Carlee Wright

As part of our activ­i­ties this year, TEDxSalem has launched an Artist in Res­i­dence pro­gram. The Artist in Res­i­dence (AIR) will help set the tone for our event, com­mu­ni­cate the event theme and con­vey an ‘idea worth spread­ing.’

As you can imag­ine, it’s a mighty large under­tak­ing both the selec­tion of an artist to take charge of the role and for an artist to cre­ate a work of art that will impact a space, express a feel­ing and con­vey a mes­sage while being suit­able for pho­tog­ra­phy and videog­ra­phy.

It’s a tall order, but also a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty.

We received a num­ber of won­der­ful appli­ca­tions, but there was one that stood out among the rest, one that made an unfor­get­table impact. It stirred a response both men­tal and emo­tion­al. It showed inno­va­tion and intu­ition.

Meet Bri­an­na Miller, our inau­gur­al Artist In Res­i­dence for TEDxSalem.

A Salem-born Keiz­er res­i­dent, Bri­an­na was drawn to art in her youth, doo­dling, craft­ing and cre­at­ing. While attend­ing McNary High School, her ulti­mate goal was to land a job with Wieden+Kennedy, a Port­land adver­tis­ing agency best known for its work for Nike and Trav­el Ore­gon.

She is a recent grad­u­ate of the Pacif­ic North­west Col­lege of Art, where while study­ing design and dab­bling in illus­tra­tion, an inter­est in instal­la­tion art grew. Dur­ing the cre­ation of her the­sis, she devel­oped a fas­ci­na­tion with col­or the­o­ry, expe­ri­en­tial design and synes­the­sia.

Her final project was an inter­ac­tive instal­la­tion called “The Mag­i­cal Chro­ma­chines.” It con­sist­ed of three mov­ing light sculp­tures, her take on “The Dream Machine” by Brion Gysin and William Bur­roughs, which were each accom­pa­nied by a mixed tape of hand-select­ed songs that rep­re­sent­ed or inspired mem­o­ries from her past. It was an explo­ration of the inter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty of col­or, music and mem­o­ry that could be expe­ri­enced col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly or with indi­vid­ual inter­ac­tion.

At the urg­ing of a friend, Bri­an­na applied to be the TEDxSalem AIR. Although a long­time fan of TED, since she only moved back to Salem in Novem­ber 2014, she was not famil­iar with our local event but when she read our post about the devel­op­ment of this year’s theme, co-cura­tor Bri­an Hart’s words stuck with her.

“Fear­less as a theme res­onates with me,” Bri­an­na said. “I like to explore top­ics of phi­los­o­phy. Why do we have fear? What is fear? Is it pos­si­ble to be com­plete­ly fear­less? How do you become fear­less?”

For the TEDxSalem stage she is lean­ing towards a light instal­la­tion, but has a num­ber of ideas in mind. Essen­tial­ly, she wants to cre­ate an immer­sive, sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence with her instal­la­tion.

The AIR pro­gram is a unique oppor­tu­nity for an artist. Bri­an­na is explor­ing her work, ideas and cre­ativ­i­ty to fash­ion a stage dis­play that will intrigue and inspire. She will also present a TEDx talk about her art.

After the event, TEDxSalem hopes to secure a pub­lic loca­tion to dis­play her instal­la­tion so the whole com­mu­ni­ty may enjoy and expe­ri­ence it as well.