Edward Zajec

Born in Trieste, Italy in 1938, the Syracuse-based visual artist and filmmaker Edward Zajec is a Computer Art pioneer and has also been an important presence in abstract cinema for over two decades. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana (diploma 1966) and at Ohio University at Athens (MFA 1968). He is currently Professor of Computer Art at the Transmedia Department at Syracuse University, where he instituted the Computer Graphics for the Fine Arts curriculum in 1980, and established the first Graduate Computer Graphics for the Fine Arts program in the state of New York in 1982. He began working with computers at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, in 1968, and has produced numerous computer graphics works, interactive projects and digital films that have traveled the world. Zajec has proven to be an innovator in the area of abstract cinema. Beginning with poetic color-series works, progressing to experimental, musical-score based works, thematic and fractal visual essays, and structural color metamorphoses, Zajec's works highlight new forms of expression for time-based color and form composition. After a mid 90s return to interactive and internet-based work, Zajec has lately reconditioned his artistic practice by producing time-variant color compositions. He lives and works in Syracuse, NY.