Zach Lieberman and His Multitude of 'Circles, Blobs, Ripples'

In 2021, new media artist and digital designer Zach Lieberman took to redesigning the SHOWstudio logo in a series of computational patterns using code to transform our Helvetica Neue typeface into an incoming tide that ebbed and flowed. The result was akin to modern poetry, a notion continually bound to Lieberman's ever-expanding digital portfolio, which has been splashed across the walls of Unit Gallery in London's legendary Hanover Square over the past month in tandem with the artist's latest exhibition Circles, Blobs, Ripples.

Marking Lieberman’s first solo show with Unit, Circles, Blobs, Ripples sets out to explore the unexpected effects that take place when geometry is crafted with code. Centring around the circle motif - which can be found in varying degrees within the works on display via biomorphic blobs and ripple-like symmetrical patterns - the exhibition pulls together a selection of larger and smaller-scale still images and moving image screen-based works (available to buy as NFTs) to form a visual identity that dances between symmetry and asymmetry, systematic order and random disorder. Just like Lieberman's own coding patterns, it's this very synergy that contextualises his creative output in the same vein it does computer art pioneer Vera Molnár, who envisioned a systematic method for abstract drawing pre-computer access in the 1950s called the Machine Imaginaire, enabling her to merge mathematical precision with the messy imperfection of hand-drawn elements à la Lieberman.

Acting as a testament to the artist’s mastery over mathematical systems, Circles, Blobs, Ripples holds a new body of work that is at once surprising and serene, while also unveiling the unexpected beauty found within numbers and computational code. 'Artwork has the potential to plant seeds in people’s minds. If anything, I’d like to do that', Lieberman told Unit ahead of the show, but what made him start this series in the first place? Itching to know more, we interviewed him for the second time to get to know the man behind the art. Here, he chats with art and culture editor Christina Donoghue on his distaste for the label 'creative coding', and why the physicality of art is just as important as its screen partners.

Christina Donoghue: While researching, I came across an old SHOWstudio interview in which you expressed your distaste for the label 'creative coding' and how it takes away from the poetry you create. Please can you expand on this sentiment?

Zach Lieberman: It’s funny because this semester, I’ve been asked to teach a class about creativity, and I think that word is such a minefield of self-help books and psychology papers. I love the word 'poetry' because it refers to 'poiesis', which is Greek for making - ie someone who makes verses. Poetry is about using the right words in the right order to express what It means to be human and alive. 

CD: Can you explain the meaning behind your use of the word 'poetic computation'? 

ZL: For me, poetry is about using code and technology in service of ideas rather than making work in service of a technology. Poetic computation is the use of computation to create poetic works and for me, that involved creating organic explorations of movement, shape, colour and light. 

CD: When did you realise this was something you could make a career out of? When was your breakthrough moment?

ZL: After I graduated from grad school, my professor invited me to collaborate with him, and that summer, we went to Ars Electronica, which was a large electronic arts festival. It was there that I saw media art as a type of career. I found people excited about making art with code and folks who were finding different routes like commercial work, art work, teaching, etc and it was really inspiring to see people who were just going for it.  At that time, there was a lot of support for media art in Europe, so I remember a lot of times we’d be working in NY but traveling to Europe to exhibit and make a living. On a separate note, I’d say a breakthrough moment for me was a project called Eyewriter (2009), where I collaborated with a group to work with Tempt, an old school graffiti artist and writer from LA who was diagnosed with ALS, (he was completely paralysed when we met him). We built tools for him to draw graffiti with his eyes, and even did things like stream the data from the drawings out on to the street to project them live. It was a really exciting project to be involved with and I feel really honoured to be a part of it. 

CD: How has your background in fine art and printmaking influenced your career as an artist and designer? 

ZL: I spent so much time in the printmaking studio when I was a student, just trying to absorb everything I could from all the different techniques and approaches. I loved how much of the work was combining technical and aesthetic ideas, exploring how materials might work with and against you. Working with code is a highly technical medium, and I think those print shop days have a big impact on my interest and desire to know what’s possible. The other thing is that printmaking is highly social. Unless you are super well off and have your own printmaking studio in your house, the print shop is this beehive of activity, where someone might be etching a plate, or rolling ink, or getting paper wet, or pulling a print, and when I started school I had this notion that art was something very solitary - sort of toiling away on your own in your attic - but the print shop showed me that art could be really collaborative and feel more like a laboratory. I’ve gravitated towards spaces like that in my own practice ever since. 
Finally, the last thing I’ll say about printmaking is I LOVE to hold an image in my hands. I often don’t understand the work I make until I hold it, and it reminds me of that feeling in printmaking - where you don’t really know what it is until you pull that first print. 

CD: You also previously told us you see yourself akin to a wildlife photographer in regards to your job being to find 'really nice movement.' Can you explain the thought process behind viewing your work in this way and the creative process behind what you do? 

ZL: So, often, I build these dynamic systems in code that are changing based on randomness or even animating with time and I love to see how they grow and evolve. For me, the most important thing I do as a creator is command-shift-4, which takes a screenshot. My hard drive has thousands and thousands of screenshots of my work and process. I do feel like a wildlife photographer, in that I am kind of observing all the time, and when I see something totally out of the ordinary, or that makes me feel or see in a different way, I just start taking image after image. I’ll take those and often post them as WIP, but also, similar to how a photographer might take a contact sheet and pull out selects, I like whittling down image after image to try to find the right one. For this exhibit at Unit, I murdered my hard drive by making thousands upon thousands of exports, and it was a fun challenge to try to whittle it down to a few specific works. 

CD: What are your thoughts on Op Art and would you consider this movement to have inspired your own work / can you see any similarities?

ZL: I am a huge fan of Op art (and tangentially kinetic art). There's no doubt certain works from Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely hold a big influence on my work. For this exhibit, I spent a lot of time thinking about the work of Wojciech Fangor, whose circle paintings have been a kind of North Star for me in terms of my exploration of colour and geometry. I remember that when working on this exhibit, I would go back to those works repeatedly to see how they made me feel and what I could learn from them. 

CD: Can you talk a bit about your appreciation for Vera Molnár? Do you see this show as a sort of conversational touchpoint with her work? 

ZL: I teach a class at MIT called 'Recreating the Past', where we recreate artworks using code and every week, I give a lecture about a different artist. The first artist we study is Vera Molnár - a pioneering artist who has been creating algorithmic/generative art since the late 60s - and it’s actually one of my secret joys to see students engage with her work every year and try to see the world through her eyes. Her work gives us really important lessons on order and randomness. I have been thinking a lot about her work recently, especially since she passed away last year, at 99 years old, and how she could dedicate her life to simple things. She has this quote: 'I have no regrets. My life is squares, triangles, lines' and I consider the title of this exhibit to be a sort of homage to that as circles, blobs and ripples are forms I’ve dedicated my life to. When deciding how to hang the chosen works, we looked at how Molnár hung her works for inspiration. It's not as simple as mirroring with side-by-side frames, but also as a form of composition. 
Also, I should add that it was only recently I gave my lecture about Vera Molnár and left my students to recreate her work, around the same time I flew to London for this show's opening, which was a direct nod to her and her influence on my practice. I feel very thankful that her work is part of our field and that we can keep studying and learning new things from it. 

CD: I've noticed the moving image works in this show are being sold as NFTs. What are your thoughts on NFTs today and their place in the art world?

ZL: So, like many digital artists, I’ve been struck by NFTs and their ability to play with the meaning and value of digital works - works that could be copied effortlessly and perfectly - and find a way that they can be owned, collected, shared, etc. As someone who works primarily in a digital mode, it’s been a huge boom to my practice to be able to make and sell work this way. In general, my feeling is one of intense happiness whenever work I’ve made finds a home - whether that be a print I sell in my online shop, a work sold in an exhibit, an NFT, etc. To me, it just makes me happy that work finds a home.

CD: How important is colour to your work? 

ZL: For me, colour is such an important part of my practice. I work with code and often the way you use colour in code can feel very cliche or technical. I always want to make colours that feel organic, that feel vibrant and whose combinations seem to me to emit energy. I try to be aware of moments when colour strikes me in my everyday life, when it makes me feel something, and I always try to translate those observations and feelings into code so, in turn, those colour algorithms can help shape my work.   

Zach Lieberman's show Circles, Blobs, Ripples at Unit Gallery is open to the public until 10 March.