Dr Thomas Folber

I am an academic tutor who works with UniSA Education Futures, and an 'artist-researcher' alumni of UniSA Creative. I hold a Doctor of Philosophy, as well as a Bachelor’s and first-class Honours Degree in Visual Arts.

My current research interests include post-digital aesthetics, the phenomenological experience of working with computational systems, and the recent permeation of generative A.I. tools within creative and academic practices. During my study I was a member of UniSA's Digital Transformations Research Concentration and a founding member of the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments.

Alongside my research I have also been working in a teaching capacity at UniSA since 2015. Through the UniSA College I have tutored in a diverse range of courses such as HUMS 1052 Australian Culture & Society, LANG 1002 Critical Literacy, INFS 1030 Digital Literacy: Screen, Web, and New Media, SOCU 1010 Introduction to Academic Life, and COMM 1040 Individual & Group Skills. With more than twelve years’ experience in higher education as a student, student mentor, student ambassador, and academic tutor, I bring a broad range of skills and experience to my work. I have a passion for tertiary education and am committed to facilitating a supportive environment in which students are able to develop skills for lifelong learning.

As an artist-researcher I have been exhibiting for more than ten years and have artworks held in the University of South Australia's public collection. I have been nominated for the Hatched National Graduate Exhibition, the Helpmann Bendigo Adelaide Bank award, and was awarded the NAVA ignition prize in 2014. My research based artworks were also selected for the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition in both 2015 and 2020. In 2023 I completed my Doctor of Philosophy through a program of artistic inquiry resulting in a body of creative works, and an accompanying exegesis. Titled 'Artefacts from the Black Box: Understanding post-digital glitch aesthetics through intermedial practice', my PhD research highlights how glitch focused artistic practices can be understood as critical wanderings between media, and as acts of interpretive translation that can facilitate encounters with black boxes of understanding.

Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments

Golden Key International Honor Society

UniSA Digital Transformations Research Concentration

National Association for the Visual Arts

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Unversity of South Australia

• Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) Unversity of South Australia

• Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting) Unversity of South Australia

Work history

Digital Literacy: Screen, Web and New Media (INFS 1030)

Introduction to Academic Life (SOCU 1010)

Australian Culture and Society (HUMS 1052)

Individual and Group Skills (COMM 1040)

Critical Literacy (LANG 1002)