Staff Profiles

Brad Miller is an Artist and Design Academic at the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts; he lives and works in Sydney.  In his early works, he typically manipulated found images and sound to create single channel video. For the past six years, he has used original photographic and video content in his interactive works in which he explores identity, memory and mnemonic associations. Miller suggests, through his installation work, that the associations created by photography and social networking sites have a subtle but complex influence on identity and our construction of self.  He has written on the nature of self in the age of ubiquitous networks and the mediation of memories, recently presenting a paper at International Symposium of Electronic Arts 2011 Istanbul.

The platform that he has created through his installation augment_me (a memory machine of sorts) is a form which he continues to develop both as regards the refinement of the interactivity and programming, changing and editing the content (photography and audio) and ultimately the conceptual relationship between the content and interactive form in relation to the viewer of the work. 

With his most recent installation, data_shadow for Underbelly Art on Cockatoo Island in 2011, Miller worked with personal photographic memories as data shadows (n. The trackable data that a person creates by using technologies such as credit cards, cell phones, and the Internet). The installation used 4 synchronized projectors to create a continuous curtain (20m) of images which responded to a machine-vision tracking system with the added effect of immersive surround sound that locates the audiences’ position in the exhibition space. The installation is highly adaptive and portable, with the capability to change its content (photographs, video and sounds) in relation to the site.

Miller was a Research Room Resident (Oct-Dec 2010) at Critical Path, Sydney where he investigated machine-vision and choreographed bodies. He presented a working model of augment_me during SEAM2010 and participated in the SEAM laboratory – Choreographing in a Mediated Environment, led by Christian Zeigler. In early 2011, he was attached as a researcher to contemporary dance company Chunky Move with Gideon Orbanzek and Reuben Margolis, further exploring the human body as data interface. During September 2011 Miller worked in Shanghai, China with the multi-disciplinary Design Studio/LAB Rare Earth using the augment_me installation as an experimental research platform. From October 2011 – January 2012, he will be in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and creating a new work.

Group Exhibitions:

1. 2012, Tracking/tracing, Stiftelsen 3,14 Gallery, Bergen, Norway.
2. 2011, Rare Earth, Bridge8 Phase II, Shanghai, China.
3. 2011, data_shadow, Underbelly Arts, Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
4. 2010, augment_me, SEAM2010, Drill Hall, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
5. 2009, augment_me, Artspace Sydney.
6. 1999, A Planet of Noise, with Ken Wark, Contact Zones. Cornell University, New York.

Presentations and papers:

1. 2011    augment_me: An algorithmic memory, absence and presence in the cloud. ISEA 2011 Istanbul.
2. 2011    Panel member of Don’t Anthropomorpise me, ISEA 2011 Istanbul.
3. 2010    Createworld 2010, Griffith University, Brisbane, Presentation.
4. 2010    Augment_me an artist presentation Drill Hall, Sydney.
5. 2009    Augment_me paper at SEAM09 Sydney.

Studio Residencies:

1. 2012    Red Gate Gallery Downtown Studio, Tuanjiehu, Beijing.
2. 2011    Cite Internationale Studio, Paris.
3. 2011    Self initiated Research attachment with Chunky Move, Melbourne.
4. 2010    Research Residency Room at Critical Path, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
5. 2009    Artspace, Sydney.

Grants and investments:

1. 2011    UNSW MREII Upgrade of an existing interactive research platform, The Integrated Wireless Multi-sensor input array and wide-field stereoscopic 3D digital projection system as Mobile interactive exhibition platform.  Miller, B., Kuchelmeister, V., Goodwin, R., Harley, R. ($75,986)
2. 2011    COFA Staff Travel Grant. ($1937)
3. 2011    UNSW ITIP Integrated Wireless Multi-sensor input array and wide-field digital projection system as interactive exhibition platform. Miller, B., Killen, L.($77,690)
4. 2010    Faculty Research Grant. Incubating Trust, Signaling Coherence: Evaluating Interactive Media Platform (augment_me) in cross-cultural contexts. McArthur, I., Miller, B., Goodwin, R, ($9,098)
5. 2010    COFA Staff Travel Grant. ($1550)
6. 2010    UNSW Contestable Funding – International Projects ($18, 968) McArthur, I., Miller, B., Goodwin, R, COFA in CHINA, A collaborative exhibition project between COFA and Donghua University Shanghai. 
7. 2009    Sound for Media arts, Music Board (with Ian Andrews) ($12,000)
8. 2008    New Work VACB ($20,000)

Rewiew and other publications:

1. 2010    Column 5 published by Artspace, Sydney Dataflow by Lizzie Muller (review) ISSN 1835-3487
2. 2009    RealTime Arts Magazine V94 Deepening degrees of subjectivity by Ella Mudie (review)