Saskia Schut

Saskia Schut

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

I am a landscape architect, artist, researcher, and educator, currently living and working on Kaurna Country, Australia. I am deeply invested in researching and teaching that is grounded in relationships and grassroots actions. Through expanded fieldwork, collectivity, and earth-centred ontologies, my practice-led research explores ways to sense, make sense of, and care for socio-ecological places. I am a co-founder of the research collaboration Tributaries Collective, through which we investigate how water, as an interconnected tributary system, can help us imagine and enact reconnection and regeneration of water bodies for a more just future. 

A series of recent projects used listening, walking, and drawing together as ways to connect the public with lesser-known urban waterways that course through Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country in Narrm/Melbourne. A new research initiative will investigate how visualising and fieldwork practices in the spatial disciplines could contribute to recharging and caring for the disappearing soaks and springs of the Limestone Coast, the traditional lands and waters of the Boandik, Bindjali, and Ngarrindjeri peoples.

tributariescollective.net

  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2024 - ongoing Lecturer University of Adelaide
    2018 - 2022 Lecturer University of Technology Sydney
    2017 - ongoing Landscape Architect Self employed
    2008 - 2017 Sessional Lecturer RMIT University
    2008 - 2010 Research Assistant RMIT University

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2011 Award Unlandscaped 2011, Road Trauma Memorial Project Design Research Institute, RMIT University Australia -

  • Language Competencies
    Language Competency
    French Can read, speak and understand spoken

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    2023 RMIT University Australia PhD
    2007 RMIT University Australia Bachelor of Design, Honours (Landscape Architecture)
    1994 Monash University Australia Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts)

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2021 Schut, S., & Dann, Y. -L. (2021). Movement-drawing: recalling a hidden creek. In G. Baker, F. R. Chen, L. Fenaughty, C. K. Li, L. S. Liu, S. Read, & Y. Na You (Eds.), Kerb 29 Wild (Vol. 29, pp. 51-53). URO Publications.

  • Conference Items
    Year Citation
    2019 Schut, S., Waghorn, K., Harvey, M., Houghton, C., Bonham, A., & smith, V. (2019). Whau Conversations: Hikoi. Poster session presented at the meeting of Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies.
    2016 Schut, S., & King, L. (2016). To Vector, To Idle, To Aggregate, To Disperse. Poster session presented at the meeting of PSi#22 Melbourne: Performing Climates Conference. University Melbourne, Narrm/Melbourne.

  • Original Creative Works
    Year Citation
    2023 Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Micro-Sensing. Description: N/A. Extent: 6 hours.
    2022 Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Silurian Geology. Description: N/A. Extent: 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
    2022 Authors: Schut S, Miller A. Title: SwampGut. Description: N/A. Extent: 3 hours.
    2022 Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Tributary Project. Description: N/A. Extent: 10 videos ranging between 2-5 minutes.
    2017 Authors: Schut S. Title: moving towards, away from and parallel to the rising sun. Description: N/A. Extent: 2 weeks, 4 walks of 1.5 hour duration.
    2015 Authors: Schut S. Title: Gesture 4, in Beginning In Incompleteness: works in formation. Description: N/A. Extent: approx 20mx20m.
    2014 Authors: Schut S, Mitchell S. Title: Reading Room. Description: N/A. Extent: approx 20m x 20m.
    2011 Authors: Mitchell S, Schut S. Title: Sun / Shift // Drift. Description: N/A. Extent: approx 100m x100m.

  • Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events
    Year Citation
    2023 Schut, S., Dann, Y. -L., Robinson, G., & Woods, B. (2023). cre-cre-cre... creee (No. Of Pieces: 3 hours) [Public art event]. Melbourne: Tributaries Collective, Open House Melbourne.
    2023 Schut, S., Dann, Y. -L., Robinson, G., & Woods, B. (2023). Tributary Encounters (No. Of Pieces: 3 hours) [Exhibition]. Narrm/Melbourne, Open Natures 2023: Tributaries Collective/ Open Natures.

  • Theses
    Year Citation
    2023 Schut, S. (2023). Nurturing Earthly Intimacies: A Fieldwork Practice for Planetary Reparation. (PhD Thesis, RMIT University).

  • Working Paper
    Year Citation
    2023 Schut, S., & Dann, Y. -L. (2023). Drawing as a Web of Movements. École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Lyon.

Scheme: School Research Growth Scheme, ACE 

Funding agency: University of Adelaide

Grant name: Tributaries: regenerating and reconnecting overlooked waterways

Date: 2024

Amount: total project funding $3,000

 

Scheme: Annual Arts Grant

Funding agency: City of Melbourne

Grant name: TRIBUTARY PROJECT II

Date: 2022-2023

Collaborators: Ying-Lan Dann, Geoff Robinson, Benjamin Woods

Amount: total project funding $15,000

 

Scheme: Annual Arts Grant

Funding agency: City of Melbourne

Grant name: TRIBUTARY PROJECT I

Date: 2021-2022

Collaborators: Ying-Lan Dann, Geoff Robinson, Benjamin Woods

Amount: total project funding $7,000 + $5000 industry in kind contribution, Bus Projects

 

Scheme: Creators Fund

Funding agency: VIC ARTS

Grant name: sun / drift / shift

Date: 2013-2014

Collaborators: Dr Scott Mitchell, Joseph Norster

Amount: total project funding $10,000 

 

 

I have been teaching in landscape architecture, interior design, and art since 2008. I am interested in how learning and teaching can emerge through more relational models, where, together as spatial designers, we can prepare for a more just ecological-social future. Methods explored include speculative design, collaboration, storytelling, regenerative practices, ecological practices, process-led design, and place-based design. A recent design studio, Swamping, conducted at UTS, engaged with the littoral and material senses of swamps as complex organisms to reimagine multi-species collective futures. Design proposals were developed using animation, film, stories, and by adopting and modelling the proposed imaginary collective. @swamp_ing

 

I have taught into undergraduate and post graduate levels, developing, leading, coordinating and delivering courses in Design, Landform, Botany, and Communications.

 

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 - 2021 Principal Supervisor A method for observing, witnessing and learning with novel ecologies for Landscape architecture. Design-led Research. University Technology Sydney - Master - Jessica Garment
    2020 - 2021 Co-Supervisor 'Tending to scalar ambiguity': explores design methods for landscape architecture that foreground ambiguity, nuance and scalar complexity. University Technology Sydney - Master - Ella Farley
Connect With Me
External Profiles