Christian Zero | CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Christian Zero seeks to inspire synergetic design through expansive multi-sensory entertainment productions. Generating dynamic solutions to address the complex challenges inherent in the craft, his particular interest is around the integration of story-telling, ecology, “synaesthetics” and dance. Versed in an array of technology, Christian began performing with some of the first real-time audio-video systems. He was fortunate to have worked with a number of prominent brands at a young age, performing at the launch of HBO Canada, and the first Nuit Blanche to be held in Toronto. This lead to supporting various corporate event productions for brands like National Geographic, Yahoo, Heineken, and holding residencies at some of Toronto’s biggest Nightclubs (Lucid, Muzik). Christian then created an interactive ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ DVD in 2006, which earned him a scholarship to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While centred in the department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (FVNMA), he utilized the multi-disciplinary freedom made available at SAIC to pursue courses in the Humanities; Art and Technology; and Performance.

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Christian worked on concert visuals for the Toronto Island summer series ‘Electric Island’. There, he was fortunate to support the performances of artists like Sven Väth, Maya Jane Coles, and Dixon, while experimenting with his own custom performance technology called ‘Gysr’ (geyser). This is a software interface which facilitates mapping aesthetic natural language to media and information, for flexible retrieval in a live setting. Continuing its development, Christian founded a creative collective called INNERST8, who put forth a number of productions prioritizing mixed media. Working on shows with musicians Paul Kwitek and Petar Dundov, in conjunction with the art of Stephanie Payne and Natasha Kudashkina, INNERST8’s collective inspired the creation of Symbio, a new form, currently in development.