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.
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About
Qianqian (Q) Ye is a Chinese artist, designer, and creative
technologist based in Los Angeles. Trained as an architect, she
creates digital, physical, and social spaces that explore the
relationships between technology and systems of power. Currently, Qianqian leads projects, programs and partnerships at the Processing Foundation to bridge open-source technology, creative practice, and community. She has been teaching creative coding as an Adjunct Associate Professor in USC Media Arts + Practice program since 2020.
From 2021 to 2025, she served as the p5.js Lead at the Processing Foundation, overseeing the design, development, and community of p5.js, an open-source tool for accessible, inclusive creative coding with more than 5 million users worldwide.
Their recent collaborative project on AI censorship,
The Future of Memory, was a recipient of the Mozilla
Creative Media Award. She was an Internet Archive
DWeb Fellow,
NYU ITP/IMA Project Fellow, and a Senior
Civic Media Fellow
at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab.
Their works have been shown at Asian Art Museum, Oceanside
Museum of Art, MUTEK, SIGGRAPH Asia, Seoul National Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art, Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art,
and various venues. She worked at a number of design practices
internationally, from the US (NIO,
Spectra Studio,
Gehl Studio), Denmark (BIG,
SHL), to China (Vector Architects).
Full CV.
Selected Awards and Grants
2024
Sovereign Tech Fund (with p5.js), Sovereign Tech Agency, German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation
2023
Generative AI Spark Award, Center for Generative AI and Society, University of Southern California
DWeb Fellow, Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA
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
Group Exhibitions / Performances
2025
Electric Campfire Pavilion, TheWrong Biennale, Online
The Rise of the Care Machines III , Herman Maril Gallery, College Park, MD
2024
Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean, Getty PST: Art + Science Collide, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
The Oracle at AI New Moon Ritual, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Re:Generate: AI Artistβs Salon, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Eco Encoded, Rip.space, Los Angeles, CA
2023
The Grammar of Animacy, SUPERCOLLIDER and Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA
Nature Scene, UC San Diego Mandeville Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
2022
Hinterland Vol. 2, PACK.systems, Online
Simulation Sketchbook, Feral File, Vellum LA Gallery
I am surrounded by me, distant.gallery, Online
Deformation and Reformation: A modern taste of Asian Identities, π»π:π½π π£πππ π© πΉπππ₯ππππ ππ, 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
2024
A Fossil, A Ruin, A Memory: Ancestral Myths, Geographies, Digital Rebirth Panel, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
Qianqian Ye on Building the Web as Accessible Public Space, Signals by C/Change
2023
Disruption: Generative AI on the Arts Panel Discussion, Creative Commons, Los Angeles, CA
Every Digital Artwork Starts With a Sketch, Hyperallergic
Coding for Artists Workshop, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Creator Session Interview, The Interactive & Immersive HQ, Online
Making Games to Combat Algorithmic Censorship(with Xiaowei Wang), Killscreen, Online
DWeb Camp: Exploring Governance & AI, Internet Archive
2022
βPosthuman Bodies in Web3β 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 βε₯³ NΗ: Other Half of the Skyβ - 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.