Zach Lieberman is an artist. He always has been, ever since he began drawing and sculpting in the basement of his childhood home in Chicago. And yet, his canvas has undergone a massive makeover. Using intricate lines of code, he paints on the world in front of him. His tools of choice? Words.
“Typography is extremely interesting to explore. It’s this collection of abstract shapes that our brain stitches together into letters and words and, eventually, meaning,” Lieberman says. Using this medium, he pushes the boundaries of legibility, bending, stretching and distorting the alphabet to create new visual interpretations of age-old ideas. Of course, his background in coding does not hurt either. Two years ago, Lieberman joined Instagram to share his artistic experiments that toyed with both virtual and augmented realities. “It’s a great place to post my daily sketches. Through it, I share as much as I can, including my process,” he explains. The content amassed him the 35,000 followers who now use his apps — including the latest, WeirdType — to interact with three-dimensional artwork.
Testing AR
WeirdType essentially allows users to, as Lieberman simply puts it, “paint words in the air”. Sponsored by the Design Indaba Festival and created along with wife and artist Molmol Kuo, it is meant to help customers get comfortable with AR, even urging them to experiment with the space around them. The territory is a familiar one for him, having worked with both VR and AR for earlier projects.
“But this was the most challenging yet, in terms of the user interface. We have been doing a ton of AR experiments in the studio but with no icons, no buttons, nothing that helps someone who has never used this technology know what’s going on,” he says. His fascination with AR stems from the fact that it is a medium which helps question the way we look at the world. He asks, “What if instead of flat, scrolling interfaces, we saw the screens on our devices more like windows into a magical, multi-dimensional world? AR offers us that chance.”
Virtual usage
The response has been worth it, with fans taking to Instagram to post their own projects. Lieberman sees it as a celebration of all the possibilities that the new technology brings, while the scope for practical application carries multiple possibilities and untapped potential. “I’ve heard from someone who used it to label a construction job site — they walked through the space and put text in 3D next to the objects that they wanted to label. It’s essentially virtual signage,” he adds.
The app is only the tip of the iceberg. With an iOS version launched and an Android adaptation underway, he is already planning for what is to come. “We’re working on ways that allow customers to interact and film in landscape mode. We’re also working on supporting multiple language input and accommodating different alphabets. Who knows? We might even stumble upon something amazing,” he concludes.
