Greg Niemeyer (1967 - )

Narrative Biography

Born in Switzerland in 1967, Greg Niemeyer studied Classics and Photography. He started working with new media when he arrived in the Bay Area in 1992 and he received his MFA from Stanford University in New Media in 1997. At the same time, he founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center, which he directed until 2001, when he was appointed at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor for New Media. At UC Berkeley, he serves as Associate Professor for New Media Art in the Departments of Art and Film Studies. He is an executive committee member and co-founder of the Berkeley Center for New Media, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences.

His creative work focuses on the mediation between humans as individuals and humans as a collective through technological means, and emphasizes playful responses to technology. His most recognized projects were Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), Oxygen Flute (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006), and The Balance Game (2007). Niemeyer's innovative conference series 0n0n0n will continue in 2009 with "090909 Neutrality." Currently, Niemeyer works on The Black Cloud, a climate-sensing social organization device and Alternate Reality Game, which is funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Greg Niemeyer has implemented novel approaches to new media pedagogy in his course “American Cybercultures” which is podcast to thousands of listeners. In the lecture course, students explore the boundaries of race and gender performances online, and create a critical network of websites addressing artificial intelligence, cyborg identity and digital divides.

Game Biography

Based on the notion that we learn everything we know from playing games, Greg Niemeyer includes a biography of the games he played. The games Niemeyer developed and played are labeled with a star*.

2009    Track FX* Multiple Object Tracking game, Coloroid for GPhone, GTA Chinatown for Nintendo DS
2008    Black Cloud ARG*, Birth of second son Theodor, endless new games to play
2007    Tetris Attack (1996 version), Balance Game*, Oski the Bear*
2006    Good Morning Flowers*
2005    Birth of first daughter, Medina: endless new games to play
2005    Katamari Damacy, Organum*
2004    Rez, Atari Classics and Eyetoy
2003    Go, the only strategy game which can't be played by a computer
2002    Chess, increasingly losing against 10-year old son
1997    Flash Langugage Cards*
1996    Photo Game: Pictures of things which come in certain numbers
1992     Birth of first son, Alexander: endless new games to play
1991    Tetris
1987    Camera games: photo duels, name the location of this photo
1986    Ping Pong with Classics books on school desks
1984    Atari Pong on the home TV set (sequel to hypnosis)
1983    Practiced hypnosis
1982    Advanced fencing
1980    Beginning fencing (Floret)
1979    Merlin (Parker Brothers)
1978    Early adventures in fishing
1970    Sidewalk chalk games
1969    Drawing tracks with toy trucks in Ovaltine powder on shag carpet
1968    Peekaboo and Ice game: Stand on ice formed on puddles and watch air bubbles move with weight shifts

Education

1997    MFA, Stanford University, Department of Art and Art History, specialized in New Genres
1990    Professional Degree (BFA equivalent) in Photography, Ecole d’Arts Appliqués,Vevey, Switzerland
1986    Matura in Classics, Kantonsschule Rämibühl, Zürich, Switzerland

Experience

2007    Associate Professor for New Media Art, Art Practice and Film Studies, UC Berkeley
2005    Associate Director, Art Technology and Culture Lecture Series, UC Berkeley
2004    Secretary of the Board, Leonardo Magazine, San Francisco
2003    Executive Board Member, Center for New Media, UC Berkeley
2003    Board member, Leonardo Magazine, San Francisco
2001    Assistant Professor for Digital Media, University of California, Berkeley
2000    Advisory Board Member, Ground Zero, Palo Alto
2000    Academic Research Program Officer, Stanford University
1999    Consultant, Digital Art Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
1999    Director of SUDAC and Lecturer, Stanford University
1998    Teaching assignments at San Jose State University and at Stanford University
1997    Consultant, Developed fluid interface graphics for Xerox PARC
1997    Managed Stanford University Digital Art Center (SUDAC), raised funding and materials grants, and created two new courses
1997    Planned and co-founded Stanford University Digital Art Center (SUDAC)

Recent Exhibits

2009    The End of Winter, Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA, Jan 21 to April 1, 2009
2009    Scalable Relations, Beall Center for New Media, Irvine, CA, Jan 9 to March 14, 2009
2008    Reset/Play, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin TX, September 6 to November 2, 2008
2008    Black Cloud Citizen Science League, Machine Project Gallery, Los Angeles, August 23 to August 30, 2008
2007    Tomato Quintet, Machine Project Gallery, Los Angeles, August 22 to September 1, 2007
2007    Return to Balance, Falaki Gallery, May 1 to May 10, 2007, Cairo, Egypt
2006    Bounce // San Jose, ISEA ZeroOne Festival 2006: August 7-13, San Jose, CA
2006    Good Morning Flowers: Flaherty Film Seminar, Vassar College, NY
2006    Good Morning Flowers, Version 25: Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
2006    Organum Playtest Version 41: Swiss Embassy, Cairo, Egypt
2006    Away from the New, Version 20: San Francisco International Film Festival, Pocket Cinema Show
2005    Organum Playtest Version 40: Banff Center for New Media, Canada: The Art formerly known as New Media
2005    Organum Playtest: ResFest New York, ResFest San Francisco
2005    Organum Playtest: Vancouver, New Horizons Game Exhibit, DIGRA 2005
2005    Organum Playtest: San Francisco, New Langton Arts
2004    La Villette Numérique. Paris, France: Ping 2.0 Antidata
2003    ETH World Center, Zurich, Switzerland: Organum Screening
2003    Austin Museum of Digital Art, Austin, Texas: Organum Guided Tour
2003    Townsend Center, UC Berkley: Organum Film Stills
2003    Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley: Organum Screening
2002    New Langton Arts, Annual Benefit Group Show
2002    Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology: Oxygen Flute
2001    San Jose Museum of Art: Oxygen Flute, with Chris Chafe
2001    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 010101: PING, with Chris Chafe
2000    Cantor Art Center and artmuseum.net: Refresh: The Art of the Screensaver
1999    Xerox PARC Gallery, Palo Alto, Flash Language Cards
1999    Cantor Art Center: Fly Through the Human Body
1998    New Langton Arts, SPEED, Group Show
1997    LACE, Los Angeles Annual Benefit Group Show
1997    ArtExpo, Los Angeles: Landscape with Campsite, Commissioned Installation
1997    Triton Museum, Santa Clara: California Photography, Group Show
1997    Stanford University, Art Gallery: MFA Exhibit, Group Show
1997     Cooper Union, New York: TECHNOSEDUCTION, Group Show
1997    Arizona State University, Memorial Union: Credit History, Solo Show
1996    Institute for Contemporary Art, San Jose: Location, Location
1996    Palo Alto Cultural Center, Radius Award Group Show

Game Designs

2008    Hot Books, for LOEX of the West, Conference of Librarians, Las Vegas (collaborator: Nick Reid)
2008    Black Cloud, for Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles (collaborators: Antero Garcia, Laura Greig, Farley Gwazda, Nik Hanselman et al.)
2008    The Oski Game, for California Alumni Magazine, Berkeley (collaborator: Nik Hanselman)
2007    Balance Game, for Falaki Gallery, Citris, and many other venues
2006    Bounce, Game for SJ01 Conference (collaborators: Jane McGonigal, Irene Chien, Ken Goldberg)

Bibliography and Publications

2007    Townsend Magazine: Feb. 2007: Simulation as Evidence; Greg Niemeyer
2006    Leonardo Magazine, Vol 39, Number 4: Disentangling the Seams; Editorial
2005    ACM Multimedia: Organum: individual presence through collaborative play: Greg Niemeyer, Dan Perkel, Ryan Shaw, Jane McGonigal, 594-597
2005    Leonardo Magazine, Vol 38, Number 4: PING: Poetic Charge and Technical Implementation: Greg Niemeyer
2001    Documenta Ophthalmologica: The Function of Stereotypes in Visual Perception. Greg Niemeyer
2001    IEEE-VSMM: Design Considerations for an Oxygen Flute. Greg Niemeyer
2000    Leonardo Online: Simulation, the Cultural Anticipation of Our Own Demise. Greg Niemeyer
1997    CAA Art Journal, TECHNOSEDUCTION, statements, biography and color reproductions, HYPERLINK "http://www.cooper.edu/art/techno/artists/artists.html" http://www.cooper.edu/art/techno/artists/artists.html
1996    Science Magazine, September issue front cover, in collaboration with Dr. David Kehoe,  Carnegie Institute of Biology: HYPERLINK "http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol273/issue5280/" http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol273/issue5280/

Selected Conference Papers and Talks

2007    Playful Transformations, CITRIS Lecture Series, September 26, 2007
2006    Studio Eman Eddin, Cairo, Egypt: Open Source Art
2004    SFMOMA, San Francisco: Open Source Art
2004    UCLA, Art Department: Shiver of Affection
2004    San Francisco Art Institute, Scalable Consciousness
2004    Digital Independence, San Francisco: Organum
2001    Eyebeam Atelier, New York: Open Source Architecture: Oxygen Flute
2001    VSMM: UC Berkeley: Design Considerations for an Oxygen Flute
2001    Emotional Architectures, Banff Center for New Media: The Thing Itself
2001    Information Art, at Berkeley Museum of Art
2000    Attraction/Distraction: Escape Velocity
2000    Living Architectures, Banff: Simulation, a Cultural Anticipation of our Demise
2000    SIGGRAPH, New Orleans: Is there any there there?
1997    Arizona State University, Tempe: Stereotypes: Credit History

Selected News Articles

2008    CITRIS Newsletter: Using Games to Screen for Fragile X (article by Gordy Slack)
2008    California Magazine, Jan 2008: 25 brilliant California Ideas: #2 Game-based Learning (article by Eleanor Watkin)
2007    Daily News, Egypt: Art as Balancing Act (article by Farah El Alfy)
2006    Global Frequencies, Al Ahram Weekly, Al-Ahram Weekly, Cairo, Issue 796, May 23, 2006
2006    Win or Lose, Berkeleyan, February 9, 2006
2005    Game On, Release Print, Film Arts Foundation 07/2005
2005    Playful Voices, San Francisco Chronicle, 04/17/2005
2005    Ilovebees Exhibit, Contra Costa Times
2003    Framing the Questions: Breathing Room
2002    UC Berkeley Campus News: Oxygen Flute
2002    Berkeleyan: Oxygen Flute
2002    Artweek Magazine, October 2002: The Studio as Laboratory