Lecturer
Dr Deborah Tillman
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
Arts,Design & Architecture
School of Art & Design
Deborah Turnbull Tillman is 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 exhibition was in Tin Sheds Gallery from 20 October - 10 December 2022, titled SHErobots, and co-curated with A/Profs Lian Loke and Dagmar Reinhardt.
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.
Website | www.newmediacuration.com/new
Mobile
0400920761
Phone
Teams: 02 9065 7436
Location
Crnr Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington
F219C - PO Box 259 PADDINGTON
NSW 2021 AUSTRALIA
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- UNSW School of Art & Design Publication Costs Support ($3000) - Awarded Final Round, July 2022
- UNSW Education Focused Career Development Fund ($5000) - Awarded April 2020
- UNSW Education Focused Career Development Fund ($2900) - Awarded October 2019
- Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme ($3000) - Awarded June 2017
- Australian Postgraduate Award ($100,000) - Awarded 2014-18
Awards | Australian Postgraduate Award (2014-18) | Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme
Academic appointments
- Invited Arts Chair, 15th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (2023/4) 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-.
- 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.
- Culture and Technology Lead, Creative Robotics Lab and Art Director at the National Facility for HRI, 2020-.
- 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 - present
- PhD Candidate, University of NSW Art and Design, University of New South Wales, Feb 2014 - present
- Sessional Lecturer, University of NSW Art and Design, University of NSW Art and Design, Feb 2016 - present
- 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
- 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) 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
Press and Promotion
- Tim Stackpool interviews Lian Loke and Deb Turnbull Tillman (2022) SHErobots at Tin Sheds Gallery. Inside the Gallery. 19 October 2022 - https://insidethegallery.com.au/e/inside-the-gallery-australia-sherobots-at-tin-sheds-gallery/.
Conference Presentations
- 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.