Artist Statement
TC Zhou is an artist who has two distinct and connected areas of focus in his art practice.
The first involves combining creative coding with gay Chinese literature, and experimenting with both new and institutionalized algorithms. The materials he uses are both algorithms and Chinese characters, and he blends programming and natural languages (in both Chinese and English) to create generative art that is interactive and animated. TC Zhou draws inspiration from concrete poetry, and his work is driven by machine intelligence, producing endless variations. His art is in conversation with various fields, including queer studies, Chinese studies, art, science, and technology. Ultimately, TC Zhou aims to contribute to a sense of cultural belonging for the gay/queer community.
The second line of TC Zhou's art practice involves creating experimental queer games that explore queer life. These games are browser-based and are based on TC Zhou's interest in combining generative art with computer game design. TC Zhou's games draw on his own experiences as a gay person and have covered topics such as gay liberation, sex education, destigmatization, queer temporality, the human sexuality spectrum, the search for love, and the allocation of time for life. The games feature bright colors and 2D geometries, and their mood forms a gradient from joyful to sad. TC Zhou uses his own voice, generated sound, and found sound from the iPhone's Voice Memos app to create the games' soundscapes. TC Zhou's experimental games can be found on the itch.io indie game platform, and he sometimes performs the games for audiences.
Bio
TC Zhou is an LA-based computational media artist. He combines creative coding with gay literature written in classical Chinese. He blends programming and natural languages (in both Chinese and English) to create generative art that is interactive and animated. His work is driven by machine intelligence, producing endless variations. In addition, TC Zhou creates experimental queer games that explore queer lives. TC Zhou's games draw on his own experiences and have covered topics such as gay liberation, sex education, destigmatization, queer temporality, and the human sexuality spectrum. TC Zhou received an MFA in media arts from UCLA and a B.S. in Computer Science from NYU. He was a panelist at the UCLA Queer Graduate Research Conference (2022 & 2023). His work was shown at V2_ lab (Rotterdam), Art Machines 2 (CityU Hong Kong), SIGGRAPH DAC SPARKS, Top Art Space (Guangzhou), UCLA, and Spectra Studio (Los Angeles).
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