Zachary Lieberman Guest Editor

Zachary Lieberman

Zachary Lieberman draws, dances and performs with code. Being an artist and computer programmer, he calls himself a nerd artist. Combining his passion for coding and art into an unified craving for excitement and the unknown, Lieberman fills the chasm of technology and art with his magical coding. As guest editor of Dream The End “Code Poetics,” Zachary has curated a personal selection of the leading artists and works in creative coding.

As the co-creator of an open source C++, openFrameworks, and an assistant professor of computational design at Parsons, Lieberman actively promotes social change. At a time when coffee is brewed automatically at 7 in the morning and liking something only takes a single click, Lieberman shows how digital technology can change not only how we live but also how we dream.

Lieberman is currently involved in several projects, including co-founding an interactive design firm YesYesNo and initiating the EyeWriter, a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that allows ALS patients to draw using just their eyes. His experimental artworks, corporate collaborations and art interventions have been celebrated around the world.

Exploring the possibilities of vision and communication is at the core of Lieberman’s artworks. The music video “Chase No Face” he created for Bell blurred the boundary between the transmission of sound and light. Along the music, the beams of light and the streams of sound dance into each other, creating an intersensory viewing experience.

In 2011, YesYesNo collaborated with Nike+ in its innovative project Nike + City Run in New York, London and Tokyo. An installation was designed for Nike retail stores in each city to visualize a year’s worth of running data collected from individual runners on a virtual map. Each runner’s unique action and trail became the pulse of the city, energizing the Metropolitan life.

In the London 2012 Festival during the Olympics, Lieberman connected Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman border between Scotland and England, with a line of 400 pulsating LED balloons which transmit message among each other through the changing of colors. During the two days of exhibition, the 2,000-year-old heritage site was illuminated by his technological innovation and the feeling of wonder and joy shared by the visitors from different paths of life. Called Connecting Light, the project successfully transformed a historical symbol of separation into a modern experience of connecting.

This fall, Lieberman is launching the School for Poetic Computation in New York. With the motto “more poems less demos,” the 10 week program aims to explore the intersections of code, design, hardware and theory–focusing especially on artistic intervention.

Zachary Lieberman edition