Aaron
Z Wang

I build systems that people operate themselves, such as installations, real-time simulations and AI agents.

Press and drag. A Verlet lattice, warped by masses you cannot see.

Research areas

I am a media artist and researcher at USC, and most of what I make is for people who are not specialists: gallery visitors, museum audiences, children. The work lets people handle something they cannot reach on their own, a person who survives only in records, a feeling, the dark matter between galaxies, and my research is about the limits of the system that stands in for it.

AI and archives
AI characters that speak only from historical records, built at USC's Mobile and Environmental Media Lab.
Embodiment
Installations and games where the way you move is part of the meaning.
Simulation
Real-time systems for things that are hard to see directly, from soft-body physics to dark matter.

Full research page →  ·  CV →

Selected projects.

Portfolio page →

Other projects.

I also work as a PM and game designer.

I interned as a product manager at Supercell on the mainland China version of Clash Royale, and before that as a technical game designer at Tencent Games, writing shaders and gameplay modules in their engine. At USC I was lead producer on Balloon, a student production with a team of 26 from ten countries. That is where I learned to plan work and run a team, and it is how I run the research projects too. Details are on the CV.

Get in touch.

For questions about the work, email is the best way to reach me.

zejingw@usc.edu