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ABOUT
Zhiyan Li (b. Anhui) New York - based artist
BIO Zhiyan Li is an interactive installation artist whose practice focuses on constructing non-linear experiences shaped through audience participation and interaction structures. Her work spans multiple media, including interactive installations, screen-based interaction, audiovisual systems, and code-based art.
Her practice explores how interaction systems with customized qualities can be developed within different types of public spaces. Rather than guiding viewers toward a unified outcome, interaction in her work functions as a triggering mechanism through which audiences—shaped by distinct personal backgrounds and lived experiences—generate diverse perceptions, interpretations, and emotional responses. In recent years, her research has gradually expanded into the context of contemporary commercial spaces, examining how interactive systems can continue to produce differentiated experiences within more complex spatial frameworks and heterogeneous publics when art intervenes in commercial environments.
Within algorithmic and systemic frameworks, she investigates how these internally differentiated experiences can be translated into perceptible, multi-dimensional forms—manifesting as visual, sonic, or audiovisual feedback that unfolds through sustained interaction between the audience and the work.
EDUCATION
Pratt InstituteGraduate School of Fine Arts in Digital Arts (Emphasis in Interactive Arts Concentration)
New York. USA | Aug. 2025 - 2027
Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA)Department of Digital Media Arts
Bachelor of Digital Media Arts
Major GPA: 88.96% & Rank: 6/183
Beijing. China | Aug. 2021 - Jun. 2025