Weidi Zhang is a new media artist and designer based in Los Angeles and Phoenix. She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Immersive Experience Design at the Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center at Arizona State University. Her interdisciplinary research explores A Speculative Assemblage at the intersection of immersive media design, experimental data visualisation, and interactive AI art. We spoke to her about working with AI and data.
How would you describe your artistic practice?
My artistic practice unfolds at the crossroads of immersive media design, experimental data visualization, and interactive AI art. I am drawn to assembling composite realities—where speculative narratives and immersive art experiences intertwine. My work is deeply rooted in image-based spatial storytelling, treating image data not just as a visual medium but as a living archive for storytelling. Through this process, I explore the evolving dialogue between human perception and computational intelligence, shaping new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.
What interests you about working with AI—particularly in an interactive context?
I see AI as a collaborator, an intelligence that disrupts and reshapes the creative process. I am fascinated by the way its decisions collide with human intuition, forming an intricate dance between automation and originality. To me, an artwork is a multi-layered system—each layer a space for choices, negotiations, and emergent possibilities. Within this ecosystem, AI, participants, and myself (artist) contribute equally, shaping the piece through an ever-evolving conversation of agency and interpretation.
What are some of the ways you are working with data in your work?
I collect data from the outer world and transform unstructured data into information, then shape that information into cultural artifacts to construct new worlds. I work with various forms of data, from historical archives to real-time environmental inputs, translating them into immersive compositions. In Cangjie’s Poetry, for instance, I use AI to reconstruct and generate new textual forms, reviving ancient Chinese linguistic structures within a digital landscape. Data serves as a vessel of memory, narrative, culture, and time—a medium for both cultural production and reproduction.
Why is the relationship between art and technology important?
Art and technology are not separate entities; they are deeply interwoven, both rooted in culture and constantly reshaping one another. In new media art, this relationship fuels interdisciplinary innovation, allowing artists to explore complex sociopolitical, philosophical, and cultural questions through novel perspectives. My work is grounded in cultural experimentation—technology not only provides new tools and methods but also introduces system thinking and computational logic as creative forces. I see the act of making as a fluid network, where meaning is not fixed but continuously woven meanings between algorithmic structures and artistic intuition.
What interests you about the next few years of technology?
My artistic explorations take two paths: research-driven interactive AI installations and immersive audiovisual performances. I am particularly interested in how AI and human participants can co-create—reassembling and reinterpreting cultural artifacts to question the complexities of our time. Additionally, I am drawn to AI’s role in shaping decision-making processes for immersive audiovisual experiences—ones that prioritise aesthetic experimentation and emotional resonance.
