Frieder Miller
Frieder Miller (all pronouns) is a Berlin-based artist working at the intersection of puppetry, light, code, and fire. Their practice explores the politics of identity, labor, and embodiment—dismantling normative systems through hybrid, performance-based interventions. With a background in contemporary puppetry from the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (2010–2014), Frieder approaches the stage as a speculative and contested space where the boundaries between body, object, and machine are constantly renegotiated.
They are a co-founder of the theater collective manufaktor, with whom they have developed works such as 1/0/1 – hacking the binary code and Out OF ORDER, engaging with themes of queer futurity, digital labor, and posthuman performance. During their Fellowship at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality Dortmund, Frieder developed Robiotop—an immersive research environment that invites audiences into a bio-mechanical microcosm inhabited by self-balancing robotic bodies. The piece investigates human-machine co-agency, rethinking the role of affect, authorship, and resistance within technologically mediated environments.
Their piece Camp Europe uses grotesque performance and object theater to satirize Europe's colonial legacy and current politics of exclusion. Through exaggerated physicality and dark humor, the piece examines privilege, projection, and the absurdity of nationalist narratives—transforming a banal camping scenario into a site of historical reckoning.
In addition to their artistic work, Frieder is active in Berlin’s club and festival scenes as a lighting designer, technician, and special effects operator. They hold a pyrotechnics license, completed training at coding school 42, and are a member of the queer-feminist network gefährliche arbeit, where they also lead workshops on light design and equitable production practices.
Co-founder of the theater collective manufaktor, which merges queer-feminist perspectives with object theater and robotics.
Collaborations with artists such as Simone Dede Ayivi, Tucké Royale, Swoosh Lieu, and Futur 2 Konjunktiv.
Engagements at city theaters such as Maxim Gorki Theater, Landesbühnen Sachsen, and Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim.
