Daniel Miller. Juried Artist
As Above, So Below
QUT Art Museum
23 June – 13 October
Artist Statement
In Mutual Light by Daniel Miller, visitors invisible infrared heat signature is made visible when the participant approaches one of ten interactive robotic flower forms. The changes in visitors body heat, proximity and air quality will cause the light sculptures to animate with light through temporal and color changes. In the center of each illuminated flower structure a long-range infrared thermometer takes readings of the invisible heat signature of a participant. In this project there is an observable relationship, where humans emit light in the infrared spectrum and the flowers respond by emitting light in the visible spectrum. This work visualizes that which usually goes unseen. Body temperature has long been understood as a gauge of wellness. Something that we are all too familiar with now given the global pandemic. This is essential-ly the same type of sensor that would be used by health screening personnel, except with greater range. At the same time the “robo-flora” will use distance sensors to precisely read visitors proximity to each flower and output different color values when body heat is at lower temperatures. Additionally, four of the ten interactive forms are also able to sense and respond to air quality in the local environment. Each of the light flower’s structures will be made from HDPE recycled plastic that the artist has reclaimed from used plastic milk jugs. Mutual Light looks to find novel uses for this material as an art form. Themes explored in this project include: social distancing, climate change, the body, social interaction, plant/human relation-ships, air quality, expanded awareness, plastic waste and sustainability.
About the artists
Daniel Miller uses robotics, electronics, sound, video and light investigate systems and ecologies in the contemporary landscape. In August he will be joining the faculty in the Art and Technology Sound Practices Dept. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently he is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. He has received numerous commissions, grants and awards to support his research.
Exhibitions: ISEA 2017 Manizales Colombia; ISEA 2016 Hong Kong; iDEAS exhibition at International Digital Media Arts Association Conference (2017 and 2016); ISEA 2012 Albuquerque, ISEA 1997 Chicago; International Festival of Electronic Art 404, Basel, Switzerland and Trieste, Italy; Tweak, Interactive Art & Live Electronic Music Festival, Limerick, Ireland. Simulating Nature, solo exhibition, Cohen Gallery, Brown University, RI; Place, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Synthetic Zero, Bronx Art Space, NYC; Body and Machine 2016, Minneapolis, MN; SpotLight, Elmhurst Art Museum, IL; Faculty Biennial, Figge Museum, Davenport, IA; Objective/Subjective: Mapping, NIU Art Museum, DeKalb, IL; Conflux, Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio State University at Mansfield, OH; Altered Landscapes, solo, Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL; The Rockford Midwestern Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford IL; Minneapolis, MN; in::formation, Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Mentioned in: “Anthropocene”, Issues in Science and Technology Spring 2018, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Vol. XXXIV, Number 3, pages 64-72. Information Arts, Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology., by Wilson, Stephen. Leonardo, “in::formation, The Aesthetic use of Machine Beings, Vol. 33.; ASEF Culture 360, “ISEA Cultural R>evolution”, review by Hugh Davies, http://culture360.asef.org/magazine/international-symposium-of-electronic-art/ .
Credits: Daniel Miller