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Machine-Nature Interface

 

Mike Miller

 

Everything is a machine.

The interface where human-made machines and natural objects intersect is the subject of my currant body of work. 

The singularity that exploded in the Big Bang creating our universe is a machine. 

There does not need to be conflict between human-made and nature-made machines.

Trees are natural machines that absorb carbon dioxide and create oxygen. 

When machines are fully examined; there are no mysteries that cannot be understood with enough time and persistence.

A song is a machine constructed to activate the rhythms of life. 

 As humans get better at building machines the difference between nature-built and human-built machines become less.

Human built machines cause problems, but by solving those problems humans learn to control their own evolution. 

A poem is a human-constructed machine that conveys emotional information.

All human-built machines at their inception are art.

Machines that fix problems will inevitably create new problems, but that’s okay; that’s how evolution works.

The quest to build a sentient machine is a beautiful and glorious thing. 

Bugs do almost everything humans do except create art, and that is debatable. 

The act of imagining something that has never existed and then causing it to be constructed is one of my definitions of art.

Sculpture is a machine that converts an idea into an object.

Humans are the most complex natural machines ever to evolve on Earth.    

Resume

 

EDUCATION

2013 ♦ B.F.A. Studio Art, emphasis in sculpture, Wichita State University

 

ACADEMIC HONORS

2009-11  ♦ Christine F Paulsen, Fine Arts Scholarship

2009-13  ♦ Dean’s List, Wichita State University   

2007-09 ♦ Academic Commendation, Wichita State University

 

ACADEMIC ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIP

2010-13 ♦ Wichita State University Sculpture Guild, Vice President

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014 ♦Machine-Nature Interface, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

2013 ♦ The Machine Nature Interface Series, Tintinnabulation, Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita KS

 

TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2010 ♦ Assembling Space, with Tatiana Svrckova. Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

2009 ♦ Alternating State,  with Brady Hatter. Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

 

COMMISSIONS

2011 ♦ “E” Large scale outdoor wind powered kinetic sculpture, local collector, Wichita, KS

 

 PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

2014 ♦Swing set powered school of fish, kinetic sculpture, Bartlet Arboretum  

2013 ♦ Machine - Nature Interface 11, “Quivering Trees” McKnight atrium

         ♦ Machine - Nature Interface 12, “Carbon Deposit” McKnight atrium

2011 ♦ Fifty Foot Paint Drip, kinetic sculpture, McKnight atrium

         ♦ Drip, interactive kinetic sculpture, McKnight atrium

2010 ♦ Bubble-Google’s Brain-installation, Rhatigan Student Center

         ♦ Black Cloth Column, sculpture, McKnight atrium

         ♦ Feather, kinetic sculpture, McKnight atrium

2009 ♦ Alien Amoeba, kinetic sculpture, McKnight atrium

         ♦ Twisted Rhythm, sculpture, Rhatigan Student Center

2008 ♦ Iridescent Rhythm, sculpture, McKnight atrium

2007 ♦ Torqued Space, kinetic sculpture, McKnight atrium

   

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 2015♦ Six Machinations of art, with Meghan Miller, Hallie Linibur, Chiyoko Myose, Nam Le, Brady Hatter. Diver Studio

 2013♦  Surface, WSU Sculpture Guild Show, Mid-America Fine Arts Gallery, Wichita, KS

         ♦  Current, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita KS

2012 ♦  Five Cable Wave, Fondle Please, WSU Sculpture Guild Show, Diver’s Studio, Wichita, KS

2011 ♦ Weightlessness, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

         ♦  The Sky Is Falling, Naked City Gallery, Wichita, KS

         ♦  Runaway, wearable art show, Shift Space, Gallery, Wichit a Ks

2010 ♦ Irrational Indecision, WSU Sculpture Guild Show, Diver’s Studio, Wichita, KS

         ♦  Runaway, wearable art show, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

         ♦ Current, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita KS

2009 ♦ Runaway, wearable art show, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

2008 ♦ Blip, performance art, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

         ♦ Alternative Media Show, Shift Space Gallery, Wichita, KS

2007 ♦ On the Wall, The Alibi Room, Wichita, KS

         ♦ Forty Eight Hours, Clayton Staples Gallery, Wichita State University

2005 ♦ Machine Art, Go Away Garage, Wichita, KS

 

 EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2014-2015 ♦Adjunct teacher, sculpture, Newman University. Adjunct teacher, 3D design Wichita State University.

2013-2014 ♦Adjunct teacher, Printmaking and sculpture, Newman University,  

2011-2013 ♦ Student Tech, Henrion Hall, Wichita State University.

1979-2007 ♦ Owner/Manager, Suburban Equipment 12345 E Kellogg, Wichita Ks. 

                      John Deere consumer products dealership.

1976-1978 ♦ Part time jobs during high-school, Colonial Ice cream, Holiday Inn, Langdon Welding, Kansas Sailing Center, Mid-States                       Sheet Metal.

 

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