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 is involved in the development of the 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, with Chris Chafe (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), and Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006) and of course, with Joe McKay, the Balance Game (Cairo 2007, London, 2007). His current project, the Black Cloud, an Alternate Reality Game, is funded by the MacArthur Digital Learning Initiative.
Game Biography
Based on the notion that we learn everything we know from playing games, I wrote my game biography here.1968 Peekaboo
1968 Ice game: Stand on ice formed on puddles and watch air bubbles move with weight shifts
1969 Distribution of Ovaltine powder on shag carpet to draw tracks with toy trucks
1970 Sidewalk chalk games
1978 Strange hunting and embalming games involving fish.
1979 Merlin
1980 Beginning fencing (Floret)
1982 Advanced fencing (epee)
1983 Practiced hypnosis
1984 Pong on the home TV set
1986 Ping Pong with Classics books on school desks
1987 Camera games: photo duels, name the location of this photo
1991 Tetris
1992 Birth of first son, Alexander: endless new games to play
1996 Photograph things which come in certain numbers
2002 Chess, increasingly losing against above-mentioned 10-year old son
2003 Go, the only strategy game which can't be played by a computer
2004 Rez, Atari Classics and Eyetoy
2005 Katamari Damacy, playtesting Organum
2006 playtesting Good Morning Flowers
Traditional Resume
Education
1997 MFA, Stanford University, Department of Art and Art History, specialized in New Genres1990 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
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
Bibliography and Publications
2007 Townsend Magazine: Feb. 2007: Simulation as Evidence; Greg Niemeyer2006 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, http://www.cooper.edu/art/techno/artists/artists.html
1997 Cooper Union, TECHNOSEDUCTION Exhibition Catalogue, statements, biography and color reproductions, 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: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol273/issue5280/
Selected Conference Papers and Talks
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 University of Arizona, Tempe: Stereotypes: Credit History
Recent Talks
2007 Playful Transformations, CITRIS Lecture Series, September 26, 2007
Recent News Articles
2006 Global Frequencies, Al Ahram Weekly, Al-Ahram Weekly, Cairo, Issue 796, May 23, 20062006 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, 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