Kate Catterall is Associate Professor of Design at the University of Texas at Austin. Initially trained in the materials and methods of the industrial age as a silversmith, product and furniture designer, she started her career designing one-off products and environments for the luxury market in the United Kingdom. Catterall has lived in the United States since 1993 undertaking a broad range of projects through which she explored the history, form and cultural relevance of design in her new country. Her research currently focuses on the ethical dilemmas faced by designers (and society) as the far-reaching consequences of the design act and the broader role of the designer in culture are reassessed. Through experimental interventions she frames design as a central form of cultural production and a practice that reaches well beyond commercial application; exploring the potential of designed artifacts as polemical tools capable of transforming actions, lifestyles and opinions.

This event is part of the Lennox Lecture Series on the topic of Borders and Belonging: The Arts and Archives of Place, organized by Professors Jenny Browne and Kathryn Vomero Santos.