Qianqian, a non-binary Chinese person with black short hair, wearing a black tank top, standing next to an apple tree, with a lush garden in the background.

Image Description: Qianqian, a non-binary Chinese person with black short hair, wearing a black tank top, standing next to an apple tree, with a lush garden in the background.

About

Qianqian (Q) Ye (she/they) is a Chinese artist, creative technologist and educator based in Los Angeles (Gabrielino-Tongva Land). Trained as an architect, she creates digital, physical, and social spaces exploring issues around gender, immigrant, power, and technology. Their most recent collaborative project, The Future of Memory, was a recipient of the Mozilla Creative Media Award. At the Processing Foundation, Qianqian is the Lead of p5.js, an open-source art and education platform that prioritizes access and diversity in learning to code, with over 1.5 million users. She currently teaches creative coding as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at USC Media Arts + Practice and 3D Arts at Parsons School of Design. For 2022-2023, Qianqian is a Civic Media Fellow at USC Annenberg Innovation Lab.

Qianqian was born and raised in China and moved to the US in 2012. Her current practice focuses on alternative community building, technology against misinformation, the Chinese language system, and re-imagining gender in a non-western narrative. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Architecture from ZJUT. Her works have been shown at Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Ecobuild London, Killscreen Magazine and various exhibitions in US and China. She worked at a number of design practices internationally, from the US (NIO, Gehl Studio), Denmark (BIG, SHL), to China (Vector Architects).

Selected Awards and Grants

2022

Civic Media Fellow, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab

ITP/IMA Project Fellowship, NYU | TISCH

National Endowment for the Arts Grant, with Future of Memory + China Residencies

2021

Community Building Award, Mozilla Foundation (With Processing Foundation + p5js.org)

CLTC Cybersecurity Arts Grant, University of California, Berkeley

2020

Creative Media Award, Mozilla Foundation (With Xiaowei Wang)

Individual Artist Grant, City of Oakland Cultural Funding Grant (With Tiare Ribeaux + Xiaowei Wang)

2019

Processing Foundation Fellowship

Group Exhibitions

2022

Deformation and Reformation: A modern taste of Asian Identities, 𝔻𝕖:π”½π• π•£π•žπ•’π• 𝕩 π”Ήπ•’π•šπ•₯𝕓𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝟘𝟚, Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, Italy

2021

WORLDING PROTOCOL, Gray Area Festival, Oct, 2021

REPLICANTS, Epoch Gallery, Oct, 2021 - Jan, 2022

Power Of Community: Chinatown Then and Now, SFSU Fine Arts Gallery

Altar-n8 Realm AR Exhibition, SF API Cultural Center United States of Asian America Festival, May 30 - Aug 31, 2021

E-GO, CounterPulse, San Francisco, CA, Apr 1, 2021

Pieces of Me, Transfer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2020

a verb as proxy for place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Talks, Interviews, Workshops, Press

2022

β€˜Posthuman Bodies in Web3’ Panel Discussion, Vellum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2021

Disruption Network Lab: Powers of Truth, Build Your Own Word workshop, Future of Memory, Berlin DE

Mutek Festival, Build Your Own Word workshop, Future of Memory, Montreal CA

Revisions: Decoding Technological Bias, Gray Area + Goethe Institut San Francisco + City Light Book, San Francisco, CA

RethinkAI Summit, on The Future of Memory

Mozilla Festival, Amsterdam, NL

2020

Workshop: Reimagine Gender, Reinvent Chinese Character - at B4Bel4b Gallery , Feb. 2020.

Art Show β€œε₯³ Nǚ: Other Half of the Sky” - by RADII , Feb. 2020.

2019

Interview with Qianqian Ye - by Google Design Notes Podcast , Oct. 2019.

Workshop: Digital Weaving, Physical Computing - at WCCW, Oct. 2019.

Interview with 2019 Fellow Qianqian Ye - by Processing Foundation, Aug. 2019.

2018~

Issue Twenty-Five: Art - by The Adroit Journal, May. 2018.

ART: Alone Not Alone - by The Offing Magazine, Apr. 2018.

ART FOR AWKWARD AND LONELY PEOPLE - by Forth Magazine, Mar. 2018.

VR Supper Club Interview - by Kill Screen, Jan. 2017.

Planning By Doing - with Gehl, Jun. 2016.

Β‘A todo pedal! - with Gehl, Apr. 2016.

SAM: Super-Agri-Mart - with Droog, Sep. 2014.

To Be Destroyed - by Museum of Contemporary Art, Sep. 2014.