About / CV

January

0001

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what is zzyw

zzyw, founded by Yang Wang and Zhenzhen Qi in New York in 2014, is a research and art initiative that serves as an umbrella name for both of their collaborative and individual projects. zzyw leverages critical technical practice and speculative inquiry to challenge hegemonic technological constructs. Through software prototypes, writing, and pedagogical initiatives, zzyw explores computational modernity — how software, AI, media, and technical infrastructures reorganize world, memory, judgment, and subjectivity — while envisioning alternative, more communal and ethical technical futures.

keep in touch:
email: hi@zzyw.org
instagram:

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Residencies & Memberships

2026 - Spring, Resident , Counterstructural Commons Residency, Rhizome × Mozilla Foundation , New York, NY, US
2024 - Spring, Research Artist , Networked World, co-matter , Berlin, Germany
2022 - Fall, Resident Artist , EYEBEAM , New York, NY, US
2021 - Fall, Artist in Residence , BabyCastles , New York, NY, US
2020 - Fall, Technology Resident , Pioneer Works , Brooklyn, NY, US
2019-2020 - Member , NEW INC , New York, NY, US
2015 - Spring, Resident Artist , Laboratory Residency , Spokane, WA, US

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Invited Talks

2026 – Conceptual Art in the Age of AI , Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities Conference (HKADH 2026) roundtable, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR ^*
2025 – Mountain of Many Voices: Workshop and Lecture , Asia Art Archive in America, New York, NY, US
2025 – Software as Worlding Infrastructure , Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China ^*
2025 – Orientation in the Age of Automation: Theory, Systems, Practice , Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR ^*
2025 – Mountain of Many Voices: Workshop and Artist Talk , HART HAUS, Hong Kong SAR
2025 – Hive AI Utopia: Confrontation and Symbiosis Forum , Hive Center for Contemporary Art, 798 Art District, Beijing, China ^*
2025 – The Rights of Revealing , Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
2025 – Mountain of Many Voices: Reorient the Relation to Automation , Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, China
2025 – Talk [link] , mAI dAI Conference, Storrs, CT, US ^†
2025 – Talk , K11 Kulture Academy, Guangzhou, China ^†
2024 – Curators at Work , International Studio & Curatorial Program(ISCP), Brooklyn, NY, US ^†
2020 – Computational Simulation as a Mode of Collaborative Making in Museum Space , Museum 2050, Shanghai, China
2018 – ThingThingThing Workshop , New York Creative Tech Week, New York, NY, US ^†

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Teaching

Visiting Professor, 2025 – China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China – Fall: World, Computationality 世界，计算性;^*
Assistant Professor, 2023 – University of Connecticut - Digital Media Design, Storrs, CT, US – ∞: Emerging Media & More;^†
Adjunct Professor, 2023 – School of Art, The Cooper Union, New York, NY, US – Spring: Computational Studio: Simulated;
Lecturer, 2020 – Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US New Media New Form;^†
Lecturer, 2019 – Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US Theory and Practice of Interactive Media II;^†
Lecturer, 2018 – Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US Theory and Practice of Interactive Media I;^†
Visiting Professor, 2017 – Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA), Guangzhou, China Interactive Media and Visual Programming;
Lecturer, 2017 – Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US Digital Foundations;^†
Lecturer, 2017 – Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US New Media New Form;^†
Adjunct Professor, 2015 – Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, NY, US Programming Interactivity;^†
Adjunct Professor, 2015 – City University of New York, New York, NY, US Multimedia Development;^†
Adjunct Professor, 2014 – City University of New York, New York, NY, US Introduction to New Media;^†

* Course taught individually by Yang Wang
† Course taught individually by Zhenzhen Qi

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Selected Exhibitions

4/2026 - 5/2026 – Zone of Nowhere, traverse, Beijing, China (Curated by Jiaqi Cui)
11/2025 - 12/2025 – Other Spring — Bay Area Art and Technology Triennial, City Campus Art Museum, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
10/2025 – Mountain of Many Voices | 众鸣山 — Electrified Kids, The 8th Intermedia Art Festival, Tank Shanghai + UFO Terminal, Shanghai, China
9/2025 - 11/2025 – Other Spring — 情山智水：裸物与复形——「今天"山水"有用吗？」项目第11期, PARC 杭州, Hangzhou, China (Curated by 任越 Ren Yue)
3/2025 - 6/2025 – Mountain of Many Voices | 众鸣山 — AI, as Seen at the End of Ownership, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China (Curated by Jianru Wu)
9/2024 - 2/2025 – Other Spring — Life After Life (未来生命档案), HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China (Curated by Yu Zhen, Wang Kaimei)
9/2024 - 11/2024 – Go To Sea 下海 — 班味剧场：如何更好地工作 (Corporate Scent Theater: How to Work Better), New Arts Museum, Langfang, China (Curated by Zhang Jiawei)
8/2024 - 10/2024 – Other Spring, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong SAR
7/2024 - 8/2024 – Other Spring, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
7/2024 - 7/2024 – Go To Sea 下海, Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) Virtual Conference and Media Festival, Online
6/2024 - 6/2024 – Other Spring, HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste), Basel, Switzerland
2/2024 - 4/2024 – Other Spring, Museum MACAN (Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara), Jakarta, Indonesia
1/2024 - 4/2024 – ThingThingThing — Apparatus Less Experiment 无设备实验, 数知妙悟 & 四川美术学院实验艺术学院, Chongqing, China (Curated by Iris Long 龙星如 & Qin Yueshi 秦越石)
1/2024 - 2/2024 – Other Spring — Singapore Art Week 2024, Objectifs, Singapore
2023 – Something Of A Day — Permanent Collection, Power Station of Art 上海当代艺术博物馆, Shanghai, China
10/2023 – Other Spring — The Interface Between Humanity and the Universe 3.0 天人之境 v3.0, China Academy of Art, Shanghai, China (Curated by Ziyang Wu)
7/2023 - 10/2023 – Go To Sea 下海 — To Your Eternity 致不灭的你, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (Curated by Xin Wang)
9/2023 – Other Spring, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
5/2023 – Other Spring, Elektra Virtual Museum, Montreal, Canada
5/2023 – Other Spring, HMG, Yongin, South Korea
3/2023 - 4/2023 – ThingThingThing — Glitches in Love: A New Formula, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
11/2022 – Out of Sight — Infinity Games: Impossible Improvisation 无限游戏：不可能的即兴, West Bund Art & Design 西岸艺术与设计博览会, Shanghai, China (Curated by Baoyang Chen)
7/2021 - 11/2021 – ThingThingThing — Cyber Garden, Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai, China (Curated by Special Special)
9/2021 - 11/2021 – LENNA — Contingent Systems, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, Canada (Curated by Lisa Lipton, Ashley Scarlett)
2/2021 – ThingThingThing — World On A Wire, Rhizome of New Museum @ https://worldonawire.net/, Online (Curated by Michael Connor, Baoyang Chen)
2020 – Quarantinediary.ai, Onassis Foundation, Online (Curated by NEW INC, New Museum)
11/2019 - 12/2019 – LENNA, ThingThingThing — As-Helix, National Museum of China 中国国家博物馆, Beijing, China
11/2018 - 3/2019 – ThingThingThing — Bad Code, Power Station of Art 上海当代艺术博物馆, Shanghai, China (Curated by Xinyi Ren, Ningjue Lv, Jingqiu Li)
6/2018 – ThingThingThing — On Collaboration, Macy Art Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, US
6/2018 – PRISM — .Zip Season 2, 3LD Art & Technology Center, New York, NY, US
3/2018 – LENNA — New Texture, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art Museum, Gimpo, South Korea
3/2018 – The Black Box, Another Internet, Refest 2.0, New York, NY, US
2/2018 – TV Man — UNCOMPRESSED, 3LD Art & Technology Center, New York, NY, US
9/2017 – The Mind Ocean, The Black Box, Selfie, CultureHub, New York, NY, US
9/2017 – Shell, PRISM, Riverside Art Museum 山水美术馆, Beijing, China
5/2016 – The Mind Ocean — Calm Before/After the Storm, BHQFU Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, US
6/2016 – LENNA, Chinatown Soup, New York, NY, US
7/2016 – The Introspection Game, FL:EX Gallery, Shanghai, China
5/2015 – The Introspection Game, Laboratory Gallery, Spokane, WA, US

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Peer-reviewed Conference Presentations

2026 – Toward a Recursive System: Building a Reflexive Topology , Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada ^*
2025 – Remystification and Demystification: Cultivating a 'free relation' to AI , College Art Association 113th Annual Conference, New York, NY, US
2024 – Uncomputable in the Computational World , College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, US

Writing & Publications

2026 – Machine as Memory as Orientation as Condition [link] , Book Chapter , Counterstructural Commons , Rhizome
2026 – A World Awaits — on memory, time, and a habitable new world [link] , Essay , 北京文艺评论 Beijing Literature and Art Review ^*
2024 – 从高架桥到算法现实：探索技术多样性与个体化路径 From Overpasses to Algorithmic Reality: Exploring Technodiversity and Individualized Paths , Essay , 信睿周报 The Thinker Weekly, (120), 21–24 ^*
2024 – Networked Worlds [link] , Research Memo , WePresent / co-matter
2024 – Design of Virtual Worlds , Publication , Digital Transformation in Design, transcript Verlag ^†
2023 – Appropriately Crap 恰当的烂 [link] , Cultural Critique , LEAP 艺术界 ^*
2022 – LENNA , Publication , Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition, Onassis Foundation
2021 – Between Code and Mystery , Essay , ESP Cultural Magazine, (2), 18–25
2021 – Architecting Emergence [link] , Essay , Rhizome
2017 – The Ambition of Digital Interactivity , Magazine Article , BLINK Magazine ^†
2017 – Towards A Critique Culture in New Media Education , Essay , Art School Critique 2.0 , Ragged Sky Press^†

* Solo work by Yang Wang
† Solo work by Zhenzhen Qi

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Selected Interviews

2023 - With ZZYW (Interview with Cassie Packard) - Eyebeam , Brooklyn, NY, US
2023 - Q&A with Dawn Chan and the 5th VH Award Finalists (Part 2) - Hyundai Artlab Editorial , Seoul, South Korea

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Grants & Prizes

2025 - Humanities Institute AI Seed Grant, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT, US (Zhenzhen Qi)
2022 - 5th VH Award (Finalist) , Other Spring , Seoul, South Korea
2021 - Lumen Prize (Shortlist) , LENNA , London, UK
2020 - Brooklyn Arts Fund , Too Art, Too Game , Brooklyn, NY, US
2017 - Creative Technology Fellowship, Columbia University , New York, NY, US (Zhenzhen Qi)
2017 - Macy Research Fellowship, Columbia University , New York, NY, US (Zhenzhen Qi)

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Who?

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Zhenzhen Qi

Dr. Zhenzhen Qi 漆贞贞 (b. 1983, Ürümqi, China) is an artist, educator, and researcher based in Brooklyn, New York. She is an assistant professor at the Digital Media Design (DMD) program at the University of Connecticut, researching software simulation as a mode of collective re-making and un-looping. Since 2014, she has taught courses on theory and practice of interactive media, web, and game development at Cooper Union, Teachers College at Columbia University, City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Connecticut, among others. She has been invited to speak at public events including the College Art Association Annual Conference, Electronic Literature Organization, mAI dAI Conference, K11 Kulture Academy, International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York Creative Tech Week, and Museum 2050. She is the recipient of the Creative Technology Fellowship and Macy Research Fellowship at Columbia University, and the Humanities Institute AI Seed Grant at the University of Connecticut.

Qi co-founded zzyw, an artist and research collective which produces software applications, installations, and texts as instruments to critically examine the cultural, political, and educational effects of computation. Her computational art has been curated by leading cultural institutions around the world, including the New Museum/Rhizome (New York), Ars Electronica (Linz), Haus der Elektronischen Künste (Basel), Elektra (Montreal), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), National Museum of China (Beijing), Times Museum (Guangzhou), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Museum MACAN (Jakarta), HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), and Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai), among others. She has held residencies at Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, BabyCastles, NEW INC, the New Museum’s art-and-technology incubator, and the Counterstructural Commons Residency, organized by Rhizome and the Mozilla Foundation, and was a research artist at co-matter’s Networked World program in Berlin. Her writing has appeared in Rhizome, BLINK Magazine, and ESP Cultural Magazine, and has been published in Art School Critique 2.0 (Ragged Sky Press), Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition (Onassis Foundation), and Digital Transformation in Design (Independent Academic Publishing). She is the co-founder and director of PowerNap Studio, a New York-based experiential production lab.

Zhenzhen holds a BS from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s degree from New York University, and a doctorate from Columbia University.

Dr. Zhenzhen Qi 漆贞贞 (b. 1983, Ürümqi, China) is an artist, educator, and researcher based in Brooklyn, New York. She is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut’s Digital Media Design program, researching software simulation as a mode of collective re-making. With Yang Wang, she co-founded zzyw, a collective producing software, installations, and texts that critically examine the cultural and educational effects of computation. Her work has been exhibited at the New Museum/Rhizome, Ars Electronica, Power Station of Art, Times Museum, and National Museum of China, among others. She is an alum of Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, NEW INC (New Museum), and the Counterstructural Commons (Rhizome × Mozilla Foundation). She holds a BS from UC Berkeley, a Master’s from NYU, and a doctorate from Columbia University.

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Yang Wang

Yang Wang 汪洋 (b. 1989, Zibo, China) is an artist, writer, researcher, and coder based in New York, where he has lived and worked since 2012. His practice operates at the intersection of continental philosophy, experimental engineering, design, and media art. Formally trained as a designer and professionally shaped by software engineering, he uses computation as both a creative medium and a critical subject, building simulated environments and inscriptive systems that examine how technical systems shape the conditions under which human beings perceive, remember, judge, dwell, speak, and act. Drawing on phenomenology, critical theory, and speculative inquiry, his writing and projects investigate computational modernity — how software, AI, media, and technical infrastructures reorganize world, memory, judgment, and subjectivity. Through zzyw, a collective co-founded with Zhenzhen Qi, Wang challenges dominant technological constructs through software prototyping, interactive systems, philosophical writing, and teaching. He describes his ongoing body of work as Autonomous Practice and Critical Experiments.

Wang’s creative and critical work has been exhibited at institutions including the New Museum/Rhizome (New York), Ars Electronica (Linz), Haus der Elektronischen Künste (Basel), Elektra (Montreal), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), National Museum of China (Beijing), Times Museum (Guangzhou), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Museum MACAN (Jakarta), and HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), among others. He has held residencies at Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, BabyCastles, NEW INC, the New Museum’s art-and-technology incubator, and the Counterstructural Commons Residency, organized by Rhizome and the Mozilla Foundation. He has presented at academic conferences including the College Art Association Annual Conference (2025) and the Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities Conference (HKADH, 2026), and has given talks and lectures at institutions such as Duke Kunshan University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Times Museum, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His essays and criticism have appeared in LEAP, Rhizome, The Thinker Weekly (信睿周报), Beijing Literature and Art Review (北京文艺评论), and ESP Cultural Magazine, and his writing has been included in the Onassis Foundation publication Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition.

Wang has developed and taught courses on technology critique, experimental computing, worldbuilding, interactive art, and media art at Cooper Union, China Academy of Art, and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. His pedagogy combines neural network building with phenomenological inquiry, establishing computation as a medium for collaborative creation and critical reflection. He maintains an industry presence to sharpen his critical inquiry into emerging technology — previously as a senior software engineer at Snap Inc., working on creative and engineering challenges in augmented and virtual reality; as a senior creative technologist at Rockwell Group’s LAB; as an interactive designer at Potion; and through freelance technical roles in New York’s creative technology sector. He holds an MPS from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (2014).

Wang previously used the alias 黄瓜 (huáng guā, “cucumber”), a name that originated during his teenage years playing strategy games online in the early 2000s, and now uses his formal name exclusively. Outside institutional and project contexts, he is open to writing and teaching engagements around critical computing, creative technology, and the culture of computation from technical, computer-science-oriented, and philosophical perspectives.

Yang Wang 汪洋 (b. 1989, Zibo, China) is an artist, writer, and coder based in New York. His practice operates at the intersection of continental philosophy, experimental engineering, and media art, using computation as both a creative medium and a critical subject. With Zhenzhen Qi, he co-founded zzyw, a collective producing software, installations, and philosophical writing on the cultural and ontological dimensions of digital infrastructure. His work has been exhibited at the New Museum/Rhizome, Ars Electronica, Power Station of Art, Times Museum, and National Museum of China, among others. He is an alum of Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, NEW INC (New Museum), and the Counterstructural Commons (Rhizome × Mozilla Foundation). He holds an MPS from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

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