Interview with Yu Lee
Scribble
Interview with Yu Lee
July 28, 2026
Hi Yu! Can you introduce yourself & what you make?
Hi! I’m Yu! I’m a computational artist and educator. I draw with code, make software art, data vis, open source tools, and installations.
My work encourages viewers to move, to mess around, and to play collectively with others, like:
—random digital cropped portraits that invite players to complete their poses
—a penis shaped alt-ctrl game where a digital balloon grows driven by hand interaction
— a web-based poop map for New Yorkers to contribute poop they see in NYC, made with Mumu Li ♥️
I hope my viewers can heal, embrace both void and chaos, and find joy and peace through my work.
*I’m writing with a Pentel GraphGear 300 pencil
Your work often brings the messy, intimate, human world back into virtual spaces—hand gestures, faces thinking, a map of poop in NYC. What interests you in bridging those spheres?
I have always been intrigued by the little things people do without thinking. For example, the way we move our hands when explaining an idea, or spin a pen when thinking. I feel curious about things that are often overlooked in the human world.
Virtual spaces are capable of making invisible things visible, making things measurable, preserving, documenting and sharing.
I’m interested in bringing them because I think we live in a constant back and forth between being flattened and being noticed, and so the things we forget to notice about ourselves have somewhere to land, another dimension or identity to view and play with.
What does play mean to you? What does play make possible, in your work or in the world?
I think play returns us to a primal, unfiltered state where things don’t need to perform or rehearse. Play is an elemental human impulse that allows me to test, to experiment, to break things and to feel unrestrained. Play is a form of agency to me (moving, touching, making sound, etc.) It’s an invitation for people to take agency back for themselves. I love seeing people interact with, interpret, and play with my work in unexpected ways, such as trying a new gesture, or moving different parts. I see play as a way to let the viewers expand my work.
You are so good at titles — Joy Stick, Face Paint, Haunt Hunt. What’s your process for coming up with a title?
My titles are usually pretty direct. They tend to point at either the feeling I want someone to walk away with, or how they are meant to interact with the work. Joy Stick tells the feeling and shape of the work (another option was Love Handle). Face Paint tells what the work does, and Haunt Hunt tells you what to do.
This might sound a bit nerdy, but I also love words and terms that can be technical and literal in my work, like NULL, Sliding Window, and Loops && Loops.
What is a project you dream about making, but haven’t finished (or started) yet?
I love red pandas and I dream about making a wearable red panda tail that can wag, curl, and respond to muscle tension or voice.
Recently, I’m learning more about grieving and how to grieve. I want to archive my grieving process by turning it into a hidden object or clicker game, like collecting loved ones’ items, completing photo puzzles. This idea also reminds me that maybe grief doesn’t have to be the opposite of play.
Draw something that represents your creative process.
I jump between ideas, follow and tinker with whatever feels alive, and let things branch whatever they want to. Some branches get left behind. Some I didn’t expect to relate end up crossing paths. Sometime I feel greedy and try to connect all the elements. Sometimes after a few loops I end up liking the starting point the most.
I’m also very method-driven. I like to play with different approached to experiment with the output or to achieve the same thing in a different way. I like to play with different approaches to experiment with the output, or to achieve the same thing in a different way. I like when the result doesn’t work as expected but still plays out well, or even when errors reveal a new approach or outcome. I see them as surprises.
Yu Lee is a computational artist and educator working across procedural art and interactive installation. Her practice explores collective play, inner reflection, and resilience in technologically mediated spaces. Through procedural systems, generative patterns and participatory interfaces, she constructs moments where the algorithmic and the personal quietly converge. She has taught courses and workshops at Parsons School of Design, New York University, CultureHub NYC, and CC Fest, and co-hosted HTML Day NYC and Processing Community Day Taiwan. She has shown her work at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Open Hardware Summit, and Open Source Arts Contributors Conference.
lee.yu-y.ing