Julian Kilker

My research focuses on the intersection of social interaction, technology, and design, particularly in emerging media. See my academic site at UNLV.

My most recent work explores digital and data imaging under extreme conditions. I am interested in how media innovations emerge from exploring workflows, problem solving, and reconstructing technology. Not only do I study these topics, I also participate in practicing them.

Contact  
julian.kilker@unlv.edu
 
Projects (most recent first)  
Julian Kilker - Evocative and Provocative Image-Making in the Age of Generative AI
Authored editorial for special AI in the Arts issue and co-edited inaugural rollout of Tradition Innovations journal.
Julian Kilker - data-rich "provocative artifacts" visualizing sound and light pollution
Presentation about current and proposed methods for creating data-rich "provocative artifacts" visualizing sound and light pollution at the 2023 Visual Modi Visual Research Methods conference at La Laguna-Tenerife (Spain).
Julian Kilker - Time-compressed 360 tour of abandoned building
My article "A Light in the Darkness" in the Barrick Museum's journal Dry Heat is accompanied by this time-compressed 360 tour of an abandoned building.
Julian Kilker - Light pollution silhouettes Joshua Trees
"Reframing research as a collaborative practice," presented at ASN and T4L conferences and based on using Zotero and guided collaboration techniques. This presentation and workshop build on my Best Teaching Practices Poster "Modeling Collaborative Research Practices With Zotero."
Julian Kilker - Light pollution silhouettes Joshua Trees
Creative public engagement collaboration (with Tom Bjelic) "A Stillness in the Desert?" exploring and documenting visual and audio ecologies through immersive media.
Julian Kilker - Pie chart shows about three-quarters of survey respondents reported helping an elderly person with technology in the last 12 months
"How to identify and address exclusionary user experience designs in health contexts" presented at the 2022 Southern Nevada Diversity Summit. (The Nevada System of Higher Education holds diversity summits each year to promote inclusive policies and practices across its member institutions.)
Julian Kilker - Best teaching Practices Posters
Contributions to collaborative "Spirit of the Land" exhibit at The Barrick Museum of Art and three other locations in support of declaring Avi Kwa Ame as a National Monument. This photograph is also the cover of Legacy 23(1), the magazine of the National Association for Interpretation, a special issue on interpreting under-appreciated landscapes.
Julian Kilker - Best teaching Practices Posters
Peer-reviewed panel "The Future of Visual Research and Visual Sensemaking: Shaping our Tools, Techniques, Methodologies, and Partnerships" 2022 AEJMC Visual Communication panel (co-organized with Shannon Zenner).
Julian Kilker - Title card from Light & Shadow
Co-produced (with Yvonne Houy) live shadow puppetry, photojournalism, and commentary multimedia presentation "Light and Shadow" at 2021 a2ru conference dramatizing the the intersection of isolation and connection, online technology and education during the pandemic.
Julian Kilker - Best teaching Practices Posters
Peer-reviewed "Best Teaching Practices" posters published online 2019-2022 focusing on my explorations with structured and playful remote-teaching techniques.
Julian Kilker -  Beyond accessibility Design ethics, edge users, and the role of active proxies in unwinding the spiral of exclusion
Peer-reviewed article "Beyond accessibility: Design ethics, edge users, and the role of active proxies in unwinding the spiral of exclusion" published 2020 in First Monday.    
Julian Kilker - Vehicles of the Mojave WHO exhibit
Vehicles of the Mojave photo essay in World Health Organization's 2019-20 Art Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland. (I developed early hypertext field reference prototypes for WHO's Health for the Elderly Programme.)    
Julian Kilker - Mentor and Presenter, UNLV Make-a-thon 2.0, 2019
Mentor and presenter on The Ethics of Design at Las Vegas Make-a-thon 2.0 "The Future of Experience Design."
Julian Kilker - The Soft Power of Ephemeral Communities: A Short History of Las Vegas Technology Conventions, 1959-2019
Peer-reviewed article "The Soft Power of Ephemeral Communities: A Short History of Las Vegas Technology Conventions, 1959-2019" published 2019 in Nevada Historical Society Quarterly.
Julian Kilker - "10 minutes, 1,000 years" diptych showing rock art and vehicles on desert
"10 minutes, 1,000 years" for Las Vegas Library exhibit "Monuments" about the how nature is used and appreciated by different groups of people, in their own ways. This work's two photographs are taken 10 minutes apart of two activities separated by a millennium that have left different traces in the Gold Butte National Monument.
Julian Kilker - "Young Photographer: Then, Now, Soon" triptych showing three stages of photography
"Young Photographer: Then, Now, Soon" for Nevada Humanities exhibit about the fate of our media and memories. Large format triptych shows an old camera; a slide negative taken in 1949 using the same camera, now damaged; and a slide from the same era that's already unrecognizably decayed.
Julian Kilker - light printing workshop
Light printing workshop for Explore. Learn. Inspire. This collaboration among 12 STEM educators raised funds for Three Square Food Bank to feed local families in need.
Julian Kilker - Parks & Recreation cover
Low-light and aerial landscapes for 2017 "National Monuments" cover story in the Parks & Recreation Conservation issue.
Julian Kilker - Time variation in Annie and the Shaman
"Exploring Data via Provocative Artifacts" in MIT's Leonardo.
Julian Kilker - Camping Shaman, Dusk
"Camping Shaman, Dusk" at "Home Means Nevada" exhibit in U.S. Senate Russell Rotunda in Washington, DC, September 2016. Participation funded in part by the Nevada Arts Council.
Julian Kilker - Annie and the Shaman
On tour: "Annie and the Shaman", 2016-2018. Listen to audio tracks here.
Julian Kilker - Photographing place, context, and process CERN
"Photographing place, context, and process" lecture at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) photography club, Geneva, Switzerland, Summer 2016.
Julian Kilker - All About Whom?
Peer-reviewed article "All About Whom? Stock Photos, Interactive Narratives and How News About Governmental Surveillance Is Visualized" published 2016 in Visual Communication Quarterly 23.
Julian Kilker - AEJMC - The race for the better workflow
Peer-reviewed paper "The Race for the Better Workflow" presented at 2016 AEJMC conference in Minneapolis, MN.
Julian Kilker - Mini-Maker Faire Las Vegas
STEM Higher-Education Outreach Coordinator, Mini-Maker Faire Las Vegas. Part of team behind the successful 2016 event.
Julian Kilker - Aesthetic Evidence exhibit
"Aesthetic Evidence," Winter 2015, exploring visual evidence and data analysis. Sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Julian Kilker - Basin and Range exhibit
Basin and Range exhibit at UNLV's Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, Summer 2015, on the occasion of President Obama designating Basin & Range a national monument.
Julian Kilker - Visualizing What Happened Near Vegas: Experiences in Photographing a Public History Project
Peer-reviewed article "Visualizing What Happened Near Vegas: Experiences in Photographing a Public History Project" in The Public Historian 36(3).
Julian Kilker - American Safari
"American Safari" in the On Great Drives issue of Vegas Seven magazine, Fall 2014.
Julian Kilker - Walking Box Ranch
Selected photography in Walking Box Ranch booklet by the Public Lands Institute, Spring 2014.
Julian Kilker - My Nevada 5 - Nevada 150th anniversary
My Nevada 5 photo essay published on the occasion of Nevada's 150th anniversary, Spring 2014.
Julian KIlker - On the Margins of the Road More Traveled
Twelve-page photo essay in the On The Road issue of Vegas Seven magazine, Fall 2013. (Placed 3rd, NV Press Assoc's 2014 Photo Essay Contest.)
Julian Kilker - Seeing another way: Night photography, the Mojave, and the exploration of technology

"Seeing another way: Night photography, the Mojave, and the exploration of technology" University of Nevada Forum Lecture, Spring 2013.

Julian Kilker - Deadly and Barren, or Beautiful and Fragile? Exploring the Nighttime Mojave Desert

Peer-reviewed article "Deadly and Barren, or Beautiful and Fragile? Exploring the Nighttime Mojave Desert" in Visual Communication Quarterly 19.

Julian Kilker - Documenting Mojave Cultural Artifacts Using Night/Low Light Techniques
Grant project "Documenting Mojave Cultural Artifacts Using Night/Low Light Techniques" at Walking Box Ranch, former home of Clara Bow and Rex Bell.
Julian Kilker - Time in the Mojave

"Time in the Mojave"
E
xhibit at Cité du Temps
Geneva, Switzerland

(See information about the Mojave Preserve.)

Julian Kilker - Lost Places in the Mojave

"Lost Places in the Mojave"
E
xhibit at Barrick Museum
University of Nevada
.

Julian Kilker - Mojave after Sunset
"Mojave after Sunset"
Exhibit supported by the U.S. National Park Service at Kelso Depot, Mojave Preserve, California