Greg Niemeyer studied Classics and Photography in Switzerland before he came to the US in 1992. As an MFA grad student at Stanford University, he founded SUDAC, the Stanford University Digital Art Center, in anticipation of the need for an academic space dedicated to the practical and theoretical exploration of digital media and art. At UC Berkeley he is involved in the development of the Center for New Media, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences.
His creative work focuses on the mediation between humans as individuals and humans as a collective through technological means and emphasizes playful responses to technology. His most recognized projects were Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), Oxygen Flute with Chris Chafe (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006), and the Balance Game (Cairo 2007, London, 2007) with Joe McKay. The Black Cloud (2008) was funded by the MacArthur Foundation to provide an alternate reality game and a social network for sensing air quality and taking actions to benefit indoor air quality. The project has evolved into a startup company under the name of Aclima Inc.
A branch of the Black Cloud project is the Tomato Quintet (Machine Project, 2007, SJ01, 2010) which connects tomato ripening processes to music, music to people, and people to the ripening process.
Since 2008, Niemeyer has also developed several mobile games related to foundational human cognitive skills in collaboration with the MIND Institute at UC Davis and with the Montreal Neurological Institute.
