Everywhen: Environmental Sensing and the Songs, Shape and Intelligence of Water
Presented by Grounded Studios
DETAILS
Ticketed
Grounded Studios
1/216 Albion Street, Brunswick VIC, Australia
This event by Grounded Studios, REALMstudios, Space Sensory Lab and Old Ways, New explores how environmental sensing and life-dependent watery systems inform design.
Water, as a material and medium, is the focus of this provocation. The presenters will reflect on practices that intersect design, scientific and technological research. From immersive environments and landscape design to speculative robotics and space habitats, the panel will critically examine environmental sensing and the use of sensory and data systems to understand the intelligence of water.
The discussion will consider works that weave Indigenous Sky Knowledge with Western astrophysics for technologies as cultural practice, alongside restorative architectural practices, environmental sensing systems designed for river health and the dynamics of water in spaceflight. In space, a drop of water changes shape and sensory infrastructures manage human experiences in closed-system environments.
The session navigates the relationships between people and places, often in tension with notions of design futures that may never arrive. It will explore ‘Everywhen’ temporalities. In this context, Everywhen describes a condition in which past, present and future meet at once and interweave notions of justice, sovereignty and care for Country.
During the event, a spatial design experience engages the senses through sounds, scents and tastes to immerse participants in the landscape of water. To conclude the event, the audience will be invited to engage in a facilitated conversation with the presenters to draw connections between the ideas and reflect on how design may flow, always in relation to water: adaptive, resonant and deeply interconnected.
Participants
Emily Cox
Emily Cox co-founded Grounded Studios in 2024 to create architecture and design that is grounded in relationships between peoples and place. A seasoned collaborator who communicates through human and technical complexity, Emily works with the expertise of lived experience, the value of diverse perspectives, and the primacy of Indigenous knowledges of place to share grounded understandings through design thinking. Emily is a founding member and co-chair of the Architecture and Design Reconciliation Industry Network Group, and hosts a reading group supporting truth-telling.Building on her practice-led research (Masters by Research, 2024), Emily contributes to public dialogue about the responsibilities of design to peoples and place, including events for Melbourne Design Week, as a podcast guest and guest educator at the University of Melbourne, Victoria University and for the AIA. Emily has collaborated on award-winning projects including Wunggurrwil Dhurrung, Moondani Balluk Indigenous Centre at Victoria University, NIKERI at Deakin University. Recent work includes Re-imagining Brambuk (with Gregory Burgess) and being shortlisted in the design competition for the Garma Institute for the Yothu Yindi Foundation.
Ahmad Abas
Ahmad Abas co-founded Grounded Studios with Emily Cox in 2024, following two decades as the founding director of Gresley Abas Architects. Grounded Studios exists to create architecture and design that is grounded in relationships between peoples and place.Ahmad is recognised for his creative design talent, for which he has received multiple awards. He brings passionate and heartfelt energy to the team as lead designer on their projects. With analytical skills that uncover opportunities beyond typical project constraints, Ahmad’s design and strategic thinking produce exceptional responses and find solutions to difficult questions.Ahmad’s commitment to strong relationships with his collaborators brings the joy of design and creativity to the heart of their projects.
Jon Shinkfield
Jon Shinkfield is a founding director of REALMstudios. Through his studies and history of practice, his work is framed by the relationship between landscape systems, people and place.Jon’s work has been recognised with awards year after year for both its strategic and built outcomes, from ‘Decolonising the Garden’ through to guidelines for structures on the Victorian Coast. He is passionate in his contribution to practice and academia: previously a senior research fellow at Monash University (CRC for Water Sensitive Cities); vice president of AILA NSW; and AILA president in Victoria.Professional recognition includes the 2025 AILA Victoria Awards: Moondani Balluk; Warrnambool Foreshore Framework Plan; NGV Birrarung 2070 exhibition.Jon was recently invited by Cornell University to deliver the Adleman Memorial Lecture titled ‘Decolonising the Garden’ (2025).
Caroline McMillan
Dr Caroline McMillan is the co-founder of the Space Sensory Lab, a special-purpose R&D arm of the World Taste & Smell Association (WTSA) designed to enhance human experience and well-being in microgravity and extreme environments. A researcher, artist and technologist, her work spans installation, performance and the exploration of the body as a site of critique.Her practice investigates sensory science, the aesthetics and ethics of human–machine interaction, its societal impact and multispecies relationships. Her work has been showcased at institutions and festivals worldwide, including Fotografiska Berlin (DE), SXSW (US), Cannes Lions (FR), Global Taste and Smell Summit (US), ARS Electronica (AT), CTM Festival (DE), Digital Olfaction Society (JP), Tin Sheds Gallery (AU), RMIT First Site Gallery (AU), and for clients Tubi, Amplify, Soho House, Deutsche Telekom, WGSN London, H&M and Zalando.Caroline is a research fellow at Re:future Lab Berlin, the University of Hertfordshire’s Biocomputation Research Group, the Neuronex Odor2Action Network and the SENSE: Research & Education Network for Sensory, Inclusive and Critical Practices. She regularly advises the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) in Belgium.
Angie Abdilla
Professor Angie Abdilla palawa is the founder and director of Old Ways, New. In her various roles as a strategic designer, creative practitioner and consultant, Angie advocates for Indigenous peoples, knowledges and knowledge systems as foundational to technology automation through design and cultural practice.Her published research interrogates the praxis of Indigenous deeptime technologies and Artificial Intelligence, which continue to be informed by the Indigenous Protocols and AI working group (IP//AI), which she co-founded.As a creative practitioner, she works across film and video installation as an exhibiting artist. She created the company’s strategic design methodology, Country Centered Design, leading projects for the public and private sectors over the past decade.Angie continues to advise on the cultural and ethical affordances of automated systems and technologies internationally and locally.