We were lucky to catch up with Hao Zhang recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hao , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Well, I used to be a bit sensitive person. Cause when I was at my university, my professor didn’t like my work cause my work was different and fall outside of the scope of tradition type of graphic design. I believe I’m exceptional and better than others. My professor didn’t like my work, didn’t mean I was wrong. Maybe my professor were out of dated. Chinese people simply knew that the knowledge taught at school would not help you find a job easily and not be kept up with the trend. 21st century is about new media, digital technologies, AI, and the Internet. If I’m a good student who followed the exact path the professor curved out for me, I probably would be a graphic designer at a magazine or indie publisher. But now, I designed HMI for Ford and Lincoln. I have my own practices and able to do art residency. I showed my work at Ars Electronica, which is a really big thing in the world of new media art.
At my university, I was the only graphic design student who mastered the skills at programming and C++. I took multiple classes at software engineer department. I wouldn’t miss any classes cause it would lay my foundation. My undergraduate was the top school for engineers. If you didn’t take engineering class from them, I would say, I missed the great opportunities.
When I studied at ArtCenter College of Design for my master degree, I’m really glad my early investment in programming skills made my work stand out against others. Others could be more theory-based practices, but my work shows you a new possibility to do digital work that infuses art, culture and technology together. Then it becomes my new strength. My early work at American grad school would please my professor, cause that’s old Chinese students’ habit. But one of my classmates, Stephanie, a star student at my grad school, I felt she did so well at school. So I talked to her one day, “Can my work be personal?” She encouraged to follow my heart and expose your vulnerability. Her work is about feminism, something really close to her. I asked her, what if I chose a topic that’s important to me but might not be important to her, is it okay? She told me, “professor wouldn’t judge you and if you feel it’s important, then it’s important”. I need to accept what I like to do, who I am and my personal preferences.
Honestly, it’s really hard for me to do it in the beginning, but I believed in it and see how it played out. If this simple advise did so well for her, might for me.
I guess I saw a new opportunity at college so I took the chance to develop the skills in both fields. I don’t know how to combine them together so I went to a grad school, hoping to fuse the two to one. After I allow my-self to pursue my personal interest, I’m able to establish my personal practices. In the end, it opened up my new opportunities at W+K, where I’m the only mainland-born Chinese guy within a super white office.
The last day at my grad school, ArtCenter College of Design, the studio manager told me I was a wild card. I guess I had a lot of energy and can do a lot of things. Yeah. Period.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I would love people focus more on my artistic career.
I’m a media artist. The art form of my recent work is website. It’s interactive and engaging. My work focuses on the internet-enabled lifestyle and screen culture I exposed to. Currently, I live in Shanghai, so my work is centered around Chinese internet narratives and human autonomy. I hope my work can raise the awareness of how the Internet is manipulating its users in the name of user-centerness and convenience.
In Dec 2024, with the help from S Gallery, I’m able to do a work at Dragon Hotel in Hangzhou, China. It’s my very first time to show my work in a 5-star hotel，next to Xihu. This hotel is a landmark and a legend for the City. One of challenge I feel as the media artist is how to exhibit the work beyond the form of the website in the hotel setting. I’m going to extend the work from pure digital space to the physical space, taking a trans-media approach. So what I will do at Dragon Hotel is a 2.7 by 7.73 meters window sticker. It’s going to be a giant UV print at the front entrance. It’s the almost the first thing you see when you enter the hotel. It’s key visual.
I’m gonna exhibit my work “CloudService.love”. CloudService.love hosts a data-craving cloud within the browser while broadcasting user’s interaction that energizes the cloud. This cloud has two phases. When it’s tranquil, it’s peaceful cloud. When the user feeds a lot of user data to it, it transforms into the serpent-like creature and chase the mouse. The background color would be flashy and trippy. User are aware of how their user data and local network speed might affect the movement of this imaged creature. The first version of this work was done in 2021 at Noname Studio residency, but now it’s more organic, alive and animistic. Cause every time the user visit the work, it’s a little different. I used the weather data from Hangzhou to generate the work as well. To me, it’s more technical advanced. I used Kimi Chat to generate a poem about this cloud. As the viewers having fun with the serpent, they are able to read it.
This work reflects on the issue that Little Red, Chinese version of Instagram, constantly tracks your conversation and user input with or without your consent. You have to put your phone away or look for a specific way to turn off the data surveillance. You couldn’t say no to the app cause it’s part of my life. What I can do is to be aware of it and prune its algorithm in the way you can. This issue is not only limited to Little Red.
Other work related is YourKeyboardButMyRule. People purchase digital devices but surrender their autonomy to the Internet. The artist defines the algorithms and takes the ownership of your devices. Your digital devices are scripted.
Yourkeyboardbutmyrule.art is an interactive typing and reading experience where keyboard
doesn’t correspond to what you pressed on your keyboard. This website asks a user to type to
read the artist’s writings. As the user interacts with the websites, the website gradually takes
control of your devices and asks user permission from your browser. Default webcamera, IP
and microphone would be turned on.
You know, sometimes, your device might turn against you and doesn’t follow your command. It’s speaks to the relationship between the owner and its device. Cause unlike the traditional tool, the device comes with the algorithm that’s not a commoner can easily manage.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Most important skill set:
Be good at either python or javacript or C++. Take the basic programming thinking classes so you could think like a software engineer. Then you can move on to games, websites, AR / VR quickly. Transition cost would be minimal.
Ability to do prototyping:
Able to conduct prototyping. Cause if I establish a new interactive pattern, then I need to make it happen so I have a taste of how it feels like. Make it work, make it tangible and then go from there.
Follow your heart:
Just do something not everyone has done before. It’s more about satisfy your own curiosity and make it fun for yourself. If you have fun with it, if you like it, others will like it as well.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I want to make indie games and have some fun with it. Make some games that could go viral, might serve a comment on social issues. I would love to connect with those indie games developers. Part of game assets could be use AI generated assets. All of my art work comes with an interesting interactive pattern.
You can reach out to me via my email: [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Website: https://haozhangux.cargo.site/Visual-Work
- Instagram: default_daddy_official
- Facebook: howard cheung
- Linkedin: hao zhang
Image Credits
Noname Studio Residency
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
