A/ProfKate Scardifield

Dr Kate Scardifield is an aclaimed artist and Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. Kate leads an expansive and highly collaborative program of research that brings together materials science, sustainable design and material culture studies. Her research focuses on the design, development and integration of novel biomaterials and biofabrication processes. She is an expert in connecting science with creative practices and driving innovation through expanded forms of design.

Kate is the founder and Director of Deep Blue Bio, a transdisciplinary studio and research network for designing with biological processes and complex living systems. She is Co-Director of the Material Ecologies Design Lab, and a member of the Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology group in the UTS Climate Change Cluster (C3). Key projects include designing with algae-based biopolymers as alternatives to petrochemical plastics, and the development of biomaterials from algae and aquaculture waste streams to provide carbon capture and storage solutions in the built environment. Her research on new materials and material systems has been published across a range of platforms and academic journals including the Journal of Applied Phycology, the Journal of Cleaner Production, World Futures Review, Art Monthly Australasia, and The Lifted Brow.

Recent exhibitions include Siteworks: From a Deep Valley, Bundanon Art Museum (2022-23); Pliable Planes: Expanded Textiles and Fibre Practices, UNSW Galleries, Freemantle Art Centre (2022-2024, touring); FREE/STATE: The Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, The Art Gallery of South Australia (2022); The lighter a thought the more it rises, Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, New Zealand (2019); Ley Lines, St Andrews Museum, Hawick Museum, and Calendar House, Scotland (2017-2018); Microgravity, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2017).

Kate is a Freedman Scholar and a previous recipient of the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. Her projects have been funded by Creative Australia, its prcinciple Arts Investment and Advisory Body (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2025) and her work is held in public collections including the Australian Government Office for the Arts in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. Kate has undertaken international residency programs in Paris (2012, 2020 and 2023), Glasgow (2016), Oaxaca (2014) and New Delhi (2012), has served on the Artist Advisory Group for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2018-2020) and is a former Research Fellow at the Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Observatory (2017-2018). She was the 2019 recipient of the Eva Breuer Scholarship and Cité Internationale des Arts residency awarded by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.