Deborah Turnbull Tillman is the Director of Lifelong Learning for the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. She is an educator teaching into the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership in the School of Art & Design, and a curator specialising in design, technology and new media. Her first curatorial project was Beta_space, an experimental gallery at the Powerhouse Museum focused on the audience’s role in interactive art. This fuelled...view more
Deborah Turnbull Tillman is the Director of Lifelong Learning for the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. She is an educator teaching into the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership in the School of Art & Design, and a curator specialising in design, technology and new media. Her first curatorial project was Beta_space, an experimental gallery at the Powerhouse Museum focused on the audience’s role in interactive art. This fuelled her interest in how technology augments traditional art practice and how the audience is becoming a necessary material for technology based art. She then joined the curatorial team at the Powerhouse Museum as Assistant Curator – Design & Technology, where she curated exhibitions such as ISEA2013, designTECH, Good Design and Game Masters.
Deborah's PhD, which examines disruption and experiential learning regarding curatorial process, was awarded in September 2018 and is titled 'New Media Curation: a novel methodology and preliminary criteria for exhibiting new media and interactive art.' The three case studies that supported her contributions to the field include Denouement as part of Musify+Gamify for VIVIDMusic 2015; ISEA 2015: disruption; and Re/Pair for the Big Anxiety Festival at UNSW Art & Design in 2017. Her most recent exhibitions include SHErobots::tool::toy::companion (Tin Sheds Gallery, 2022), PRISMS of Influence: Echoes of Colour in the Code (Mosman Gallery, 2023), the A&D Annual Exhibition (2023) and Art Gallery Producer for SIGGRAPHAisa'23, the Unruly Times exhibition (2023), SHErobots 2.0: Ecologies of Care (TU Dleft Library, Feb-May 2024), the Art Gallery Chair for the Creativity and Congition 2024 Conference themed Organic Architecture (based on Frank Lloyd Wright) (Chicago, IL, USA, June 2024). Her current curatorial project is installed at Bankstown Art Centre and is titled FEM-Me: feminine mechanics and Other kinetic systems (21 Sept-9 Nov, 2024).
An editor and author as well as a curator, Deborah began sessional teaching at UNSW Art & Design in 2016 and was awarded a Tenure Track Lecturer position there in Media Arts and Curatorial in 2021. Her most recent publication was as Co-Editor and Contributing Author to Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and their Emergent Cultural Ecologies, Springer, NY and Switzerland, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031281372, ROS ID: 1990309.
Website | www.newmediacuration.com
My Grants
- Exhibition Production Award, Bankstown Art Center, Canterbury-Bankstown Council, for FEM-Me: feminine mechanics and Other kinetic systems ($15,000). Invited by Director Rachael Kiang, July 2024.
- The SIGCHI Development Fund for: "Creativity & Cognition 2024: Promoting Disciplinary Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Interactive Arts Community" ($10,000US) - with Prof. Brian Bailey (U of Illinois), Prof Celine Latulipe (U of Manitoba) and Hallie Sanclemente (independent artist)
- National Facility of HRI Production Funding for SHErobots: Ecologies of Care ($9700)
- TU Delft Library Exhibition Production Funding ($7900)
- UNSW School of Art & Design, Annual Exhibition Graduate Showcase 2023 ($45,000) - budget assignment July 2023
- Course Design Institute Implementation Grant 2023 ($2,500) - Awarded June 2023
- UNSW School of Art & Design Publication Costs Support ($3,000) - Awarded Final Round, July 2022
- UNSW Education Focused Career Development Fund ($5,000) - Awarded April 2020
- UNSW Education Focused Career Development Fund ($2,900) - Awarded October 2019
- Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme ($3,000) - Awarded June 2017
- Australian Postgraduate Award ($100,000) - Awarded 2014-18
My Qualifications
Degrees
- PhD in Art, Design and Media, UNSW Art & Design, Australia, Feb 2014 - Sep 2018
- Master of Arts Curatorship and Modern Art, University of Sydney, Australia, Feb 2005 - Mar 2006
- Bachelor of Arts, Art History, University of Victoria, Canada, Sep 1998 - Aug 2002
My Awards
Awards | Australian Postgraduate Award (2014-18) | Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme
My Research Activities
Academic appointments
- Appointed to Director Lifelong Learning, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW, May 2024-2027
- Appointment to Tenure Track Lecturer, Education Focused Academic in the School of Fine Arts, School of Art and Design, UNSW, April 2024-ongoing
- Invited Arts Exhibition Chair, 16th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (2024) Creative Organic Spaces. Co-curated by Deborah Turnbull Tillman and Hallie Morrison, 24-26 June 2024, Chicago, IL, USA
- Invited Co-Director of the Graduate Consortium, ISEA 2024: EveryWhen, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21-29 June 2024
- Invited Guest Curator, SHErobots: Ecologies of Care, TU Delft Library, TU Delft, The Netherlands, 12 Feb - 30 May 2024
- Appointed Director, Annual Exhibition Graduate Showcase 2023. 6-18 December 2023. UNSW Art & Design - Paddington Campus, Sydney, Australia
- Invited Arts Producer, Art Gallery Track, SIGGRAPH Asia 2023. Connecting Stories: Unruly Times. 12-15 December 2023, ICC Sydney, Australia
- Invited Arts Chair, 15th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (2023) Creative Organic Spaces. Co-curated by Deborah Turnbull Tillman, Hallie Morrison and Vladimir Kolzeev. (Call for Participation released November 2022 and closing on 23 January 2023)
- Appointment to Director Education and Work Integrated Learning, School of Art and Design, UNSW, May 2022-present
- Invited Co-curator (with A/Prof. Lian Loke and Dagmar Reinhardt), SHE Robots, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, Oct-Dec 2022
- Promotion to Lecturer (Tenure Track), Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW, 2021-2024
- Culture and Technology Lead, Creative Robotics Lab and Art Director at the National Facility for HRI, 2020-present
- Curatorial Liaison, Biotica Research Project (ARC) for the Interactive Media Lab, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, 2020-2023
- Invited Arts Chair, Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions (2020) Conference, UTS and University of Sydney, 9-12 February 2020 (resulting in the exhibition Never odd or eveN, Tin Sheds Gallery, 10-12 February 2020).
- Associate Lecturer, Art & Design, University of New South Wales, May 2019 - 2021.
- PhD Candidate, University of NSW Art and Design, University of New South Wales, Feb 2014 - 2018
- Sessional Lecturer, University of NSW Art and Design, University of NSW Art and Design, Feb 2016 - May 2019
- Casual Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Jun 2014 - Nov 2015
- Casual Lecturer, Curator, Design Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, Jun 2010 - Nov 2012
- Contract Curator, Bloodbath by Bumpp, School of Communication Arts, College of the Arts, University of Western Sydney, Aug 2010 - Oct 2010
- Curator and Editor for Memory Flows, Centre for Media Arts Innovation, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Jun 2009 - Jun 2010
- Research Assistant, Curator, Project Manager, Research Associate, Creativity and Cognition Studios, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology, Sydney, Apr 2006 - present
Professional / Industry employment
- Invited Assessor, the Elise Richter Program, Austrian Science Fund, full application for 2-4 years research funding for curatorial practice, Dec 2024-Jan 2025
- Invited Reviewer, the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2025), Abstracts and Full Scientific Papers, Nov/Dec 2024
- Invited Lead Curator, FEM-Me: feminine mechanics and Other kinetic systems, Bankstown Arts Centre, Bankstown NSW 2200, 21 September - 9 November 2024
- Guest Curator, PRISMS of Influence: Echoes from 'the Colour in the Code: an Ernest Edmonds Retrospective', Mosman Gallery, Sydney, Australia, Dec 2022 - March 2023
- Exhibition Production Manager, Art & Design, International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA). Emily Carr University of Art & Design and Simon Fraser University, Apr 2015 - Aug 2015
- Assistant Curator, Design & Technology, Curatorial, Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Powerhouse Museum, Jul 2012 - Aug 2014
- Contract Curator, Public Sculpture Commission for City North, Property Logistics, Ausgrid and Urban Art Projects, May 2012 - Aug 2012
- Contract Curator, InterArts Board and Digital Culture Fund, Australia Council for the Arts, Jan 2011 - Mar 2011
- Contract Curator, Public Sculpture Commission for Silverwater Learning Centre, Property Logistics, Ausgrid, Jan 2011 - Aug 2011
- Contract Curator, Grid Gallery, Property Logistics and Digital Direction, Ausgrid and Leo Burnett, Jun 2010 - Dec 2010
- Contract Curator, Image Ecologies, Events and Exhibitions, University of Technology, Sydney, Jun 2009 - Aug 2009
- Curator of Beta_space, Faculty of Engineering and IT, Curatorial, Creativity and Cognition Studios, Powerhouse Museum and New Media Curation, Apr 2008 - May 2011
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
Curatorial process, new media, interactive art, New Media Curation methodology, criteria, audience experience, reflective practice, practice-led research
My Engagement
Press and Promotion
Conference Participation and Invited Talks
- UNSW SOTL Series (2025) - Frames and Methods for Practice and Research: Insights from an Arts Doctoral Colloquium. 30-minute presentation with A/Prof Jen Seevinck; hosted by the UNSW PVCE at the Teaching Commons, Tuesday 4 March 2025.
- SXSW Sydney (2024) - Invited Juror for the XR Panel at The Future Belongs to the Curious, ICC Sydney, 14-20 October 2024.
- HDR Employability Symposium (T3, 2024) - Invited panelist for Employability - John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW, Sydney - 9 October 2024.
- Creativity and Cognition (2023) - Curator led tours (x2) of the online exhibition of Creative Organic Spaces. GatherTown online platform. 20/21 June, 2023.
- UNSW Education Focused Retreat (2022) - Teaching and Tech Conversations, 9 August 2022, Pullman Resorts, Magenta Shores Resort, Central Coast, NSW, Australia.
- UNSW EduFest (2021). Pandemic Pivots: collaborative assessment scenarios. Long Presentation with Derek Williamson (Community Partner), Kelly Price (student representative) and Julia Farleigh (student representative). 27-29 November 2021. Online: Sydney, Australia.
- UNSW Education Focused Retreat (2020). How much feedback is enough? Iterative learning and ecologies of education in Media Arts Honours. Pecha Kucha Presentation. Online: Sydney, Australia.
- Human-Robot Interaction International (August 2017). An exploratory case study into curatorial intervention within the context of HCI. Long presentation with collaborator Jorge Forseck. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- ISEA 2015: Disruption (Aug 2015). Curating: a disruptive technique for disruptive technologies. Long presentation. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- UNSW Higher Degree Research Conference (2015). Authenticating Experience: curating digital interactive art. Convened by Dr. Michele Barker. UNSW Faculty of Art and Design, Sydney, Australia. 18-19 June, 2015.
- Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI'15)(Jan 2015). Authenticating Experience: curating digital interactive art. Doctoral Consortium. 15-19 January 2015. San Francisco, CA, USA.
My Teaching
I teach across a broad range of subjects, namely around future-focused interactive technologies such as interactive art, but also professional practice across media arts and curatorial studies. Since 2016 I have supervised MDES, MCCL, and BMA Honours students in these areas and collaboratively advised PhD students in the Creative Robotics Lab either through protoyping, audience evaluation or exhibition. To this end I am the Leader of Culture and Technology across the Creative Robotics Lab and the National Facility for Human-Robot Interaction Research.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-421X