Tega Brain is an Australian artist and environmental engineer born when atmospheric CO₂ was below 350 ppm. Working at the intersection of contemporary art, environmental science, and critical technology studies, she has developed a distinctive practice that uses engineering methods to investigate the ecological, political, and social consequences of technical systems. Through what she describes as Eccentric Engineering, Brain pioneers artistic practices that operate as functioning systems rather than representations, creating experimental infrastructures that expose and reimagine the assumptions embedded in contemporary networks, data economies, and environmental governance.
Her projects have taken the form of solar-powered internet infrastructure, systems for resisting data extraction, alternative carbon accounting methodologies, and other experimental platforms that reveal how technical systems shape everyday life. Challenging technological solutionism, her work examines how infrastructures organize attention, labor, environmental resources, and political power while proposing alternative modes of technical and ecological relation.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, the Whitney Museum of American Art, ZKM Karlsruhe, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and Haus der elektronischen Künste, among other venues. She has received awards, fellowships, and residencies from Ars Electronica, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Data & Society, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2023, she received a Creative Capital Award for developing alternative carbon accounting methodologies through artistic practice.
Brain is co-author of Code as Creative Medium (MIT Press), an Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Design and Media at New York University, and serves on the board of the School for Poetic Computation. She holds a PhD from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of New South Wales. She is based in New York and maintains an ongoing collaboration with artist Sam Lavigne.
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Her projects have taken the form of solar-powered internet infrastructure, systems for resisting data extraction, alternative carbon accounting methodologies, and other experimental platforms that reveal how technical systems shape everyday life. Challenging technological solutionism, her work examines how infrastructures organize attention, labor, environmental resources, and political power while proposing alternative modes of technical and ecological relation.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, the Whitney Museum of American Art, ZKM Karlsruhe, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and Haus der elektronischen Künste, among other venues. She has received awards, fellowships, and residencies from Ars Electronica, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Data & Society, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2023, she received a Creative Capital Award for developing alternative carbon accounting methodologies through artistic practice.
Brain is co-author of Code as Creative Medium (MIT Press), an Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Design and Media at New York University, and serves on the board of the School for Poetic Computation. She holds a PhD from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of New South Wales. She is based in New York and maintains an ongoing collaboration with artist Sam Lavigne.
Short biography
Tega Brain is an Australian artist and environmental engineer, born when atmospheric CO₂ levels were below 350 ppm. Her work examines ecology, data, automation, and infrastructure. She is an Industry Associate Professor of Integrated Design and Media at New York University and her first book, Code as Creative Medium was published by MIT Press.Contact
Email: tega dot brain at gmail dot comBluesky
