Visualisation Matters 2019

Maggie Zhang – Faster Deep Learning Training with Automatic Mixed Precision

Maggie Zhang joined NVIDIA in 2017 and she is currently working on deep learning frameworks. She got her PhD in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of New South Wales in 2013. Her research background includes GPU/CPU heterogeneous computing, compiler optimization, computer architecture, and deep learning.

Eleanor Gates-Stuart – Beyond the ordinary: In the mix of science and art

Eleanor Gates-Stuart is Professor of Creative Industries at Charles Stuart University (CSU) in the School of Communication and Creative Industries. She is also an affiliate member of the Graham Centre of Agricultural Innovation at CSU. As an artist, her focus is on art, science and technology. She holds a PhD in Science Communication, Communicating Science: Exploring Science though Art, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University. Prior to CSU, she was the Professor of Techno Arts at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan where she is still in collaboration with the Orchid Research and Development Center, and is an alumni of the CSIRO, and the Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (USA).

Madison Hartill-Law – Getting shirty with science

Madison Hartill-Law is the founder of Shirty Science. The business was developed through an assignment during her Master’s of Science Communication (Outreach) at Australian National University in 2016. Three years later Shirty Science serves as a side hustle while Madison works as a Women in STEM project officer at the Australian Academy of Science.

Martin Schweitzer – Visualising Data with Python

Martin Schweitzer is a manager and tech lead at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology where his team are responsible for supporting the Climate Programme. He is passionate about making large datasets accessible to users through visualisation and exploration.

Nasser Bagheri – The role of visual and decision analytics lab in visualising mental health care ecosystem

Dr Nasser Bagheri is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU), recipient of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship and co-leads Visualisation and Decision Analytics (VIDEA) lab and spatial epidemiology team at the Centre for Mental Health Research. His research has focused on chronic disease ecosystem and risk assessment, particularly, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, mental health and dementia with a particular interest in visualisation and spatial variation of chronic disease.

Steven Wark – Narrative Visualisation: Telling the Story Behind the Data

Dr Steven Wark is the S&T Discipline Leader for Situation Awareness Systems in the Joint & Operations Analysis Division at Defence Science & Technology Group, Department of Defence, and is based in Adelaide, South Australia. The Situation Awareness Systems discipline is exploring how human-machine partnerships with emerging AI technologies can leverage military expertise to achieve decision superiority, and is looking at concepts such as narrative visualisation and adaptive user interfaces to avoid information overload and cognitively augment a decision maker or analyst. Steven has worked in information fusion systems and novel interfaces to support command and control for nearly 20 years, including immersive 3D visualisation and virtual human storytellers. Most recently he has worked on narrative supporting command and control of autonomous systems as part of DST’s Trusted Autonomous Systems program, and is now also applying those techniques to support force design as part of DST’s Modelling Complex Warfighting program.

Ursula Laa – Visualising high-dimensional physics data

Ursula is a research fellow at Monash University where she is working with the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics and with the School of Physics and Astronomy. She holds a PhD in particle physics and her current research interests focus on the application of statistical data visualisation methods to problems in physics, and on the development of new tools for the visualisation of high-dimensional data.

Matt Adcock – Data61 Immersive Environments

Matt Adcock is a Senior Research Engineer and Experimental Scientist at CSIRO in Canberra where he leads the Data61 Immersive Environments Lab. He uses Interactive Computer Graphics, Computational Imaging and User Experience Innovation to build systems that enable new insights from 3D data. In 2015 he was named a Gold Disruptor by the Australian Computer Society for his work on AR technologies for conducting physical tasks over the Internet.

Henry Gardner – Tangible Diagrams as User Experience

Henry Gardner is a Reader in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University (ANU). He holds qualifications in science and computer science from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in theoretical plasma physics from the ANU. He has published about 100 refereed papers and conference proceedings on a range of topics including nuclear and plasma physics, computational science, virtual reality, human computer interaction, computer music, computer games and software engineering. He is co-author of the monograph “Design Patterns in e-Science” (Springer, 2007) and was foundation Director of the ANU Research School of Computer Science.

Baden Pailthorpe – General Adversarial Networks in Contemporary Art

Baden Pailthorpe (b. 1984) is part of a generation of artists whose practice is shaped by Internet culture. He holds a Ph.D from the University of New South Wales, an MFA from l’Université Paris VIII, an MA from COFA and a BA from the University of Sydney. Much of Baden Pailthorpe’s work consists of hyper-real animations, video and sculpture that engage with the spatiality of power, politics and the cultures of late-capitalism.

Geoff Hinchcliffe – Climate Visualisation for Impact and Affect

Geoff Hinchcliffe is a senior lecturer and researcher at the Australian National University’s School of Art & Design where he is developing the School’s new Design program. Geoff’s research focuses on enlivening data and digital collections through visualisation, interface and interaction design. His research results in both theoretical and applied outputs, typically in the form of web-based works which range from the practical, to the experimental, playful and occasionally provocative.

Kit Devine – The Art of Heritage Visualisation

Kit Devine lectures in VR, digital visual effects, visual storytelling and interactive art at the Australian National University and her research interests include digital art, digital heritage, digital museology and VR. Her doctoral work examined the importance of time to the user experience of virtual heritage place. She has been involved in computer graphics since 1984 and spent over 15 years working as an animator and effects artist on film, tv and game projects prior to moving to the education sector.

Dan Power – [Un]natural Histories : The Ramblings of a 21st Century Naturalist and Artist

Dan Power is a Fine Artist and Science Communicator, using highly detailed drawings, watercolours and illustrated animal skulls in a surreal, modern take on natural history illustration. His work explores natural curiosities, conservation issues and our relationship with the natural world as informed by a bachelors in Evolutionary Biology [hons1] from the Australian National University. In 2016, Dan was awarded the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize for emerging artists by the South Australian Museum and continues to work as a Science Presenter at Questacon the National Science and Technology Centre.

Snow Fu

Snow Yunxue Fu is a US-based Chinese-born artist, curator, and Assistant Arts Professor in the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts starting September 2019. Using topographical computer-rendered images and installations, her practice merges historical painterly, philosophical, and post-photographic explorations into the aesthetic and definitive nature of the sublime. With a background in painting, Fu remains the youngest painter collected by the National Art Museum of China, and sees her former transition into new media as a natural extension of her conceptual and current research.

Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including Pioneer Works, Venice Architecture Biennial, Arebyte Gallery in London, Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennial, Thoma Art House, Current Museum of Art, NADA Art Fair, TRANSFER Download, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Barcelona Loop Festival, The Wrong Biennial, Sediton, Expo Chicago, Hong Kong Art Center, Print Screen Festival in Israel, Chicago Filmmakers, MOMA PopRally Screening, and the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Fu formerly taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ox-bow School of Art and Artists Residency, and has presented her work and research at institutions, symposiums, and international conferences including SIGGRAPH Anaheim, Celebrating Women in New Media Symposium at SAIC, and jurying the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival of Chicago. She also actively engages in curatorial projects and screenings, and regularly organizes Experimental New Media screenings for her students and peers.

Martina Fröschl

Martina Fröschl, MSc, studied media technique & media design and is currently senior researcher and doctoral student at the Science Visualization Lab Angewandte at the Department of Digital Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The depiction of realities and biological phenomena has ever since driven her creations. She contributed to various documentary and fictional productions for TV and cinema as visual effects and CGI artist. Her recent computer animations are based on scientific imaging data like µCT, MRI, SEM and light microscopy in collaboration with imaging experts and biologists.

Ina Conradi Chavez & Mark Chavez

Ina and Mark have been collaborating on numerous art and new media projects for the last 20 years, awarded by the Hollywood Advanced Imaging Society’s 2018 Lumiere Award for the best 3D Short Animation and 2017 Lumiere Award EMEA chapter (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). Their ongoing project Media Art Nexus (MAN) is supported by Singapore’s NTU Museum’s Public Art Initiative. Works done for Media Art Nexus were presented at the Deep Space 8k Ars Electronica, Media Architecture Biennial Beijing 2018, Art|Sci Gallery UCLA, Singapore Inside Out Tokyo, Web 3D Art Gallery Brisbane, PISAF Korea and Visualisation Matters 2017 among many others. The latest collaborative project connecting digital medicine, arts and STEAM in collaboration with Fraunhofer MEVIS: Institute for Digital Medicine received the 2019 Raw Science Film Festival Award.

Animation industry veteran and founding faculty at NTU School of Art, Design, and Media, Mark is based in Los Angeles and Singapore, founder of Giant Monster Pte Ltd. Ina is Associate Professor at the Nanyang Technological University Singapore. They both hold a Master’s of Fine Art from UCLA. Since 2018, Ina and Mark are artists in residence with the UCLA Art|Sci Center where they have been actively involved in research events such as the most recent symposium on Arts-Based Research in Times of climate and Social Change, Laser events as well as premiered an exhibition at the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute Gallery.

Paul Thomas

I am a Professor at UNSW Art and Design and currently the Director of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the co-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2018. In 2000 I instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007. As an artist I am a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. My practice led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there. My current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty (October 2018) is based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty.
My internationally exhibited research projects have been based on working with scientist and asking specific questions. The ‘Quantum Consciousness’ work was based on experiments done in collaboration with Professor Andrea Morello, Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW. The artwork was based from data of me reading sections of Feynman’s 1982 paper ‘Simulating Physics with Computers’, to an affect the spin of an single electron. The project was presented in the Rise of the bio-Society, Mt Gambia; 2017: Collision, Collaboration and the Future of Artsci, Taiwan; 2016: Sound Invasions, Harvestworks, New York; Immersive Sound Works, International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Vancouver and Art in the age of Catastrophe, Actual Contemporary, Winnipeg in 2015. Previous projects exploring nanotechnologies have also been exhibited nationally and Internationally. ‘Multiverse’ 2013 based on Richard Feynman’s diagrams on photons reflecting from a mirror, ‘Nanoessence’ 2009 which explored the space between life and death at a nano level and ‘Midas’ 2007 which researched what is transferred when skin touches gold at a nano level. Other publications Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art,(2013) Relive Media art Histories, co-edited with Sean Cubitt and Interference Strategies and Cloud and Molecular Aesthetics co-edited with Lanfranco Aceti and Edward Colless.

Joan Shin

Joan Shin is a Korean/Australian interdisciplinary artist, developing ideas from architecture and interactive design to construct her virtual narratives. Shin’s main interests lie in responsive architecture, creating public-participatory installations that aim to reform traditional perceptions of public and private spaces. Inspired by the pervasion of surveillance technology, Shin has recently curated and exhibited digital and sculptural work in the group exhibition Erotic Engines (2019) at the AD Space, Sydney.

Vaughn W. O’Connor

Vaughan Wozniak- O’Connor is an artist, researcher and digital holographer based in Sydney.

In particular, his work has explored artist-led approaches to terrain visualisation and cartography.

Recent research has explored the technical and theoretical convergence of terrain and biometric mapping technologies, particularly within tactical digital holograms.
Vaughan has exhibited extensively locally at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Carriageworks, C3 Contemporary, Firstdraft Gallery and Casula Powerhouse.

International exhibitions and residencies include Holocenter (USA), BKZ Studios (Germany) and Museu da Cidade de Aveiro (Portugal).

Tim Marsh

Tim is currently with Griffith Film School (GFS), Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. His research and practice explores new and emerging interactions, narrative and experience with interactive media, virtual reality and digital games. He lecturers in experimental games design, serious games and screen research. He’s collaborator in the Singapore-based Asia VR / AR Impact Lab exploring how impact works to help us to tell more effective stories using immersive interactive technologies. He’s previously held appointments across Europe, US, Singapore and Australia including the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (2004-2006), and National University of Singapore (2006-2011). Past research projects include Principle Investigator in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Comparative Media Studies | Writing, Education Arcade and GAMBIT Game Lab. And as consultant with Singapore’s Ministry of Education he advised on the introduction of game-based storyworlds and interactive storytelling / storybooks across Singapore schools. He has a PhD (2005) in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of York, UK. He publishes widely including five edited books on interactive media, digital games and VR. He was chair of the international conferences on entertainment computing (ICEC 2014) Sydney, serious games (JCSG 2016), curator of the exhibition “Art with Purpose” held at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, and is demo chair of VRCAI 2019 co-located with ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2019, Brisbane.

Kay Poh Gek Vasey

Chief Connecting Officer at MeshMinds and Founder of The MeshMinds Foundation

MeshMinds is a leading creative technology studio focused on creating and distributing impactful, immersive and engaging experiences for mass audiences. Through its partnership with UN Environment, MeshMinds is tasked with mobilising creative technology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The content creation, distribution and consultancy services of MeshMinds help to fund the artist incubation and research activities of The MeshMinds Foundation, a registered not-for-profit arts organisation that is focused on enabling sustainable development through creative technology. Team members across both organisations include experts covering VR, AR, 3D printing, IoT and AI, working with creators on ideas to drive the sustainable development of people and our planet. Kay is an experienced international technology lawyer with significant experience in multimedia content licensing. She is an investor in three startup technology companies across the recruitment, event marketing and ride-hailing sectors. She is passionate about the power of human connections to enable positive action for a better world.

Olivier Bos

Raised in Amsterdam, based in Singapore. Olivier Bos squeezes his creative brain juice in realising visionary concepts into reality – physically and/or virtually. He fosters an uplifting environment and ensures a dynamic relationship with artists and partners in delivering live projects and programmes.

Khoo Eng Tat

Ashima Thomas

CEO & Co-Founder
Warrior9 VR

Ashima has spent nearly 20 years producing stories for different mediums. She honed her storytelling skills as a TV news journalist at CNBC, Al Jazeera English and BBC World before becoming a short-documentary filmmaker whose work has been viewed by millions online. Ashima has observed more than 1500 people using immersive technologies to consume stories and brings her learnings into the design of every experience.

Race Krehel

Creative Director of VR
Warrior9 VR

Race Krehel is the Creative Director of VR at Warrior9 VR where he develops narrative-driven immersive experiences. With a decade of experience in interactive art and visual effects, his mission is to use cutting-edge technology in creative ways to change how people perceive reality.

Abhi Kumar

Chief Creative Director & Co-Founder
Warrior9 VR

Abhi is an award-winning playwright, with more than 20 years of writing and directing experience. His work for both stage and screen provides a solid foundation upon which he draws when directing immersive experiences. Abhi is a pioneer in the language of immersive storytelling, having written and directed 360-degree live action, stereoscopic CG animation and augmented reality stories. His piece, The PhoenIX: Episode 1 was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival Next VR showcase in 2017.

June Kim

Artist | Curator | Researcher | Educator

June Kim who has practice and research interest in interactive and immersive art making and researching curretly teaches at UNSW Art & Design. She has been curating Art gallery for VisMatters recurrently, Web3D 2017. This year, she co-chair the Art gallery & Art papers program for SIGGRAPH Asia 2019.

Huyen Nguyen

Session chair

Huyen Nguyen is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the EPICentre, UNSW Art & Design in Sydney, NSW, Australia. Her academic background focuses on Collaborative Mixed Reality, Human-Computer Interaction, and Human Factors in Collaborative Mixed Reality. She was an OCE postdoctoral fellow at Data61, CSIRO in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, working on the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health (GIHH) and focusing on Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics in Collaborative Frameworks. She received her M.Sc. degree in Intelligent Systems and Multimedia from University of La Rochelle, France in 2011 and her Ph.D. degree in Virtual Reality and 3D User Interaction from INSA Rennes, France in 2014.

Justin Baker

Justin Baker is the manger of CSIRO’s Visual and Data Analytics Team, within the Scientific Computing Group.
For many years Justin was IT Manager at CSIRO Health Sciences and Nutrition.

Prior to this, Justin developed software for operational forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology.

Jenny Vuong

Jenny Vuong is a postdoctoral research fellow at the EPICentre, University of New South Wales (UNSW). She has a background in computer science and biomedical engineering, and completed her PhD in human perception and 3D vision at University of Reading, United Kingdom. Prior to joining UNSW, Jenny was a postdoctoral research fellow at Data61, CSIRO and at Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, focusing on visual analytics and the development of web-based tools to visualise and explore large and complex biological data.