enddle   Jianhao ZHENG

Student, Media Artist

As a Media Artist, I use electronic circuits and digital tools to make interactive artworks, focusing on human thoughts and emotions as the overall theme. Based on interactions, my works also incorporate images and sounds, experimenting with conveying feelings and emotions with multiple forms of media.



Instead of viewing, my works emphasize experiencing. The audience can find a first-person perspective and project themselves onto it. In DREAM (2023), the audience gets into the dreams of a patient in hospital, experiencing changes in emotions as the plot advances. Although a hand-held device is the portal of interactions, light and sound filling the entire room are also essential parts of the experience.



This work is not limited to digital screens, instead, it lives in physical reality, and breathes in the environment around the audience. Within a limited time and space, a world is built. Audiences are drawn into the world by the immersive experience, where their feelings are aroused and gradually intensified. Finally, they feel like being the character in the story, feel the same emotions, and have deeper thoughts.

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People’s minds are not so different from each other, that’s why we can empathize with others. Different emotions grow in different environments, and building a specific one could make people react in a similar way. However, in this sameness of human beings, where lives our unique identity as individuals?




Philosophical contemplation is also an essential process in my art creation. I build worlds just like Plato’s allegory of the cave, where the shadows become truths, and reflections become the essence. Influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer, who stated that music “reveals the inner nature of the world”, I recognize the importance of audio components in the narrative, conceptual, and emotional renderings.



For the audience, walking into the realm of my work is a dérive, a detour from their life into a stranger’s mind. Guy Debord, one of the founding artists of Situationism, states that time should be limited for a dérive, as a reminder of being away from daily life. Inspired by his theory, I see limitations as the boundary and experiment with blurring the boundary between the real and virtual worlds.




I think about the grand themes of human, future, and philosophy, but also see the struggle of individuals. DREAM (2023) is a story of hope and despair. Dérive: Prelude (2021) discuss the looping nature of life. Observer (2022) provokes thoughts about a higher dimension and ourselves. Photoelectric (2022) transforms the thoughts and communications of performers into lights and sounds. My works tell the story of one but reflect on all.



I consider myself a storyteller, but using interactive media as the book, letting the audience themselves be the narrator. I want to create works that impact people’s minds, bringing subtle changes in how they think about themselves, others, and the world we live in.




CV (updated March 2024)





Exhibitions & Events


No Image Art + Technology Open Studios

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2024.3.21

Coney Island Maker Faire Coney Island Maker Faire 2023

Maimonides Park, Brooklyn, NY
2023.10.6–8

collaborated with Jiuwen Zeng

Elsewhere, Within Here Elsewhere, Within Here

Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2023.8.1–9.30

Hudson Valley Maker Faire Hudson Valley Maker Faire 2023

Garner Arts Center, Garnerville, NY
2023.5.20–21

collaborated with Jiuwen Zeng

“Objectivity” duo performance “Objectivity” duo performance

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2023.5.8

collaborated with Jiuwen Zeng

Media Art III Performace and Free Improvisation Media Art III Performace & Free Improvisation

Musashino Art University, Kodaira, Tokyo
2022.12.14

performed with Media Art III:
Andres Madrueno, Zhao Zizhen, Jianhao Zheng, Bae Soyeon, 井口花菜, 小杉真優, 山下夏実, 末次俊一, 村上綾, 橋村真琴, 津川真保, 渡辺ひかり, 瓦田紗希, 長尾朋佳

3rd Grade Advanced Production Exhibition 3rd Grade Advanced Production Exhibition

Musashino Art University, Kodaira, Tokyo
2022.10.20–22

Projects


No Image (Upcoming) Working Title

NeoCon 2024

THE MART, Chicago, IL
2024.6.10–12

designing and building with Pratt Creative Xchange

Echoes of the 80's Echoes of the 80's

Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA)

at DIFFA's 40th Anniversary Gala
The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan, NY
2024.3.28

designed and built with Pratt Creative Xchange:
Yongyu Cai, Jean Juan, George Knowles, Eli Toker, Jianhao Zheng

The Sound of Space | The Space of Sound The Sound of Space | The Space of Sound

Kimball International

Fulton Market Design Days, Chicago, IL
2023.6.12–13

designed and built with Pratt Creative Xchange:
Miranda Fallon, Liam Monaghan, Eli Toker, Yuxi Wang, Boyan Wu, Mina Yoo, Jianhao Zheng

Curatorial Projects


After Hours: Art + Technology Exhibition After Hours: Art + Technology Exhibition

DDA Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2024.3.19–22

curated with DDA-415-05 Professional Practices:
Yuan Fang, Yue Fei, Kaylee Jang, Ananda Ray, Abner Wang, Yvonne Wang, Jiuwen Zeng, Ailun Zhou, Jianhao Zheng


Press


DIFFA'S STAR-STUDDED 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA TICKETS ON SALE NOWYahoo! Finance   Mar 6, 2024

Happily Ever After – The Marriage of Sound and Spatial Design by Jessica GubbinsAlternative Design® Blog   2023