Author: Dave Miller

Dave Miller is a UK artist. His work is concerned with stories and activism. He experiments with computer-generated narratives, augmented reality, generative art and interactive storytelling. He is attracted by the immediacy of digital media, the creativity of coding and the aesthetics of digital imagery. Most of his works are activist, and reflect concerns about news, politics and economics. He is interested in theories on the aesthetics of protest, and also narrative composition. The intention of his work is political activism through visual communication.

Grids

Posted on December 19, 2023June 17, 2024 by Dave Miller

Grids are a mix of news and stream of consciousness, ideas, and short stories. They are sort of visual news – mixed up and selected news – and daily art journals, observing and recording the day and world around me. I like the quality of this work – it’s fast, rough and I can do this well. Hand made, pen, ink, pencil and wash. A lot faster than digital!

These are micro stories, mini comics, quick and expressive, sort of news comics.

Opinionated, comment, political, personal, topical, experiments with narrative.
There is an immediacy in the work – this is very important to me – freshness, quickness, from idea to conception in one day, making and showing at same time.

I’ve been making these since August 23, so there are quite a lot now, but not as many as I’d like. I think would be great if I could do one a week, at least, and it can be a sort of weekly summary of the news, the world, and my thoughts. There are a lot more here

January 2024 – my Grids were shown at the Solastalgia exhibition, Turf Projects, Croydon …

Joy is an early morning run

Posted on May 10, 2023December 19, 2023 by Dave Miller

Quickly made 3D interactive sketch/ composition, using A-frame, with sound. For best results, please view in Chrome browser.

https://boomar.github.io/joy

I tried to capture the moment in this quick sketch. I enjoyed playing with depth here, using A-frame.

Though just a quick sketch I like the roughness or the rawness of the result.

Searching for shortness

Posted on May 2, 2023December 19, 2023 by Dave Miller

Oil barrels & gun barrels

Posted on April 15, 2023December 19, 2023 by Dave Miller

US Opec talks amid fear about the oil price, the rise of inflation and the war in Ukraine.

Power and politics, painted in quite a naive way.

Is flying over?

Posted on April 14, 2023May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

This artwork was a response to an essay by Richard Murphy, political economist, entitled “Is flying over?”:

Is flying over?

He argues that the airline industry will never raise enough funding to make themselves carbon neutral and so cannot survive. I found the essay thought-provoking, and it made me question my own actions, and what sort of future world will we see. Will most people stop flying? Will rich people simply carry on as they do now? Will governments simply bail out the airlines, and ignore the environmental impacts? I could see the UK government doing that.

I felt this was a powerful and shocking argument, and I was moved to do something with it. I wanted to communicate it more widely and make the information more accessible. Instinctively I felt an info comic would be right. The essay consisted of 15 main points, and I felt it suited a graphic novel or comic format, as a series of 15 panels.

So my first version was a one page comic, hand drawn, and shaded with 2B pencil. Sometimes I prefer hand drawn, as quicker to make, is more expressive, and more fun to make.

I was fairly pleased with the work, powerful in its simplicity – though it is rather limited, and repetitive. Does it have much impact? I have a habit of jumping in to make info comics, maybe out of familiarity with the format. Does it communicate? Does it get the message across?

Trying another angle, I used the same material, but took an interactive media approach: http://davemiller.uk/projects/day13/ with a goal of communicating the information in more interesting and eye catching ways.

This work presents each of the main 15 points about the future of the airline industry, and randomises their presentation. Various things change at random – drawings of dirty planes, backgrounds, and the text for each of the 15 points. The work could be taken further, given more time.

Eat Out to Help Out

Posted on March 10, 2023May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

https://boomar.github.io/eatout2helpout/

For best results, please view in Chrome browser.

This is an immersive VR political comic, telling a satirical story using WebVR software, and exploring the aesthetic and narrative possibilities of the medium.

It tells the news story of the UK government’s hugely popular ‘Eat Out to Help Out” scheme during the Covid pandemic (2020), where 100 million restaurant meals were consumed. The scheme arguably boosted Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s political popularity, but evidence shows the scheme likely contributed to the deadly second wave of the pandemic.

Artistic influences on this work include André Fougeron’s painting ‘Atlantic Civilisation’, a panorama of over 5.5m wide, telling a vast political narrative, in a comic style. Other influences were Cold War Steve’s vicious political photocollages and David Hockney’s wide immersive panoramas.

The work explores the aesthetics possibilities of WebVR, using the A- frame framework.

An A-frame scene is composed of multiple layers of drawings, separated by distance along the Z-axis, and overlapping. Authoring HTML in A-frame forces a layered approach, as a scene contains a list of entities. This aesthetic – the separation of successive 2D layers within a 3D space gives a feeling of space and depth, resulting in an effect like a traditional Diorama.

I was attracted by the fishbowl distortion of the drawings, when moving around the immersive 3D space, which felt like moving around inside a sphere, zooming in and out of the entities.

This is a panoramic story, told over time. A-frame seems to lend itself to a wide or panoramic storytelling.

Well, I’m only human

Posted on February 11, 2023May 11, 2023 by Dave Miller

Theme: Storytelling in Immersive Media

An experiment in AR aesthetic approaches, and narrative composition in political comics.

This “AR Vignette” is a tiny multimedia comment on the news. The AR effect is a 3D montage of overlapping flat planes, similar to old traditions, particularly Dioramas. These AR montages (through association, positioning and juxtaposition) tell stories in a particular aesthetic.

The technology used is AR.js and A-Frame. AR.js is a lightweight library for AR on the Web. A-Frame allows the creation of 3D Scenes and Virtual Reality experiences.

The subject for the work is the UK Care Homes during the Pandemic. The Government imposed strict rules, no visitors or physical contact. Daily on TV Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced rules from the podium – social distancing, no hugging. Yet at the same time, he was having an affair with his secretary, meeting in secret at Whitehall.

His response was “Well, I’m only human”

Composition analysis

The park alongside Parliament serves as the backdrop and Tracking Image. Scanning the Tracking Image opens up Hancock’s face – big with a transparent mask. We see through where he speaks, which is where we witness his betrayal, secretly embracing his mistress. In front of the mask, we see a care home with a family gathered outside, waving through the window. On the opposite side, Hancock stands at the podium. Hancock apologises throughout.

This experiment into narrative composition and the aesthetics of AR considers narrative possibilities of see-through shapes and over and around layered shapes and objects, exploring foregrounding, depth, layering, and what lies behind. It tells a story through layering and positioning, and transparency within drawings. It explores photocollage, digital drawings, mixed media, multimedia, and narrative composition.

Using your phone, scan the QR code:

Then point your camera at this picture:

Michelle Mone

Posted on December 20, 2022May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

Narrative composition, graphic novel style, summarising visually the Michelle Mone PPE scandal.

Who is Baroness Mone?

The 51-year-old is a businesswoman and the founder of lingerie company Ultimo.

Born in Glasgow, she left school with no qualifications at 15 and went on to launch ventures in diet pills, fake tan and cryptocurrency. She became a Conservative life peer in 2015.

What is the PPE controversy?

The row around PPE Medpro started back in 2020, when reporters first began asking questions about Baroness Mone’s apparent links to the company.

In 2021, the government revealed that she had referred PPE Medpro via the VIP lane system, with the company awarded two contracts worth £200m.

Last month, Lady Mone faced allegations that she had profited from the business, a claim she denies.

How did the PPE contract system work?

The VIP lane system saw a separate mailbox set up for MPs to send on offers from firms, but led to the government being criticised for giving preferential treatment to companies with political contacts.

What investigations are under way?

Lady Mone is currently under investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards, with parliament’s website saying the probe is over “alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro leading to potential breaches…of the House of Lords code of conduct”.

PPE Medpro has also become the subject of a potential fraud investigation by the National Crime Agency.

What does Baroness Mone say?

Baroness Mone has consistently denied any “role or function” in the company, with lawyers previously saying she is “not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity”.

(From Sky News: https://news.sky.com/story/michelle-mone-who-is-she-and-what-is-the-ppe-controversy-swirling-around-the-tory-peer-12762756)

Hancock opens new hospital

Posted on August 21, 2020July 28, 2023 by Dave Miller

AR – Hancock the Super Spreader

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, is taking part in the opening ceremony of a new hospital. A head nurse stands next to him. He sneezes, sprays goes up, and virus floats across the air.

She winces …

To view the AR …

On your mobile phone, start a browser (ideally Firefox or Chrome).
In your browser address bar, type the following: https://boomar.github.io/hancock
You will then be asked to share your camera (say YES)
Point your camera at the image below.

You will see an augmented scene, on top of the image. Hancock (UK health minister) sneezes and infects all the NHS staff!

Traditions

These recent AR miniatures or “vignettes” do seem similar to old traditions – here are a few:

Dioramas
The word diorama can either refer to a 19th-century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle modeling, miniature figure modeling, or aircraft modeling.

The word “diorama” originated in 1823 as a type of picture-viewing device, from the French in 1822. The word literally means “through that which is seen”, from the Greekdi- “through” + orama “that which is seen, a sight”. The diorama was invented by Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton, first exhibited in Paris in July 1822 and in London on September 29, 1823.[citation needed] The meaning “small-scale replica of a scene, etc.” is from 1902.

(Wikipedia)

Tatebanko

http://www.stormthecastle.com/Things/tatebanko.htm

PM likes his country breaks

Posted on August 20, 2020July 28, 2023 by Dave Miller

This is an AR composition, using AR.js, and A-frame.
How to use it:

On your mobile, start a browser (ideally Firefox or Chrome).
In the browser address bar, type: https://boomar.github.io/chequers
You will be asked to share your camera (say YES)
Point your camera at the image below. You will see an augmented scene…

You will see:

Johnson walks with his girlfriend through the bluebells at his country estate (Chequers).
A plane carrying PPE flies past in the distance, unnoticed.
Countryside and flowers, birds singing.
PM blissfully disiniterested/ unconcerned in 1000’s of deaths around him, that he caused, and still does nothing about.
Cavalier incompetence over the coronavirus outbreak.
He likes his country breaks.
Good croquet on the blossom-strewn Chequers lawns

Pandemic: Where did we go wrong?

Posted on August 20, 2020May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

I made a mini comic for this book, and I am one of many contributions. It’s a largely academic/ journalistic book, which aims to capture the zeitgeist. My comic covers the pandemic – from UK perspective and many different angles. I was very lucky to be included and it’s a great opportunity to have my work published.

But the full comic is much bigger. I had to chop down and reduce a lot, to fit into the format of the book. Some pages from the comic: http://davemiller.uk/projects/pandemic_comic_slideshow/

About the book:
This is the first draft of a very public inquiry, important to the UK and the world. 2020 was a wasted year for much of the planet, wiped out by the virus that started in Wuhan China just over eight months ago. Since, the novel Covid 19 virus is no longer new and has had devastating effects on people and economies. To date, over one hundred and twenty four million have contracted it worldwide, over half a million have died: in the UK close to 300,000 cases with 45,000 official deaths. The true figure is north of 60,000. Coronavirus truly is the modern Plague. It has devastated lives and economies. This book is an attempt to explain the genesis, aetiology, progress and handling of the Pandemic in one country – the UK. It has varied from farce to panic and back again. With its innovative comic book short history of the pandemic in the UK, through the intense analysis of everything that has occurred by the most distinguished cast of journalists, commentators and academics, this book is an important first step in uncovering the crisis that has been created.

The contributors are: Dave Miller, Rod Liddle, James Ball, Juliet Rix, Paul Corrigan, Angela Antetomaso Forbes, Dr Alex Connock, Matthew d’Ancona, Dr Steven Mccabe, Simon Morioka and Claire Kennedy, Dr John Lister, Peter K Wells, Dr Paul Davies, Dorothy Byrne, Paul Connew, Professor Barnie Choudhury, Neil Fowler, Ben Parsons, Professor Vicky Pryce, Professors David Bailey and Phil Tomlinson, and Professor John Howson.

Sherwood Rise

Posted on December 12, 2013May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

Sherwood Rise was the world’s first augmented reality (AR) novel, which was the result of a Post Doc at the University of Bedfordshire dedicated to experimenting with the future of the book, and how to make a physical book interactive. Dave Moorhead wrote the script, and the result was an interactive story that really pushed the boundaries.

This was an AR transmedia interactive graphic novel and game, told over 4 days through a range of media and formats: newspapers, AR on mobile phones, emails, websites, blogs, sound, music, and graphic novels. The story was basically the classic Robin Hood story applied to GB post financial crash.

Over 4 days you receive a newspaper which you can interact with, via AR on a mobile phone. Your interaction updates a database, which then dictates the newspaper edition you receive the next day. This is a type of “real game” where you simulate taking part in a revolution and are forced to take sides.

It’s a story told in a range of media on multiple platforms, to expand a traditional printed story, adding additional layers of story through AR, and an interactive story where readers determine the outcome. This was a research collaboration between Dave Miller and Dave Moorhead, ost-doc research funded by the University of Bedfordshire and UNESCO Future of the Book project, 2012-14.

An academic article published in ‘Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies’, describes the project in detail.

The AR browser technology (Junaio) used as the basis of the story is now discontinued, so I am unable currently to provide a link to a working version of the project.

Illustrations and the aesthetics of AR on mobile phones are an important aspect of this project, so please take a look at the Flickr feed, and this PDF presentation to the MINA festival (2016) provides further detail on the project.

Best of Our Spies

Posted on May 12, 2012May 14, 2023 by Dave Miller

Book about spies and the French resistance during WW2. The book was already written (Alex Gerlis) & published, and the author wanted a locative AR mockup/ working demo to present to Publisher (agents). The concept was to expand the book using AR and Layar.

The solution needed to use image recognition (to recognise markers in the book) and also location.

Images/ icons in the book via AR open up layers of additional info. These are maps, sounds, videos, materials ideally that exist already through the original book research – and the AR brings them to life.

Location based Points of Information (POI’s) – places described in the book. The idea is to show interesting things at these specific locations, which are relevant to the story, and in doing so extend/ expand the story. Much of the story was based in Northern France in WW2 and the AR pulled in photos and videos.

Here are some of the drawings used in the demo (images that were triggered by the AR):

A walk in the park with Joseph Paxton

Posted on December 12, 2009May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

This is an interactive story, which tries to work as a conversation and visual story combined. It deals with a controversial, topical and emotive local issue, concerning the development of Crystal Palace park (in London) after many years of neglect. Lots of plans and architectural designs were put forward, and local people consulted. But it occurred to me that one voice seriously missing from the consultation, was that of the master architect and planner Joseph Paxton, who conceived the original design for the park. I thought it would be interesting to imagine his point of view.

I’ve tried here to make this online interactive story unfold as a conversation, which is often considered the highest form of interactivity. The work is inspired by the ‘Eliza’ project, an interactive psuedo therapist/ counsellor which was built many years ago, and simulates a conversation (this has been expanded upon by Alexa etc):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

My intentions are that the conversation presents an independent view of the situation, avoiding one side or the other, and local politics. The work tries to see above that. I hope the work is more questioning, acting on a deeper level.

Link to the project

Occupy London with Cartoons

Posted on December 12, 2008May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

In 2008, there was an ‘Occupy’ site at St Pauls in central London. There were lots of drawings and paintings sellotaped to the walls; the area became a sort of temporary public Art gallery. Works full of slogans and messages, full of passion.

It occurred to me that many people wanted to express their views in this way, and contribute their own art work to express their support and solidarity; but they couldn’t physically be there – at St Pauls.

I built an online cartoon tool to make it easy to collaboratively author your own political/satirical cartoons. Once a week I printed them, went to St Pauls and stuck them on the walls. Some well known artists contributed their work, building up a big stock of ‘ready-made’ fantastic drawings and cartoons – for everyone to remix into their own political cartoons.

The project was a collectively authored and networked satire, giving people a chance to participate/ support/ speak out/ in a creative way.

I am in the process of updating the project code to the latest version of PHP, as it doesnt work anymore. Once this is done I will post a link.

Buddy Rivers Live

Posted on December 12, 2008May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

Buddy Rivers Live was a live networked performance of an automatic comedian. The first performance took place in a gallery in Bermondsey, London, in 2008. The project used live internet searches and feeds to create jokes automatically/ on the fly. These text jokes were then converted into voice via a (server based) text to speech synthesiser, and then finally relayed to the audience. This automatic process meant that Buddy told jokes forever!

The core of this project is a computer network generated comedian, capable of an endless generated network performance. His performance is even affected by user interaction (heckling), and I built in some primitive AI. This is quite early days of text to speech, so the voice sounds quite robotic.

I am in the process of updating the project code to the latest version of PHP, as it doesnt work anymore. Once this is done I will post a link.

Example of one of Buddy’s automatically generated jokes:Download

I wanted to construct a character who could say unpredictable things and upset people. Adding sound to this project took my work into new areas. It was like bringing my creation to life. I set up a text-to-speech synthesiser on an Internet server, so each constructed joke was transformed into speech.

I wrote a backstory for this project, and published some interviews in the pre-show material, to try to drum up interest beforehand. The idea was that Buddy used to be a famous comedian, and hung around with many big stars. He used to perform often at the Leroy Club, but eventually his popularity waned and he retired to Marbella. This was to be a one-off show, to help save the club.

Tense Nervous Headaches?

Posted on December 12, 2008May 15, 2023 by Dave Miller

The ‘Tense Nervous Headaches’ project involved exploratory walks around different locations in London, mapping local electromagnetic radiation.

I hosted two exploratory walks around Crystal Palace, measuring radiation levels. Following detailed research into planning applications for the local area, the story of each mobile mast was investigated, along with the technical data for each type of transmitter installed, and the known medical effects. Participants measured radiation and drew on maps, contributing to a collaborative artwork – which was effectively a map of local mobile phone radiation.

The first exploratory walks were held in 2007, at Crystal Palace, followed by walks in 2013, for an exhibition at the Furtherfield Gallery, Finsbury Park, London. The walks proved to be very popular, and I have received many requests to do similar projects in other places.

Link to project

Script for walking tour:Download