other internationally renowned academics and creators from every facet of gaming – game and hardware design, storytelling, and socio-cultural and political analysis,” said RMIT Games Lecturer of Digital Design and Replaying Japan Co-Chair, James Manning. “Exploring the concept of ‘homebrew’ gaming highlighted the importance of grassroots gaming, and the innovation and ingenuity of hobbyist gamers that has helped to shape the gaming industry and wider culture,” continued James. Assoc. Prof. Li Ping Thong, Associate Dean (Digital Design) added: “This conference speaks to the strength and depth of our community at RMIT Digital Design. It’s been energising to see researchers and students engage with global voices in game culture and design, and it's great to see RMIT Games leading these conversations.” RMIT’s The Centre of Digital Ecosystems (CODE) also presented a talk on the process of designing their new soft-simulation game, ‘My Dream PC’, and reflected on ‘cosy’ themes of femininity, safety, abundance and softness. ‘My Dream PC’ was also recently installed in ACMI’s Games Lab Presented by Big Ant Studios, as part of their centrepiece ‘The Story of the Moving Image’ exhibition, and will be included in the upcoming ‘Feminine Play Exhibition’ – co-curated by RMIT Games lecturer, Stephanie Harkin. Replaying Japan was organised in collaboration with Ritsumeikan University’s Centre for Games Studies, University of Alberta, University of Delaware, Bath Spa University, DiGRA Japan, Liège Game Lab, Université de l'Ontario français and Baruch College.    📸 Photos by Garaeva Dinara. Games Program RMIT    #ReplayingJapan #JapaneseGaming #DigitalDesign #SchoolOfDesign #GameDesign #GameProgramming

RMIT University Architecture students and academics are currently exhibiting their work on the world stage at the prestigious 2025 Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea. The project, ‘Re:Permissioning the City’, was co-developed by RMIT’s Super Urban Lab and Dark Matter Labs. It explores how North Melbourne's Shands Lane could be reinvented with flexible, community-led governance to reshape urban lifestyles. Drawing on the biennale theme of ‘You the World: How Design Embraces Humanity’, they envisioned: Housing 🏡 from temporary cooperative living to a long-term vision where access is based on need, not ownership. Habitat 🌿 transforming laneways into ecological corridors that support biodiversity and pollinators. Energy 💡 micro-generation and shared storage systems that turn neighbourhoods into power plants. The work is part of a larger collaborative project, ‘Permissioning the City: Prototyping Permission,’ developed by RMIT Super Urban Lab and Dark Matter Labs, with contributions from the Infra-Architecture Lab at the UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and supported by the Australia-Korea Foundation 호한재단. “Taking part in the Gwangju Design Biennale is an exciting vehicle for RMIT students to demonstrate through design that there are easily adoptable, alternative approaches for governing and planning of real Melbourne communities. This incredible opportunity to engage with researchers and industry leaders on an international platform of this scale exemplifies the benefits of RMIT’s global industry-connected learning,” said Associate Dean of the School of Architecture at RMIT, John Doyle. “This project has encouraged our students to radically rethink the way our cities are organised and has pushed them to explore and design new models for sustainable shared neighbourhoods,” he continued. Running until 2 November 2025 at Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall in South Korea. Designs were produced by RMIT Architecture students: Zuyi Chen, Yixuan Wang, Sienna Schulz, Sienna Crook, Miguel Ramos, Michael Marchetti, Lucjia Noble, Kristopher Kokkinidis, Harshita Pallabi Sahu, Charlotte Bond, Celine Hussein Blanco, Angela Celene Limanto, Alyssa Valerie, Remy Brown, Jiaheng Xu and Qianhui Li. 📸 Images courtesy of Super Urban Lab and Dark Matter Labs. Graham Crist | Paul Minifie | Rafael Luna, Ph.D. | Eunji Kang | Calvin Po Indy Johar | Wendy Steele | Vivian Mitsogianni | Tim Marshall #GwangjuDesignBiennale #PermissioningTheCity #UrbanFutures #CivicEconomy #DarkMatterLabs #SuperUrbanLab

We’re delighted to congratulate RMIT University-ACMI X Graduate Resident Tanya Cubric on the recent opening of her exhibition “Alina, Olena, Lana and Jana” at RMIT First Site Gallery. 🎭 Tanya is a multidisciplinary artist of Balkan heritage, working across performance, video and installation. Drawing from her background in theatre and film, “Alina, Olena, Lana and Jana” re-narrativises four Eastern European characters played by Tanya in various UK television productions, liberating their stories from the industry and the stereotypes they represent. In 2024, Tanya graduated from RMIT’s School of Art with a Master of Fine Art and is a 2025 RMIT-ACMI X Graduate Resident. This residency provides RMIT graduates or HDR candidates access to a coveted desk within the ACMI X community, professional networking opportunities and project support to develop their screen-based practice. “Alina, Olena, Lana and Jana” is on exhibition at First Site Gallery until 19 September. 👉 For First Site Gallery opening times and upcoming public programs visit https://lnkd.in/gB4yfk24 RMIT University is ACMI’s Major Research Partner. #ACMI #RMIT #FirstSiteGallery #residencyprogram #screenculture Bella Wren | Anton De Ionno | Naomi Stead | Chris Speed

Last night RMIT University was proud to present a special screening of Balibo (2009), to open the 14th Australian Media Traditions Conference. A political thriller based on the true story of the 'Balibo Five' - the five journalists killed during Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor - the film was directed by RMIT Adjunct Professor Robert Connolly and starred #Anthony_LaPaglia and #Oscar_Isaac. The screening was introduced by a riveting conversation between RMIT Information Integrity Hub Lecturer Sushi Das; Associate Professor in the School of Media & Communication Stephen Gaunson; and musician, activist and RMIT alum Paulie Stewart, brother of Tony Stewart (one of the 'Balibo Five'). They collectively explored the story's enduring legacy, dramatic truth, and how archival material helped bring this story to the screen. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of these events. Protecting the safety of journalists reporting on the front line of war zones remains as critical today as in 1975. #BaliboFive #AustralianMediaTraditionsConference Lisa French Image 1: Sushi Das, Paulie Stewart, Stephen Gaunson (photo credit: Archie McGill) Image 2: film still, Balibo (2009), courtesy Arenamedia Image 2: Sushi Das, Paulie Stewart, Stephen Gaunson (photo credit: Archie McGill)

Congratulations to Dr. Yazid Ninsalam, Associate Dean Landscape Design at RMIT University and researcher at Super Urban Lab, who has been selected to join the advisory panel for the United Nations University-FLORES’s upcoming ‘House of No Waste’ ideas competition. The House of No Waste competition (HØW) calls upon aspiring young architects, engineers, planners, scientists, and designers to develop proposals for groundbreaking public projects that not only embody circular economy principles and human-centred design, but also set a new standard for how we manage resources and avoid waste in construction. Yazid is part of an advisory board that consists of accredited experts in their discipline, tasked with providing advice on preparing competition documents, preliminary examination of submissions, and supporting the competition proceedings. "I’m honoured to represent RMIT on a global stage as part of the HØW ideas competition advisory board, bringing a landscape architecture lens to envision public buildings that embrace environmental responsibility, circular and regenerative design, and set new standards for reducing waste," said Yazid. “This is more than a competition – it’s an urgent call to redefine construction as a force for planetary repair, transforming waste into opportunity and shaping spaces that give back more than they take.” Applications to compete in HØW are open from 1 September to 1 December 2025, with the final competition results announced in early 2026. RMIT Landscape Architecture RMIT Post-Carbon Research Centre United Nations University Vivian Mitsogianni | Chris Speed | Tim Marshall | Ralph Horne | Usha Iyer-Raniga #SuperUrbanLab #HouseofNoWaste #RegenerativeFutures #Sustainability #CircularDesign #LandscapeArchitecture #Architecture #Construction #Engineering #HumanCentredDesign