Today we’d like to introduce you to Runze Zhang.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always been interested in both the digital side and the physical side of art. When I was little, I would spend hours portraiting photorealistic drawings. I am interested in the classical way of looking at beauty through proportion. Also, thanks to my father being a graphic designer, I had early exposure to computer, I still remember how I felt enamored of figuring out how to photoshop stylized characters in front of a huge box-like monitor. When I was in middle school, I joined the Computer Science club and started to feel empowered when I was able to draw each pixel on screen through scripts. And at that time, Flash was still popular, and I remembered how happy I was when I won the second prize in an Animation Competition.
As an ordinary Chinese student, I am educated to be good at Maths and Physics, and there is an old Chinese saying “You kill every field if you are good at Maths, Physics, and Chemistry.” So I chose Maths as my major for undergrad school first without thinking too much. But on one hand, since I always want to be part of art discourse, I felt part of me is missing, on the other hand, I do like maths in terms of how I enjoy the beauty of geometry and space. So I transferred my major from Maths to Architecture. Unlike most other architecture students, I was always interested in the digital design process behind those cool architecture forms. There were two periods of concentration in architecture. The first one is the translation from the digital to the physical and also mainly is in undergrad. In this period, I learned a long list of modeling software, Rhino, Grasshopper, Maya, Zbrush, C4D, etc and focused on digital fabrication. The second period is the digital experience using real-time technology, like robotic arms, AR/VR, etc.
I haven’t concentrated on AR technology until the last year of my grad school at SCI-Arc. At first, it was an elective requirement to look at AR as a design tool to explore new possibilities. But later, I found I am interested in how it has the potential to break the loop of information loss between the digital and physical space. And how I feel the freedom to create whatever I want against physics. Because of my prior researches, I developed my thesis on top of them and tried to think AR as a medium so that my imagination can interplay with physical space. After I attended several hackathons and ARVR conferences where I found AR as an important interface for future industries so I decided to shift my career path from being an Architect.
Luckily I landed my first job in an Architectural Visualization firm as a Creative Technologist. I helped developed several AR/VR projects such as Imagined Landscapes, Hollywood House to help pre- or post-visualize unbuilt or built environments. And now, I am an Interactive Engineer at the TikTok AR platform helping digital creators unleash new ways of expressing themselves. The journey of immersive technology just starts, and I will be happy to bring more people into creating space between the digital and the physical. Let’s have fun!
Has it been a smooth road?
As an international student, there is no visa policy for new grads to do a startup. So I need to face that inevitably. Since we cannot explore business purposes, we decided to explore purely research-oriented directions as a way of improving our design and developing skills and knowledge alongside. And it is still very hard to find out a pure business model only using AR/VR, it is still more a marketing tool for existing use cases than a new platform that can sustain itself.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am specialized both in ARVR technology exploration as well as developing a new experience. Besides providing fun and entertainment, I usually look at old things in a new way in order to create a refreshing experience to slow down the public aesthetic judgment for the subject. And my thinking around spacial qualities from architectural training facilitates the ideation of almost any 3D context.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I do believe LA is a perfect place for ARVR. It is the city of entertainment, so it is very relevant to the cultural environment. And California, in general, is tech-oriented, so there are also plenty of investments around. And LA murals are just natural 2D trackers for urban-scale AR mobile games which can bring the interplay among touring, filming, gaming industry to the next level. And there are so many galleries around where AR can be a useful tool for art installation and/or digital marketing. Also, LA citizens tend to crave all kinds of outdoor activities where chances of unlocking new ways of using AR increase.
Contact Info:
- Website: z-rz.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @runze____
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