Brett Biermann, Ph.D.

BC Biermann is Creative Director and Founder of the groundbreaking mixed reality company Heavy Projects, a Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, and an Associate Professor of Emerging Media at CBU – Riverside. With a PhD in Humanities [Inter-media Analysis] from the Universiteit van Amsterdam, BC is a futurist whose work investigates the intersection of emerging technologies and semiotics in ways that address its impending social, political, and ethical impacts. As an internationally recognized digital artist, BC is a pioneer in interactive augmented reality [AR] design and his work has appeared in Geneva, San Francisco, New York, Miami, San Diego, St. Louis, and Perth; and in publications such as Fast Company, Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, IEEE Spectrum, Creator’s Project, PC World, C|Net, and The Atlantic. A thought leader in the converging technologies space [AR, VR, AI], BC serves on the IEEE Mixed Reality and Artificial Intelligence Group as a Part of The Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems. As a public speaker, BC advocates that technologists can and should implement these technologies in such a way that promotes the proposition that it’s in everyone’s interest to act justly and incentivize a collectively beneficial ethics that helps foster a healthy society.

TOPICAL EXPERTISE – Public Space Augmented Reality – Interactive Digital Art – Converging Technologies [AR, VR, AI] and the Humanities

Mixed Reality Design
3D Concept Design
VFX
Digital and Crypto Art
Editing and Soundmixing

University of Missouri - St. Louis
St. Louis University
Florida Gulf Coast University

INTERACTIVE WORKS: ART EXHIBITIONS
2019 Thrival @ Carnegie Museum of Art “MHTH II” (Pittsburgh, PA)
2019 Siggraph “Squaring Circles” (Los Angeles, CA)
2019 Venice Design “Venice x Venice” (Venice, Italy)
2018 Moscow Urban Forum & Arts Festival “More Human Than Human” (Moscow, Russia)
2017 San Francisco Design Week “Parabola” (San Francisco, CA)
2017 University of Geneva “Digital Neuron” (Geneva, Switzerland)
2015 ISMAR “Consumption Cycle” (Fukuoka, Japan)
2014 Qualcomm “Evolution of an Idea” (Jordan Seiler collaboration) (San Diego, CA)
2015 Austin Museum of Digital Art “Productive Consumption” (Austin, TX)
2014 FORM “Productive Consumption” (Jordan Seiler collaboration) (Perth, Australia))
2014 SXSW Interactive “Consumption Cycle” (Jordan Seiler collaboration) (Austin, TX)
2014 SKYLINE: Architecture, Art, and Technology “Silicon Mirage” (Los Angeles, CA)
2013 Grand Center | Arts & Life Alliance “Moto Wall” (MOMO collaboration) (St. Louis, MO)
2013 ICT & Art Connect (European Union Commission) “Grand Place Interactive” (Brussels, Belgium)
2012 Art Basel “Interactive Murals @ Wynwood Walls” (Jordan Seiler collaboration) (Miami, FL)
2012 Grandel Theater “Real Life” (St. Louis, MO)

INTERACTIVE WORKS: COMMERCIAL INSTALLATIONS
2020 JW Marriott “Shimay” (Anaheim, CA)
2017 Google I/O “Shape Interactions” (Mountain View, CA)
2015 Staples Center (LA Clippers & LA Kings) “Picture Me” (Los Angeles, CA)
2015 USC Annenberg “Tangible Storytelling” (Los Angeles, CA)
2014 IEEE Standards “Standards and The City” (Piscataway, NJ)
2014 HGTV “Santa HQ” (New York, NY)
2013 IEEE Standards + SXSW Interactive “Driskill Hotel Takeover” (Austin, TX)

INVITED TALKS
2020 AWE “Confessions of an Augmented MInd” (Santa Clara, CA)
2019 Giants of Interior Design - “Read / Write Spaces” (Denver, CO)
2019 Carnegie Museum of Art - Thrival “Confessions of an Augmented Mind” [Keynote] (Pittsburgh, PA)
2019 Carnegie Museum of Art - Thrival “The Read / Write City” (Pittsburgh, PA)
2019 Siggraph “Space as Interface – Interactive Street Art Workshop” (Los Angeles, CA)
2018 Moscow Urban Forum and Arts Festival “Space as Interface – Interactive Street Art” [Keynote] (Moscow, Russia)
2018 Moscow Urban Forum and Arts Festival “Space as Interface – Augmented Reality Enabled Street Art” (Moscow, Russia)
2017 AWE “AI, MR, and Ethics - A Dystopian Nirvana?” (Santa Clara, CA)
2016 USC Annenberg “Augmented Reality, Art, and Social Commentary” (Los Angeles, CA)
2016 AWE “Illusions of Life” [Keynote] (Santa Clara, CA)
2016 IEEE IoT “IoT is the New Body and AI is the New Brain [Webinar] (Los Angeles, CA)
2016 USC Interactive Media Lab “Augmented Reality, Art and Disruption” (Los Angeles, CA)
2016 CalArts “Digital Public Art and Emerging Technologies” (Pasadena, CA)
2016 USC Roski School of Fine Art “Interactive Digital Art in Public Spaces” (Los Angeles, CA)
2016 USC Cinema School “Animation in Emerging Technologies” (Los Angeles, CA)
2015 USC Interactive Media Lab “Digital Art in Urban Spaces” (Los Angeles, CA)
2014 SXSW Next Stage “AR and Re+Imagining Public Space (Austin, TX)
2013 European Union Parliament “Public Social Media and New European Narratives” (Brussels, Belgium)
2013 TEDx @ Contemporary Art Museum “Digitally Re+Imagining Public Space” (St. Louis, MO)
2012 ISMAR “Re+Public: Augmented Architecture w/ Natural Feature Tracking” (Atlanta, GA)
2012 AWE “Re+Public: Re+Imagining Public Space” (Santa Clara, CA)
2011 Metaio “Augmented Reality: Social Commentary and ARt” (San Francisco, CA)

PANELS
2019 IEEE Standards “Tech Ethics: Actual Reality vs. Augmented Reality: At the Crossroads: (Piscataway, NJ)
2019 Siggraph “Art as Social Engagement” (Los Angeles, CA)
2018 Global Cultural Districts Network “Beyond the Physical in Public Space – Innovations in VR and AR” (Dubai, UAE)
2018 Siggraph “Augmented Reality, Art, and Public Space” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
2018 Moscow Urban Forum and Arts Festival “Space as Interface - AR and Re-Imagining the Future City” (Moscow, Russia)
2018 AWE “Immersive Experiences, Applications, and Non-technical Impacts (Santa Clara, CA)
2018 Immersive Hollywood “The Future of Entertainment: VR/AR Story Architects and Experience Designers (Los Angeles, CA)
2018 University of California - Irvine “Digital Media IP” (Irvine, CA)
2017 Digital Hollywood “VR/AR as Change Agent: Social, News, Documentary and Political Media (Los Angeles, CA)
2017 Fast Company LA at USC Annenberg “The Future City (Los Angeles, CA)
2017 SXSW Interactive “Artificial Intelligence and the Suburbanization of the Mind (Austin, TX)
2017 CES “AI, Mixed Reality and Ethics” (Las Vegas, NV)
2016 Digital Hollywood “The Power of VR-AR: A New Language of Artistry” (Los Angeles, CA)
2016 USC Annenberg [Novus Think Tank] “Innovation in Virtual and Augmented Reality” (Los Angeles, CA)
2015 ISMAR “Experiencing AR in Public Environments” (Fukuoka, Japan)
2015 University of California - Irvine “Digital Media” (Irvine, CA)
2015 UCLA Cinema School “Hip Deep in Knowledge: Virtual Museums and Immersive Journalism (Westwood, CA)
2015 SXSW Interactive “Mixed Reality Habitats: The New Wired Frontier” (Austin, TX)
2013 AWE “AR for Urban and Architecture (Santa Clara, CA)
2013 SXSW Interactive “Omnipresent: When Virtual Meets Reality” (Austin, TX)
2012 Vox 4D “Re-Imagining Public Space: The City Canvas and a New Semiotics” (Long Beach, CA)

PUBLICATIONS
Biermann, B. (2020, July 10). “The Arts” in Extended Reality in A/IS as a part of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems.
Retrieved Aug. 12, 2020, https://standards.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-standards/standards/web/documents/other/ead/EAD1e_extended_reality.pdf
Biermann, B. (2018). Augmented reality, art, and public space. ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 Talks on - SIGGRAPH 18.
doi:10.1145/3214745.3214747
Biermann, B. (2018). AR and Ethics. In What is Augmented Reality. Joni Binstock (ed). New York, NY: Amazon Kindle.
Biermann, B. (2017). Ethically Aligned Design [From the Editor]. IEEE Control Systems, 38(3), 3-4. doi:10.1109/mcs.2018.2810458
Biermann, B. (2016). AR, Art, and Public Space. In Augmented Reality: Innovative Perspectives across Art, Industry, and Academia. Sean
Morey (ed), John Tinnell (ed). Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.
Biermann, B. (2013). Re Public: Re Imagining Public Space. AR[t]: AR, Art, and Technology, 1(3), 7-15.
Biermann, B. (2006). Travelling Philosophy: From Literature to Film (doctoral dissertation). Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam.

PAPERS
Biermann, B. (2012). AR | AD Takeover: Augmented Reality in Public Space. Frankfurt: Sixth International Conference of Critical Geography.
Biermann, B. (2011). The Battle of L.A. Part II: Graffiti, Self and the Reappropriation of Semiotic Space. Terre Haute: International Crime,
Media & Popular Culture Conference.
Biermann, B. (2010). The Battle of Los Angeles: Graffiti and the Reappropriation of Semiotic Space. St. Louis: International Pop
Culture Association Conference.
Biermann, B. (2009). The Long Road Home: Metanarrative, Structural Realism and the Self. Riverside: Western Regional CCL
Conference.
Biermann, B. (2008).“Spatial Distributions of Power: Illegal Billboards as Graffiti in L.A. Terre Haute: International Crime, Media &
Popular Culture Conference.
Biermann, B. (2004).“Diegetic | Non-diegetic Sound: Spatial & Temporal Markers in Solaris. Amsterdam: Amsterdam School for Cultural
Analysis Theory Seminar.

“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.”
― Hunter S. Thompson