About

Yuguang (YG) Zhang is a New York-based new media / AI artist, a lead machine learning technologist at DE-YAN, and a member of NUUM Collective. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) where he teaches Generative AI.

An ex-software product manager and artistic director, he took a leap of faith from his mid-career, in pursuit of a vision that embraces the co-creation of human and intelligent machines. Using networked devices and machine learning, he explores ways to make physical and digital avatars for sentient algorithms in an age of autonomous computing systems.

His current practice, which incorporates interactive media, installation, and live performance, focuses on the reciprocal relationship between human and technology, the connections people make with tangible and intangible AI, and the cultural, societal & ethical shifts that come along. His works have been showcased at NeurIPS, aiartonline, ML x Art, Neural, the NYC Media Lab Summit, New Inc., CultureHub, La MaMa, Movement Research, Battery Dance Festival, The Center at West Park, Currents New Media Festival, and Processing Foundation community conference in New York, NY, Brown Arts Initiative in Providence, RI, Cycling ‘74 Expo in North Adams, MA, Maxxi - The National Museum of XXI Century Arts at Rome, Fu:bar art festival at Zagreb, Beijing Times Arts Museum, B·O·N·D International Virtual Live Performance Festival in Shanghai and more.

Contact Me


Awards / Grants

2023 City of Palo Alto Public Art Commission, Palo Alto, USA
2022 Google AMI (Artist + Machine Intelligence) Resesarch Award (as NUUM)
2022 Index Biennial of Art and Technology Grant, Braga, Portugal
2021 S+T+ARTS Award for Nemo Biennial, Paris, France
2021 Media Art Xploration Grant, USA
2021 Re:Humanism AI Art Prize, Rome, Italy (3rd)
2019 NYCDH Digital Humanities Graduate Student Project Award, First Prize, New York, USA
2018 & 2019 Tisch School of The Arts Award, New York, USA



Residencies / Fellowships

2022
Research Resident, Interactive Media Arts Low Res, New York University, New York, NY

2021
Research Resident, Interactive Media Arts Low Res, New York University, New York, NY
SloMoCo Micro Residency, New York, NY

2020
Virtual Performance Residency, The Center at West Park, New York, NY
Research Resident, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University, New York, NY
M·U·S·E (Multi-Use Space for Experimentation) Residency at Danspace Project, New York, NY



Selected Exhibitions / Performances

2023
Bureau of Cloud Management, "We May Be In This Together", Duo Exhibition at :iidrr Gallery, New York, Nov 2-12
Bureau of Cloud Management, Code:ART, City of Palo Alto Public Art, Oct 12-14

2022
1920 x 1920, Research Showcase, NYU Media Commons, Jun 3
Bureau of Cloud Management, Index Biennial of Art and Technology, May 12-22

2021
Doppelgänger, Media Art Xploration, New York Live Arts, New York, Nov 5
Mass 2.0, Currents New Media, Santa Fe, June 18-25
(Non-)Human:The Moving Bedsheet, Maxxi - The National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy, May 5-31
Walking Mass I / II / III, CultureHub, Mar - May
Left and Right, or Being who/where you are, Brown Arts Initiative, Feb 10-14

2020
MASS (Connectedness), B·O·N·D International Virtual Live Performance Festival, Shanghai / New York. Oct 1 - 2
Networked: CUT, Movement Research, New York, NY. Jun 30
Generative Photography, Re-Fest, CultureHub, New York, NY. Mar 12 - 14
3 AM, EdgeCut, New Inc., New York, NY. Feb 27
Machine Timing, RE•WORK Deep Learning Summit, San Francisco, CA. Jan 30 - 31

2019
3 AM, The Paper Box, Brooklyn, NY. Dec 6
Dissolved, /’fu̧:bar/ Glitch Art Festival 2019, Zagreb, Croatia. Oct 5 - 11
Machine Timing, NYC Media Lab, New York, NY. Sep 26
Cats, Cycling ’74 Expo, North Adams, MA, Apr 27

2018
The Invisible Bird, ITP Winter Show, New York, NY. Dec 16 – 17
Haunted Museum, NYU GMTWP, New York, NY. Oct 27

2017 and earlier
Walk with Me, Guangzhou International Media Harbor, Guangzhou, China. Dec 31, 2017
Dununbe, The 4th Shenzhen Drummer Festival, Shenzhen, China. Aug 6, 2016
Sewa Concert Tour, Lai Kok Community Hall, Hong Kong. Dec 20, 2015



Artist Talks

2021
"Art & Technology", Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy. Dec 13
“A New Brush of Abstraction: Machine Learning for Art Making.", NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China. Sep 17
Artist Talk at “Live Art & Digital Culture”, Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA. Feb 17

2020
Panel Talk - 2020 vs. Creativity, B·O·N·D International Virtual Live Performance Festival, Shanghai, China. Sep 18 (Chinese)
Artist Interview: Generative Photography, Re-Fest 2020, CultureHub, New York, NY. Mar 12
Artist Talk: Generative Photography, Arts at University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI. Feb 24
Generative Photography: From Pinhole to GANs: an ongoing experiment to find emotional impact for machine-generated visuals, Processing Community Day NYC, The New School, New York, NY. Feb 8
GAN-Movie: An experiment on Using Machine Learning to Generate Short Film, Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, New York, NY. Feb 3



Teaching

2023
Text-to-Image AIs, NYU ITP, New York
Creating Beyond Words: Generative AI as Designer Tools, School of Visual Arts MFA Interaction Design, New York

2022
Experiments in Networked Performance, Guest Lecture, School for Poetic Computation, New York
Intro to AI Art Tech-Track, IMA Low Res NYU, New York

2021
Connections with Arduino Tech-Track, IMA Low Res NYU, New York
Connections Lab Workshop Series, IMA Low Res NYU, New York
Yorb - Venue for Experimental 3D Performance & Interactions, Spring 21', NYU ITP, New York
Yorb - Venue for Experimental 3D Performance & Interactions, Spring 21', NYU ITP, New York
Live Art & Digital Culture Workshop, Spring 21', Emerson College, Boston, MA

2020
Intro to Computational Media Workshop Series, Fall 20', NYU ITP, New York
Intro to Physical Computing Workshop Series, Fall 20', NYU ITP, New York
Intro to TouchDesigner Workshop Series, Fall 20', NYU ITP, New York
"Online Live Performance, Not Just a Camera Recording", Summer 20', ITP Camp, NYU, New York


Publications / Press

2021
Art blends humanity and artificial intelligence, here it is Re:Humanism, speakart
Arte e intelligenza artificiale. I vincitori della seconda edizione del premio Re:humanism, Artribune
A Slice of Shared Self, Adjacent Issue 8, ITP & IMA, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU

2020
(Non-)Human, Heavy Iridescent Issue One: Consciousness, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Could AI be the future of Art?, by Sarah Wilson, RE•WORK

2019
Foot Roller, Adjacent Issue 6, ITP & IMA, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU