Colour Matrix Sydney 2025 Saturday session

Pricing

Speakers

Maggie Maggio is a designer, artist, and art educator who has studied, taught, and worked with color for over forty years. Her personal explorations into the science of light and pigments led to the creation of workshops for artists and designers who want to incorporate the latest research in color science into their creative practice. As a member of the board of directors of the US Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) and co-chair of the International Color Association Study Group on Color Education, Maggie focuses on bridging between the art, science, and industry of color and advancing color literacy for the twenty-first century. She is the current chair of the Joint International Color Association/ISCC Color Literacy Project, advocating for the integration of art and science in color education programs worldwide.

Stephen Westland is Professor of Color Science and Technology in the School of Design at the University of Leeds (UK). He was previously head of the School of Design at Leeds (2006–2013). His research interests are color design, color vision, and color measurement, and he has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and books about these topics. He is a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists and was President of the Society in 2019. In 2008 he was awarded the Davies Medal from the Royal Photographic Society (London) for his color research. He has won numerous research grants from both government and industry holds several visiting professorships including at the University of Texas (USA) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan (China).

Edward R. Charbonneau is an adjunct faculty member of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He holds an MFA degree in Visual Studies from MCAD (2006) and BFA degree in painting from the College of Visual Arts (1999), formerly of St. Paul, Minnesota. His teaching methodologies are informed by his color theory research and practice. He independently writes, voices, and produces the podcast, Chromosphere: The Color Theory Podcast, which is currently in its fourth season with a global audience. For the past 37 years, he has created murals and large-scale installations for businesses, and private individual collectors. He lives in St. Louis Park, and works in a painting studio in St. Paul, Minnesota.

David Witt is a Human Machine Interface and User Experience designer with over 25 years of professional design and fine arts experience. Colormxr and Interactive Color Creation evolved from David’s MFA research at Parsons School of Design, and studio art practice in New York and San Francisco, reflecting his interests in the synthesis of visual art, color experience, and human-centered design.

Paul Green-Armytage was born and educated in England, graduating as an architect in 1964. He had some ten years’ experience as a practising designer in England, Canada and Australia, working as an architect, exhibition designer and set designer for television, before taking up a position, in 1976, as senior lecturer in charge of the first year program in design at what is now Curtin University. He was awarded his PhD in 2005, for his thesis Colour, Language and Design. He has contributed papers to leading scientific journals and many national and international conferences, several by invitation. He has served as Vice President of the International Colour Association and as President of the Colour Society of Australia. Paul is a founding member of the Colour Literacy Project.

Ruth Marrion is a Life Member of the Colour Society of Australia and a former Chair of the Western Australian Division. Always interested in understanding how people communicate with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, Ruth came to the conclusion that matching clothing colours to her given colouring based on advice found in a popular book gave the wrong message about her personality. Ruth trained in Personal Colours Analysis before completing in 2000 a critical examination of the assumptions and practices in this industry as a Master's study supervised by Paul Green-Armytage in the Department of Design at Curtin University.

Emrah Baki Ulas is an internationally acclaimed lighting designer, speaker, and educator whose work spans the intersections of light, colour, perception, and the built environment. Following an engineering degree and theatrical lighting studies in Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turke,y he obtained a Master's degree in Architectural Lighting Design at the University of Wismar, Germany and then his PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney, for his thesis "Casting a New Light on Museums and Galleries; towards modern industry guidelines for lighting in museums and galleries". Emrah is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and Technical Director at Steensen Varming. Emrah brings a unique voice to conversations about light, art, and science.

Julian Rennie has been a part-time Tutor in the Departments of Architecture, Interior Design, and Landscape Architecture at Unitec, Auckland, for the last 25 years and has been a practicing Architect for the last 35 years. He graduated with a B.Arch. (Honours) from Auckland University in 1983. Julian has had papers published in Black Book: Drawing and Sketching (2020, 2024), Auckland, New Zealand: Guidelines and Comparison with Notable Buildings 1923-28 (2023), Journal of the International Colour Association (2024) International Journal of Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics Science, (2023), Cities People Places (2016), TRACEY (2014), Journal of Pedagogic Development (2013), ScreenCity Journal (2013). Julian has presented at various Conferences around the world over the last 15 years, and has also been awarded various architectural prizes within New Zealand.

Alessandro Premier is an architect (registered in Italy), graduated with a Master’s-degree from IUAV University of Venice (Italy) and PhD in Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture of the University of Ferrara (Italy). Alessandro joined the University of Auckland in 2018, where he is Senior Lecturer (above the bar) of Architectural Technology and is currently teaching environmental design at the School of Architecture and Planning. He is also member of the Future Cities Research Centre and one of the founding members of the Eterotopie Colour, Light and Communication in Architecture Research Lab in Italy, where he carries out design and research activities on architectural technology and environmental sustainability. Alessandro specializes in the architectural integration of innovative materials, products and technologies to improve the environmental quality of liveable spaces and has authored more than 100 publications including books, curatorship, conference papers, journal articles and magazine articles.

Samantha Donnelly is an architectural designer and academic in the School of Interior Architecture at University of Technology Sydney. Since graduating from the University of Adelaide, she has worked in architectural practices and as a sole practitioner, delivering designs, concepts, and illustrations for not-for-profit projects to support disadvantaged communities and housing for women at risk of homelessness. Her research focuses on how tailored design can support specialist services for women and children leaving domestic violence, and the social impact of trauma-informed design for people who need safe, affordable, and sustainable homes.

Sonia van de Haar is an artist and architectural colour specialist. She formed Lymesmith in 2011 as a colour focussed studio working to produce site specific artworks and material palettes for the built environment. Born in Wollongong, NSW, Sonia studied painting at the School of Art and Design (SOAD), ANU. Whilst studying fresco painting at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, her journey towards an integrated art and architecture practice began. Her subsequent completion of an architecture degree at the University of NSW led to the formation of Lymesmith studio which reflects her cross-disciplinary interests, and position outside of traditional gallery-based art making. In both her architectural and artwork, Sonia is known as Lymesmith.

Rebecca Boehme is a Melbourne-based glass artist who specialises in stained glass painting and leadlighting, heritage glass restoration and conservation. After completing a Certificate in Glass and Glazing at Melbourne Polytechnic in 2020, she has worked in several professional glass studios across Australia, gaining hands-on experience in both traditional and contemporary glass techniques. Rebecca is currently based at Almond Glassworks in Melbourne, Australia. She is an active member of the Colour Society of Australia, the British Society of Master Glass Painters, and the Australian Artisans Guild. In 2025, Rebecca was awarded the prestigious Mason Family Fellowship through the International Specialised Skills Institute, recognising her commitment to advancing skills and knowledge in the field of stained glass and conservation.

Rebecca Cadorin is a lighting designer and researcher at Arup Sydney with 20 years of experience in the built environment. I’m passionate about creating spaces that inspire and foster meaningful experiences, believing strongly in the power of place to shape human behaviour. My work spans from concept to commissioning, and I thrive on collaboration with clients, end users, and project partners. With a background in interior design, I’ve undertaken research into the psychological effects of coloured light and exploring how it can be used to enhance wellbeing in the environments we inhabit.

Pia López-Izquierdo holds a PhD in Architecture (Cum Laude) from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), where she is Associate Professor and Course Leader in Interior Design, and a Masters in Philosophy of Perception from the Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. She was a Research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Seminar on the Philosophy of Perception, and leader of the international research group TECA (Enactive Theory of Colour in Architecture). Her research explores the physical, emotional, and cognitive impact of colour in architectural space and people’s behaviour. Pia is the author of Chromatic Tales of Modernity (UPM, 2012), a thesis that establishes the emotional nature of colour perception. She developed the Enactive Colour Theory and the Enactive Colour Concepts for architecture that combines philosophical, artistic, and architectural approaches to social spaces like hospitals and schools through the concept of Colour Tabulae—a method to integrate painting and architecture.

Dolores Terriza trained in Medicine and Surgery at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, she has developed her clinical career in the fields of Gastroenterology and Radiodiagnosis, with specialization in both areas, having worked at leading institutions such as Hospital Gregorio Marañón and Fundación Jiménez Díaz (Madrid, Spain). She also holds a Masters in Communication from the Universidad de Alcalá. She is a member of both the Spanish and European Societies of Radiology, and an active collaborator in the TECA-UPM research group (Enactive Theory of Color in Architecture, a research group of the Polytechnical University of Madrid), where she contributes to ongoing investigations into the cognitive and emotional dimensions of color in relation to architectural thought and the aesthetic experience of space.