ALA Lens

A rich new interface (and three data stories) for the Atlas of Living Australia, in collaboration with Adrian Mackenzie

launch

Projects · November 2024

The Sound of Water: sensing a wetland intervention through interactive environmental audio

Documenting and reflecting on The Sound of Water, with Skye Wassens and Adrian Mackenzie, in Cultural Geographies

launch

Writing · September 2023

Beyond the Book

A digital exhibition for State Library Victoria, created with Julia Rodwell and researchers from the ARC Linkage Project Transforming the Early Modern Archive: The Emmerson Collection at State Library Victoria

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Projects · August 2023

Making with Climate Data: Materiality, Metaphor and Engagement

Reflections on the Climate Coaster project, with Geoff Hinchcliffe, in Ian Gwilt (ed), Making Data: Materializing Digital Information (Bloomsbury, 2022).

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Writing · April 2022

The Sound of Water

An audiovisual data-story exploring Nap Nap Swamp, on the Murrumbidgee River. Created for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office's Flow-MER program, in collaboration with ecologist Skye Wassens.

launch

Projects · December 2021

The Early Modern Women's Complaint Poetry Index

A generous interface for an index of early modern womens complaint poetry - with Ros Smith, Sarah Ross, Michelle O'Callaghan and Jake Arthur.

launch

Projects · November 2021

Design Collaboration and Exaptation in a Habitat Restoration Project

with Joyce Hwang and Darren Le Roux, in She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation

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Writing · July 2021

Biodiversity data as public environmental media

with Belinda Smaill, in the Journal of Environmental Media 2(1). An ecocritical analysis of the visual languages of digital biodiversity.

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Writing · March 2021

Molonglo Life

A platform for digital encounters with wildlife in the Molonglo River Reserve, on the fringes of urban Canberra.

launch

Projects · July 2019

My Climate 2050

Visualising climate change projections for over 4700 locations around Australia. With Geoff Hinchcliffe; commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

launch

Projects · December 2018

Corley Explorer

An explorer for the State Library of Queensland's Corley Collection; 61,000 photographs of Queensland houses from the 1960s and 70s. Commissioned by SLQ; made with Geoff Hinchcliffe and our friends at Icelab.

launch

Projects · December 2018

Climate Coasters

Tangible visualisations of Australian climate change, developed with Geoff Hinchcliffe and the ANU Climate Change Institute.

Projects · May 2018

Mashups and Matters of Concern: Generative Approaches to Digital Collections

Reflecting on generative techniques for remaking digital heritage, through the projects Drifter and Succession. Published in the Open Library of Humanities special issue Remaking Collections.

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Writing · April 2018

Visualising Raynal

Visualising changes through three editions of Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes. With Geoff Hinchcliffe and Glenn Roe.

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Projects · January 2018

Australasian data practices: Mining, scraping, mapping, hacking

in Artlink 37:1, Data Visual. A look at data practice in Australia and New Zealand through the work of four prominent creators spanning visualisation, cartography and digital heritage.

Writing · November 2017

Marking Time

A catalogue essay on time, attention and climate change for Jo Law's Illustrated Almanac of the Illawarra and Beyond.

Writing · August 2017

Pings: Matter, Environment and Technology in the work of HC Gilje

A text commissioned by Norwegian artist HC Gilje for his monograph Conversations with Spaces.

Writing · May 2017

Local Kin

A visual explorer for biodiversity data

launch

Projects · December 2016

Drifter

A multilayered portrait of the Murrumbidgee river system, made out of data

launch

Projects · March 2016

Asia Art Archive Bibliography Interfaces

Generous interfaces for the Asia Art Archive's online bibliography of Indian art

launch

Projects · December 2015

Macaulay Library Remix

An experimental "unsolicited" interface to the wildlife audio collection of the Macaulay Library

launch

Projects · August 2015

Accretor: Generative materiality in the work of Driessens and Verstappen

in Artificial Life 21 (3): 307–312 (Summer 2015)

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Writing · August 2015

Generous Interfaces for Digital Cultural Collections

in Digital Humanities Quarterly 9(1) (2015). This paper updates and expands my previous writing on generous interfaces

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Writing · July 2015

Representing Digital Collections

in Performing Digital: Multiple Perspectives on a Living Archive, ed. David Carlin and Laurene Vaughan (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2015)

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Writing · May 2015

Epistemological Machines and Protocomputing

With Ralf Baecker, in Experiencing the Unconventional: Science in Art ed. Theresa Schubert and Andrew Adamatzky. World Scientific, 2015.

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Writing · February 2015

Succession

Digital fossils from the history of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. An experiment in generative heritage

launch

Projects · November 2014

Discover the Queenslander

A generous interface to 1,000 covers and pages from The Queenslander, 1890-1939. Developed with Geoff Hinchliffe.

launch

Projects · June 2014

Nolan Explorer

An exploratory interface for the Canberra Museum and Gallery's Nolan Collection

launch

Projects · March 2014

The Institutional Harvest

Visualising the history of women's services and agencies in Australia, 1970-2011

launch

Projects · December 2013

Sheer Hardware: Material Computing in the Work of Martin Howse and Ralf Baecker

In Scan 10(2) (2013), "The In/Visibilities of Code"

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Writing · December 2013

Towards Generous Interfaces for Archival Collections

This paper makes the case for the limitations of search, and proposes instead the concept of “generous interfaces” for digital collections

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Writing · October 2013

Figuring Data

A catalog essay commissioned for Datascape, an exhibition at QUT's Cube Gallery, April 2013.

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Writing · June 2013

Explore Australian Prints + Printmaking

Three experimental, "generous" interfaces for the National Gallery of Australia's Australian Prints + Printmaking site

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Projects · April 2013

Ten Questions Concerning Generative Computer Art

with Jon McCormack, Ollie Bown, Alan Dorin and Jonathan McCabe; in Leonardo 47(2) (2014)

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Writing · March 2013

TroveMosaic

An experimental "generous" interface for the Trove picture search

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Projects · December 2012

Transmateriality: Presence Aesthetics and the Media Arts

in Throughout, ed Ulrik Ekman, MIT Press 2012

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Writing · December 2012

A Framework for Understanding Generative Art

with Alan Dorin, Jonathan McCabe, Jon McCormack and Gordon Monro; in Digital Creativity 23 (2012).

Writing · November 2012

Manly Images

An experimental web interface to the Manly Local Studies Image collection

launch

Projects · October 2012

Weather Bracelet and Measuring Cup: Case studies in data sculpture

Practice-led research in data sculpture and tangible visualisation.

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Writing · May 2012

Playing with Complexity: An Approach to Exploratory Data Visualisation

with Ben Ennis Butler and Sam Hinton, presented at ACUADS 2011

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Writing · September 2011

Local Colour and Networked Specificity

Investigating digital materiality using generative fabrication and cardboard vegetable boxes. A paper presented at ISEA 2011

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Writing · August 2011

Memory of a Nation Multitouch Interactive

A multi-touch interactive for the National Archives, in collaboration with Lightwell.

Projects · June 2011

Local Colour

A generative fabrication project in recycled laser-cut cardboard.

Projects · June 2011

After the Screen: Array Aesthetics and Transmateriality

Presented at the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference, Artspace, November 2010

Writing · March 2011

Networked Production: On Making with Bits and Atoms

A short essay on craft, making and digital fabrication for Craft Australia's eNews 54

Writing · August 2010

Exploring the Digital Commons: An Approach to the Visualisation of Large Heritage Datasets

with Sam Hinton; presented at EVA 2010

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Writing · July 2010

Measuring Cup

Representing long time-series of climate data in small, tangible forms.

Projects · June 2010

Visualising Archival Collections: The Visible Archive Project

in Archives and Manuscripts 37

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Writing · October 2009

Right Here, Right Now: On HC Gilje’s Networks of Specificity

A catalogue essay on the work of HC Gilje, commissioned for his 2009 solo exhibition Blink at the Hordaland Art Centre

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Writing · October 2009

Limits to Growth (Exurbs)

Self-constraining growth forms robot-plotted onto paper islands.

Projects · October 2009

Weather Bracelet

A wearable dataform made from 365 days of Canberra weather

Projects · September 2009

The Visible Archive

A research project on the visualisation of archival collections, supported by the National Archives of Australia.

Projects · July 2009

Landscape, Slow Data and Self-Revelation

An invited contribution to Kerb 17: Is Landscape Architecture Dead?

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Writing · May 2009

Strange Ontologies in Digital Culture

With Mark Guglielmetti and Troy Innocent, in ACM Computers in Entertainment 7

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Writing · February 2009

Watching the Street

Slit-scanning the streetscape, revealing patterns of change and stasis in human and environmental activity.

Projects · November 2008

Limits to Growth

Generative experiments with self-limiting growth.

Projects · September 2008

Watching the Sky

Visualising change in the environment, using long image time-series.

Projects · July 2008

Synesthesia and Cross-Modality in Contemporary Audiovisuals

in Senses and Society 3(3) (2008)

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Writing · April 2008

Art Against Information: Case Studies in Data Practice

in Fibreculture 11

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Writing · February 2008

System stories and model worlds: a critical approach to generative art

Presented at Readme 100, Dortmund (2005) and published in Readme 100: temporary software art factory

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Writing · February 2006

Hearing Pure Data: Aesthetics and Ideals of Data-Sound

An essay on data-bending, microsound and sonification commissioned by Sonic Acts X

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Writing · September 2004

Playing Games with Reality: Only Fish Shall Visit and Interactive Documentary

Catalog essay for Brogan Bunt's Halfeti: Only Fish Shall Visit (2002)

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Writing · December 2002

1968/1998: Rethinking a Systems Aesthetic

A short essay on the legacy of Jack Burnham's 'systems aesthetic', marking the 30th anniversary of the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition. Published in the ANAT Newsletter #33, May 1998.

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Writing · May 1998