Tamiko Thiel has a B.S. in Product Design Engineering from Stanford University (1979), an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (1983) and a Diploma of Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1991). Her current work concentrates on developing the interactive and narrative capabilities of virtual reality as a vehicle for cultural and socio-political content.

She exhibits internationally in venues such as the International Center for Photography in New York, Siggraph, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the ICA/London. She has taught and lectured internationally at universities such as Carnegie Mellon University and the MIT Media Lab in the USA, and the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.

Her work has received awards from WIRED magazine, the Japan Foundation and the Smithsonian, and she is nominated for the 2009 World Technology Award from Time magazine and Science magazine. In 2004 she was a research fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, where she produced "The Travels of Mariko Horo" and began the research for "Virtuelle Mauer / ReConstructing the Wall." In 2006 she and Teresa Reuter received a major grant from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Berlin Capital City Cultural Fund) to produce "Virtuelle Mauer."

Selected previous projects in virtual reality:

• "The Travels of Mariko Horo," 2006, a reverse Marco Polo journey to the exotic Occident
  
  
• "Beyond Manzanar," 2000, on scapegoating of minorities in times of crisis
  
  
• "Geometries of Power," 2002, on power relationships between terrorists and politicians
  
  
• "Starbright World," 1996, a virtual playspace for seriously ill children created in cooperation with Starbright Foundation chairman Steven Spielberg.

Website: http://www.mission-base.com/tamiko/

[ Tamiko Thiel ] [ Teresa Reuter ]