Hello, I’m Yang Wang (汪洋, Wāng Yáng)—welcome to my personal website. This may read as a monologue; I hope it is useful. If you’re here to view my work, please visit https://zzyw.org/.

I previously used the alias 黄瓜 (huáng guā)—cucumber in English ¹—and now use my formal name exclusively. I grew up in Zibo, Shandong, and have lived and worked in New York City since 2012.

My name is often associated with being an artist and sometimes a designer. The distinction is porous, so I no longer insist on a single label. I was formally trained as a designer during my undergraduate years, which shaped a systematic and methodical approach to making, while my practice remains speculative and theory-driven.

I also work as a researcher and writer. In recent years my focus has shifted toward critical writing on computational modernity: how software, AI, media, and technical infrastructures reorganize world, memory, judgment, and subjectivity. I examine how technical systems shape the conditions under which human beings perceive, remember, judge, dwell, speak, and act. My writing appears in magazines and academic journals, and I occasionally present at academic conferences.

I write code professionally as well. Throughout much of the 2010s, I worked at startups, design firms, architectural firms, and large technology companies. Roles have included interactive engineer at Snap Inc., creative technologist and designer at Rockwell Group’s LAB, and interactive designer at Potion. In recent years I have shifted toward writing and developing my own work—a body of projects I call Autonomous Practice and Critical Experiments.

I used to be a member of NEW INC, a technology resident at Pioneer Works, and a resident artist at EYEBEAM.

I also teach courses on computing, worldbuilding, and interactive art during academic semesters.

I’m open to writing & teaching commissions/engagements if you need someone to cover critical computing, creative technology, offer critical perspectives on the tech sector, or explore the culture of computing from a technical, computer science-oriented, or philosophical standpoint. Please email me at ywnyc@proton.me.

In my free time, I enjoy playing video games, reading fiction and memoirs by Chinese writers, and spending time on Instagram and Reddit. I’m active on Instagram.

You can also visit https://zzyw.org/ to view my work and the collaborative projects with Zhenzhen Qi (漆贞贞). We use that site as a combined portfolio for the zzyw identity.

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