Tomislav Mikulic

Tomislav Mikulić was born in 1953 in Croatia. He studied electrical engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb beginning in 1971 and enrolled the following year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Alongside his artistic practice he pursued a professional career in broadcast and media design, serving from 1980 to 1991 as head of the design department at TV Zagreb, later Croatian TV. After moving to Australia in 1992 he worked as a senior designer at Channel 7 in Melbourne and later as lead animator at Monash University until his retirement.

Mikulić began creating computer graphics in the early 1970s, first with plotter drawings on an IBM 1130 and 1627. In 1976 he produced the first computer-animated film in Yugoslavia, using a Beaulieu R16 camera to capture algorithmically generated sequences written in his own software. That same year he created the Virtual Perspectives series of computer graphics. While rooted in engineering, his work developed an artistic sensibility that treated digital systems as tools of visual imagination. His still images and animations range from geometric constructions to portraits built from algorithmic curves, reflecting a lifelong interest in the expressive potential of computation. Across five decades he shifted from plotter and film to CGI animation, consistently exploring how algorithmic structures could embody both scientific precision and poetic form.

His work has been presented internationally since its first appearance at 7th Zagreb Salon in 1972. He participated in tendencies 5, the International Conferences on Computer Graphics in Los Angeles, Ars Electronica in Linz, Artiste et Ordinateur in Paris, Computer Art in Tokyo, and the World Festival of Animation in Ottawa. His animation for the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984 were internationally recognized as a pioneering contribution to broadcast graphics. In 1996 his animation sequences were selected by Autodesk for its SIGGRAPH showreel, and in the same year he was a finalist for the Australian Festival of Effects and Animation Award. He won the Melbourne Urban Forest Art & Design Competition in 2011. Later survey exhibitions include Ex Machina at the Kunsthalle Bremen, Bit International at ZKM, and Electric Dreams at Tate Modern. His works are held in collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, and the Melbourne City Gallery.