Jaime Levy – Artist Bio

Jaime Levy is a Berlin-based new media artist and technologist whose work explores the intersection of live performance and artificial intelligence. She transforms real-time video signals into audiovisual compositions that merge improvisation, experimental music, and lecture-performance. Reinterpreting the experimental ethos of intermedia art through generative processes, she draws inspiration from Nam June Paik and Fluxus, bridging avant-garde traditions with emerging AI systems.

Levy began her career in the late 1980s with experiments in video art, but became known for her groundbreaking floppy-disk “electronic magazines,” created while a graduate student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Her Cyber Rag series (1990) combined animation, sound samples, and interactive games, making digital publishing accessible at a time when interactive content on a personal computer was almost unimaginable. She went on to create Ambulance, an interactive horror e-book featuring music by Mike Watt and artwork by Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), as well as the first major-label interactive press kit for Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk album, which was distributed worldwide. These works placed Levy at the vanguard of multimedia art, blending pop culture with emerging technologies.

Throughout the 1990s, her explorations included the creation of Malice Palace, a virtual world mixing real-time chat, 3D art, and DJ Spooky’s sound samples, and a role as creative director of WORD.com, one of the earliest web magazines to push the boundaries of interface design and narrative form. In the 2000s, Levy turned her attention to user experience design, drawing on her background creating innovative products to shape product strategy for numerous entertainment companies. This trajectory culminated in her best-selling book UX Strategy, which has been translated into nine languages and is considered a definitive work in the field. She continues to lecture internationally on strategy, innovation, and the history of new media.

Let's Discuss Exhibiting Jaime's Art at Your Gallery or Museum

Jaime Levy Retrospective
of New Media Art 1990 – 2000

“Computer technology has revolutionized the production of independent art. There are new worlds to explore; such as the possibilities of electronic publishing using personal computers not just to create words and pictures, but to disseminate them in formats that keep them alive and dynamic… as opposed to the frozen quality of ink on paper.”
– Jaime Levy 1990

Cyber Rag

The first edition of “Cyber Rag” was made in HyperCard and is a floppy disk filled with bizarre pictures, sound, animation and words. It includes two animated sequences and some nasty still images complemented by industrial sounds. Three games including a brief quiz on the computer mogul Steve Jobs. Plus two pieces of hacker poetry. (N.Y.C. 1990)

Cyber Rag 2

was also made in HyperCard and includes two animations and an interactive advertisement. Two games include a graffiti Cher’s face paintbox and a Concentration test of animated icons. It is tighter and cleaner than the first with more relevant information about current technology including a review of a Timothy Leary show. (S.F. 1990)

Cyber Rag 3

rules all three in terms of content, but only works well on a Mac with at least three megs of RAM. It is a self-contained with its own projector because it was programmed in MacroMind Director. It includes animated poems, a bitchy editorial, samples, and three trade shows including Cyberthon, CyberArts, and Virtual Reality 1990. (S.F. 1991)
Video clips: 1, 2.

Electronic Hollywood

is the new Cyber Rag covering events and experiences that happen in Los Angeles. Like Cyber Rag 3, it is programmed in MacroMind Director “Lingo” plus a color interface screen. Includes reviews about Techno House Raves, Siggraph, Intertainment 91, and a Greater Bay Area dis. (L.A. 1991)

Electronic Hollywood II

is the latest Digital Riot issue. Has the same color interface design of the first Electronic Hollywood, but more slick digitized images. It contains the usual hateful editorial, reviews of the L.A. riot, Verbum, Human Be-In S.F., and Home Media Expo in L.A. Plus samples and reviews from 2 great California bands: Ethyl Meatplow and The Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy. (L.A. 1992)

Threat Man

is a presentation animation featuring color cycling. The cycling creates illusions of movement turning a static painting into a more dynamic visual effect. It is a basic digital representation of an acid trip. Requires a Macintosh with a 13″ color monitor and no drugs. (S.F. 1991)

Ambulance

is the sound-tracked horror story on a 1.4MB floppy of five L.A. post-collegiate 20-something posers. Featuring sequenced samples by Mike Watt (Minute Men) and digitized art by Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets comic book series). Click on the interactive animations and hypertext hotspots. Plays on all Macs. No skills required. (L.A. 1993)

Billy Idol’s CyberPunk

is my first sell-out software! Regardless of whether you like Billy Idol or not, this 1.4MB disk is a hardcore exploitation of presentation media-turn-interactive-MTV. It has the infamous Electronic Hollywood II interface design, but Billy art from his music videos and Billy sample loops from his latest release. This is the first floppy ever distributed with an album.  (L.A. 1993)

Malice Place

A virtual world built with The Palace software which combined real-time chat, 3D art, and DJ Spooky sound samples to fuse societal commentary with early multi-user environments. Set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, it invited users to converse and interact with scripted robot characters portrayed as drug dealers and street people. Prints from Malice Palace were later shown in the 1998 group exhibition Channel 3 at Team Gallery in New York, alongside works by Tracey Emin. (N.Y.C. 1999)

Press Coverage of Art Works

DATE TITLE PUBLICATION / BROADCAST
2020 Multimedia Artist Jaime Levy Was at the Forefront of Web Design Before Websites Even Existed AIGA – Eye on Design Magazine
2019 The Untold Story of Jaime Levy, Punk-Rock Cyber-Publishing Pioneer New York Magazine
1996 Soledad O’Brien Interviews Jaime Levy About “Malice Palace” MSNBC’s The Site
1996 Word Up?! Digital Creativity
1996 Post Tool Design: Pipeline to Dreamland Communication Arts
1996 “Powerful Twentysomethings” Inside Edition
1995 So What’s A Web Browser, Anyway? New York Times
1994 IBM’s CyberSlacker New York Magazine
1994 Hack Attack: Thoroughly Modern Mag Los Angeles Times Magazine
1993 And Now, Boot Up the Reviews New York Times Book Review
1993 A Star Is Virtually Reborn Entertainment Weekly
1993 Jack in the Text Bay Guardian
1993 Multimedia: Interactivity Option 50
1993 Billy Idol Turns Cyberpunk on New CD Boston Globe
1993 MTV News: Billy Idol “Cyberpunk” Disk MTV
1993 MTV News: “Ambulance” Disk MTV
1993 Making Book New York Press
1993 Behind The Zines Los Angeles Times
1993 A Major Mac Attack LA Reader
1993 Feature on Electronic Magazine Publisher, Jaime Levy PBS’s Life and Times
1992 Jaime Levy’s Pioneering Electronic Magazines Mondo 2000
1990 Jaime Levy: Cyber Rag High Performance