Brad Miller is an artist, educator, researcher and curator he lives and works between Sydney and Beijing. His artistic practice bridges the fields of media arts, experimental design studio, participatory urban media architecture, software development and expanded photography. Typically, his large-scale responsive installations explore the emergent relationships between art + technology with a focus on the social balance between observation and surveillance.
Structured by code, the content of his installations have interrogated photographic images: augment_me (2009); data_shadow (2011); Journey through Dashilar (2016) and—separately—crowd-sourced images and audio that explore a specific city or natural world: mediated_moments (2012); #capillary (2013); le_temps (2013) and being watched (2018). The random and conscious associations created by the works, I believe are the subject as it are these that have a complex and subtle effect on self in an age of social media and photography as a real-time mediated aesthetic experience. His recent works: plasma_flow (2012) and starry_night (2014) use algorithms to simulate natural. Starry_night has most recently showcased in the 5th Art and Science International Exhibition and Symposium at The National Museum of China, Beijing.
Miller has written on the nature of self in the age of ubiquitous networks and the mediation of memories. He has presented his research at: ‘Somatic Embodiment, Agency & Mediation in Digital Mediated Environments’ Sydney (2010) and ISEA Istanbul (2011). While working with collaborators, Miller has presented his contributions at: ICDHS San Paulo (2012), ISEA Sydney (2013), Media-Arts History Conference Riga (2013) and Digital Arts Forum, Copenhagen (2013) and a member of both the Interactive Media and Creative Robotics Labs at UNSW Art & Design.
Since 2012, Miller, has been active internationally as an exhibiting artist and curator in the field of experimental media arts. He has delivered projects for Beijing Design Week (2012); Design HOP in Beijing (2015); the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade-supported MAD.LAB@Beijing Design Week (2016); and Beijing Media Arts Biennale at Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum Beijing (2018), Hanshan Art Museum Suzhou (2018) and Shanghai Sky Contemporary Art Space Shanghai (2019).
Miller has been invited to join the curatorium for Being Artificial - Beijing Art + Technology Biennale in 2020 as co-curator and visiting scholar, other members are drawn from institutions and networks across the world such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Art Institute of Chicago and Next Nature Network. Miller's ongoing participation in the Curatorium and the inclusion of Australian practitioners in the exhibition is an exceptional opportunity to undertake sustained purposeful cultural engagement. In 2020-21, BATB will have its first regional tour and its touring partners - Hua Art Museum Shenzhen, Hanshan Art Museum Suzhou, Academy of Fine Arts Guangzhou and Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Chengdu.
2019 Professional development opportunity in Beijing, Korea and London. CreateNSW, artist support (round 2), Miller, B. ($3,180)
2019 Curatorial roadmap BMAB 2020, UNSW Faculty Research Grant, Miller, B. ($2,500)
2018 Telstra Southport interactive hub, Davies, A.P. Bown, O. Miller, B. Contract Research, Telstra Corp. ($216,520)
2018 Presenting Australian Artists at Beijing Media Arts Biennale, DFAT ACD, Miller, B. Fenner, F. ($20,000)
2017 Supporting artists development for Beijing Media Arts Biennale, Copyright Agency, Cultural Fund, Miller, B. Fenner, F. ($25,000)
2017 New Colombo Plan, short mobility program, Intra-action Lab CAFA, Beijing. Miller, B ($79,200)
2017 UNSW FRIG Bown, O. Khut, G. Velonaki, M. Davies, A. Miller, B. McGhee, J. Flanagan, P. Kuchelmeister, V. ($82,288)
2016 Building, strengthening and consolidating connections: Australia-China design dialogues, DFAT ACC, Miller, B. McArthur, I. ($20,000)
2016 MAD.LAB @ Beijing Design Week, DFAT ACD Program, Miller, B. McArthur, I. ($14,943)
2015 UNSW Faculty Research Grant, Examining the experiences of flow, Miller, B. ($10,000)
2014 Destination NSW (VIVID) Commission Miller, B. ($30,000)
2014 Henry Halloran Trust, University of Sydney, McArthur, I. Tomitsch, M. Haeusler, M. Miller, B. Foth, M. Murphie, A. Hespanhol, L. ($47,834)
2013 UNSW GRS Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,500)
2013 UNSW Art & Design Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,000)
2013 UNSW Art & Design Faculty Research Grant. Interactive media platform. Miller, B. ($15,000)
2013 UNSW Art & Design Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,000)
2013 UNSW MREII. Velonaki, M. Barker, M. Fenner, F. Gemeinboeck.P, Harley, R. Miller, B. Munster, A. Pagnucco, M. ($99,738)
2013 Arts NSW, Arts Funding Program, New Project, Miller, B., auspiced by NAVA ($36,000)
2012 Destination NSW (VIVID) Commission Miller, B. ($20,000)
2012 UNSW Art & Design Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,000)
2012 Inter-Arts Projects, Australia Council, 'le_temps creative development phenology/crowd sourced. Miller, B. Brain, T. ($12,000)
2012 UNSW Art & Design Faculty Research Grant. Develop a robust video tracking software tools. Miller, B., McArthur, I. ($9,800)
2012 UNSW MREII, Mobile Interactive Media Platform. Miller,B. Kuchelmeister, V. Goodwin, R. Harley,R. ($75,986)
2011 UNSW Staff Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,000)
2011 DEEWR Study Overseas Short-term Mobility Program. McArthur, I., Miller, B., Goodwin, R. ($19,800)
2011 UNSW ITIP Wireless interactive exhibition platform. Miller, B., Killen, L. ($77,690)
2010 Faculty Research Grant. Incubating Trust. McArthur, I. Miller, B. Goodwin, R, ($9,098)
2010 UNSW Staff Travel Grant. Miller, B. ($3,000)
2010 UNSW Contestable Funding – International Projects McArthur, I., Miller, B., Goodwin, R. ($18,968)
2009 New Work, Music Board. (with Ian Andrews) ($12,000)
2008 New Work, VACB Australia Council. ($20,000)
Beijing Media Arts Biennale (2018)
Curatorial research background: Throughout the pass twenty years Beijing has seen a number of high-profile media arts survey exhibitions exhaustively presented significant works in the fields of data art, bio art and creative robotics. While this research has contextualised various technological practises seen in the creative arts, it has under-developed a robust curatorial peer review or jury process leading to potential risks of under representative or overly didactic exhibitions which have difficult making claims of originality.
Research Contribution: The Post-Life Beijing Media Arts Biennale invited artists, designers, scientists and theorists to discuss art & technology in society, and through in-depth discussion, generate new knowledge that can be shared with our society. The exhibition presented an impressive group of artists who are contributing, experimenting and articulating challenging questions relating to the philosophy, ethics, morals and aesthetics of art and its relationship to frontiers of science in the Asian Century and plays an important role in re-imagining and re-framing questions about the ineffable; by exploring the equality of sentient life forms, traversing the hard-line objectivity of science and binary categorisation of beings.
Research Significance: The project contributed to a robust curatorial framework and the inclusion of 13 noted Australian media artists. Exhibited at Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Gallery, a 2nd tier public institution, a published catalogue, a three-gallery national tour at 2nd and 3rd tier public institutions and a number of public forums and keynote presentations. Its value is attested by support by; China National Arts Fund, an Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant, Copyright Agency Cultural Fund grant; The Telstra Southport Interactive Hub research contract.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5067-4263
