Elizabeth Vander Zaag

I have experimented with computers and video since 1974.

I received an MA from UBC in 2007 and ran Western Front multimedia -1993-1999 as well as teaching at SFU before that.

My personal research explored emotional and cultural sensibilities in interactive systems.

In response to the lack of human emotional bandwidth in human computer interface I developed emotional speech recognition software SAY. In 2000 I produced an interactive speech installation entitled Talk Nice in which you have to talk up at the end of your sentence to continue interacting

VIVO and V/Tape have distributed my single channel works for over 50 years in many exhibitions. 

I am retired from restoring and managing heritage apartment buildings. In 2006 we received a City of Vancouver Heritage Award

Currently  I am exploring the materiality of the digital by weaving spectrograph images of whale and bird sounds on a Jacquard loom at the Vancouver Textile Art Society.Creating a material object is also a response to the amount of digital artwork that I have lost to obsolete operating and data storage systems. 

Web 3.0 fascinates me with the potential for decentralized computing, blockchain, to manage AI in a way that asserts our humanity.