INTERACTIVE EXPLORATION OF ART AND CODE

BY ZACH LIEBERMAN
About the Exhibit

Future Sketches / Code Poems

Renowned artist, researcher and educator Zach Lieberman explores the poetry within computation and pushes the boundaries of creative coding as an expressive medium. Future Sketches / Code Poems explores how technology can transform the human body, voice, and gesture in expressive and imaginative ways, serving as a love letter to the fields of animation, interaction and computation.

Drawing from over a decade of work and research in media art, this exhibition marks the next chapter in Lieberman’s journey and builds upon the success of his inaugural solo exhibition at ARTECHOUSE DC in 2020. Discover an experience that savors every line of code as a stanza in a poem.

“When I create work, I don’t want people to point at it and say, ‘that’s amazing software.’ I want them to say, ‘that’s a beautiful idea, that helped me see in a new way, or that made my day better.’” Artist, Zach Lieberman

Lieberman’s students from the MIT Media Lab will contribute their work to the showcase, celebrating the next generation of creative coders.

Showcase Highlights: 

  • Daily Sketches: Get a glimpse inside Lieberman’s daily sketches that explore the possibilities of creative coding, graphical form and animation.
  • Manual Input Sessions: Engage with audio-to-visual expression in a playful and hands-on way
  • Re-Coded: Get hands on and see the cause and effect relationship between coding and visual expression.
  • Expression Mirror: An immersive experience where visitors can see their own emotions through others. 
  • Reflection Studies: Explore principles of light like reflection and refraction.

In a world where commercial forces shape conversations around technology, this exhibition champions the pivotal role of artists and designers in envisioning futures that are both more expressive and playfully creative.

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Collaborations:

While Lieberman is the driving force of this exhibit, a number of the featured installations result from collaboration with other artists and work from his students. He feels strongly about sharing ideas and resources, so including several collaborative pieces reflects his desire to educate and assist other artists and creators. 

Average Face Mirror was created by Sarah Howorka, and Faces in Things is the work of Robby Kraft, both students from the School for Poetic Computation. The installation Re-Coded features sketches by alumni and friends of the school as they explored how past computer-based works could be visualized through code and reintroduced to the public. These installations result from work created for classes led by Lieberman, who helped them consider the possibilities of coding and artistic technology uses.

Manual Input Sessions was created by the TMEMA, a group encompassing Lieberman and Golan Levin. The artist and educator Molmol Kuo worked with Lieberman on the pieces Body Sketches and Más Que la Cara (which had additional contributions from Gordy Cherny and Matthias Dörfelt). 

The musical pieces “Exitisim – (A)” and “Particle and Fields” by Jemapur, “What I Feel” by Daito Manabe, and improvised piano music by Nahre Sol can be heard in the main Sketch Lab. Manabe also created the track that can be heard in the Face Lab. These are musicians whose music Lieberman enjoys and who, in some cases, have collaborated with him.

About the artist

Zach Lieberman

Zach Lieberman is an artist, researcher, and educator with a simple goal: to surprise viewers. Originally from outside Chicago, Lieberman creates performances and installations that take human gestures as input and amplify them in different ways — making drawings come to life, imagining what a voice might look like if we could see it, and transforming people’s silhouettes into music.

As an educator, Lieberman is especially interested in sharing information, creating more tools, and expanding the wealth of knowledge available to others.

He writes his software to create artwork and is a co-creator of openFrameworks, an open-source C++ toolkit for creative coding. OpenFrameworks brings together several libraries that software developers commonly use.

In 2013, he helped to create the School for Poetic Computation in NYC. Lieberman is a co-founder of the interaction design company YesYesNo. This new collective specializes in creating engaging, magical installations that combine creativity, artistic vision, and cutting-edge R&D. He is also the adjunct associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab.

He has been listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People, and his projects have won numerous awards, including being included in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year.

Lieberman holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Hunter College and a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design. He has been an artist-in-residence at Ars Electronica Futurelab, Eyebeam, Dance Theater Workshop, and the Hangar Center for the Arts in Barcelona.

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