Tamiko Thiel

Artist. Tamiko Thiel was awarded the 2018 Visionary Pioneer Award by the Society for Art and Technology Montreal for her (now over 35) years of media artworks exploring the interplay of place, space, the body, and cultural identity. She was the lead product designer on the Connection Machine CM1/CM2 AI supercomputer, in 1989 the fastest computer on earth, which is now in the collection of MoMA NY. Tamiko began working with virtual reality in 1994 as a producer and creative director of Starbright World (1994–97), in collaboration with Steven Spielberg. Her first VR art installation Beyond Manzanar (2000) is in the collection of the San Jose Museum of Art, and her AR commissions include Unexpected Growth for the Whitney Museum, now in the permanent collection.