
Degrees
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
Awards | Australian Postgraduate Award (2014-18) | Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme
Academic appointments
Professional / Industry employment
Press and Promotion
Conference Presentations
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.