PARSONS SCHOOL OF
DESIGN PRESENTS:

Digital Metamorphosis

Ziyao Zhang

Designer • Creator • Researcher
Ziyao Zhang is an interaction designer and creative technologist whose practice bridges human-computer interaction, AI-driven design, and immersive new-media art. She crafts systems that enable human-AI co-creation, non-linear knowledge exploration, and multisensory storytelling. Her work spans generative web ecosystems, data-driven installations, and empirical HCI studies. Ziyao’s research investigates how algorithmic processes reshape symbolic meaning, user agency, and interdisciplinary collaboration across art, design, and emerging technology.
Thesis Faculty
Sam LavigneEthan SilvermanKyle LiLouisa Campbell
Screenshot
Screenshot

“Digital Metamorphosis: The Autonomous Rebirth of Symbols” is an experimental web system explores how digital symbols evolve from a controllable state to autonomous “digital life forms” under the combined influence of algorithms, cultural contexts, and user interactions. Divided into four stages—Realistic, Alienation, Loss of Control, and Hyperreality—the project artistically simulates the self-alienation and mutative transformation of symbols. Ultimately, it constructs a hyperreal interactive environment capable of inversely intervening in users’ perceptions of reality, while prompting reflection on the potential future relationships between humans and machines, and between the real and the virtual.

Meme Network (Stage 3 in this work)

Powered by OpenAI GPT-4 for real-time text mutation, Three.js for immersive 3D symbol morphing, TensorFlow.js for live facial-emotion analysis, and a custom Chrome extension that rewrites any webpage on the fly. A diffusion model stitches user data into hyperreal imagery, while a non-linear rules engine orchestrates cross-feedback loops. Together they form an ecosystem where symbols slip their leash and re-code perception.

Chaotic Extension (Stage 4 in this work)

My work interrogates the shifting agency between humans and machines. By staging a four-part evolution of digital symbols—from obedient icons to self-replicating entities—I ask what happens when the codes that define our world begin to rewrite themselves. The work fuses critical theory with generative AI, treating algorithms not as neutral tools but as co-authors capable of cultural mutation. Visitors are invited to negotiate control, confront their reflected data self, and imagine futures where identity, authorship, and “truth” are perpetually up for grabs.