Between Art and Technology: The Creative Technologist Journey of Heidi He

Interviewed by Xiao He for Mother of Success – October 2

Self-Introduction and Career Background

Heidi:
First of all, thank you Xiao for inviting me. I’m very excited and honored.

My name is Heidi. I’m a “Creative Technologist,” mainly exploring the intersections of technology, art, and design.

My career path has been a bit winding. It started at Colby College, where I double majored in Computer Science and Studio Art. That’s when I realized that these two fields are both passions I couldn’t let go of. So I embarked on an exploratory journey: how to find a career path at the intersection of these two. Later on I went to Cornell Tech for a Master’s in Connective Media and did a lot of interesting projects there.

There were many ups and downs along the way. Professionally, I’ve worked as a creative technologist, a software engineer, and also as a co-founder, participating in entrepreneurship and fundraising.

Right now, I’m in a stage of “adjustment and integration.” I’ll be returning to creative technology to work as a UX engineer, while also starting my own art projects.

Choosing a Double Major

Xiao:
That’s great! I want to ask—you majored in both Studio Art and Computer Science in college. Was that because you studied art from a young age? How did you decide on those two directions?

Heidi:
Actually, I never had formal art training growing up. As a kid, I really wanted my mom to enroll me in art classes, so we went to this youth center once. They gave me a small test to see what style of art I might be suited for. I remember they asked me to draw a little tiger. After I finished, they said I was suited for abstraction, and they showed me a Picasso painting.

For little me, that was a total shock. I looked at it and thought, “This is so ugly, I don’t want to learn this style.” So I gave up. Picasso’s distorted faces really discouraged me.

But I still played around on my own. I used to draw all over the white walls at home—my parents were pretty supportive, so half the walls in our house were covered in my doodles. Some looked good, some not so much. I even invited friends who could draw to come over and create with me. So in reality, I never had systematic art training.

Later in college, I was drawn to a course called Introduction to Studio Art. The course description said you could use all kinds of materials to create, to paint different things. I was instantly hooked and signed up. At the same time, I was also taking Intro to Computer Science. I even thought for a while that maybe I would study Environmental Science, but after taking those two classes, I realized they were both so fascinating. That’s when I decided to double major.

The Intersection of Art and Computer Science

Xiao:
I’m really curious, Heidi. Do these two paths—art and computer science—influence each other?

Heidi:
They actually do influence each other. For example, I once took a computer vision class. My final project was about using machine learning to recognize images. Instead of choosing something conventional like plant images, I found an open-source art database from a Dutch museum and used an ML model to identify the style and medium of paintings. Technically, it was limited, but it was my first time combining art and computer science.

On the flip side, integrating computer science into art is harder. But for my undergraduate thesis project, I created something I really loved: I printed out the code I had written, cut it into strips, and embedded those strips into blocks of wax. The code itself generated a virtual world, but the physical wax blocks, when assembled, created a very serene kind of beauty. That project is still on the homepage of my portfolio.

Liberal Arts Education Reflections

Xiao:
You studied art and computer science in a liberal arts college. Looking back, how would you describe that experience?

Heidi:
I’d say it was a “mixed feeling.” Liberal arts education allowed me to spend four years focusing on fundamentals—less emphasis on outcomes, more on ways of thinking. That’s an experience that’s hard to replicate later in life.

The downside is that it is far away in northern Maine, with limited resources and networking opportunities. But it gave me the chance to go interdisciplinary, which was incredibly valuable.

From Liberal Arts to Cornell Tech: Culture Shock

Xiao:
Later you went to Cornell Tech, which I remember is on Roosevelt Island in New York. Going from a relatively isolated liberal arts college to a big, pragmatic urban school—how did that feel?

Heidi:
Honestly, I was really unprepared. It was a real culture shock.

At Cornell Tech, people had very strong goals. They knew exactly which company they wanted to join after graduation, which classes they needed to take, which internships to get. Everything was linear and pragmatic. Whereas I was one of the few still exploring, trying different courses, testing different directions.

Advice from a Mentor: “Just Keep Doing”

Heidi:
In my first year, I took a class called Interdisciplinary Design Studio. It sounded exactly like what I’d been doing all along. I loved it. The professor was Jenny Sabin, an architecture professor from Ithaca.

She would share architectural cases that used all kinds of fascinating materials. Even though I wasn’t familiar with architecture, I always felt super inspired. Later, when I was struggling with my direction, I went to talk to her. She told me: “This kind of confusion is totally normal. You just need to choose what you enjoy at the moment, and just keep doing it.”

She said: for example, the fact that you chose to take my class is already part of your path. These experiences may not immediately define your career, but as long as you keep practicing and exploring, you’ll eventually find the answer.

At the time, I didn’t realize the power of those small choices. After all, they couldn’t instantly solve practical problems like finding a job. But later, when unexpected opportunities came my way, I slowly understood that those “accidental” chances often originated from a small but genuine choice years before.

Graduation and First Job

Xiao:
You graduated in 2021, which was still during the pandemic. How did you make decisions then?

Heidi:
I was very lucky—I got a Backslash Art Fellowship. It paired Cornell Tech engineers with New York artists to collaborate on projects. It was a full-time, paid, 9-month opportunity to do art.

After that, I joined a creative technology advertising agency called Deeplocal as a Creative Technologist. I loved this job. It was essentially an ad agency, but the projects were about creating new experiences through technology. For example, designing interactive installations for big company lobbies, or using creative tech for their campaigns.

This was the first time I felt that creative technology could be combined with profitable business. The company also encouraged us to constantly explore new media art. Every week, we had sharing sessions. I was always the most enthusiastic—preparing slides, introducing interesting artists and works. That experience felt very nurturing and was hugely beneficial for my career path.

Unfortunately, Deeplocal later had management issues and laid off most of its staff. That was my first layoff, and it created a strong sense of existential crisis.

I realized there were very few Creative Tech positions out there—almost no openings. To maintain my visa, and also because I’d always wanted to try entrepreneurship, I took a software engineering role at a startup.

Joining a Startup and Witnessing a Full Cycle

That startup was building products around in-store shopping experiences. Shortly after I joined, the company got acquired. Within just a few months, I witnessed a full startup lifecycle: from steady but not booming, to landing big clients weekly, to a smooth acquisition.

It was so inspiring, and it sparked the thought: “Since I’ve witnessed someone else’s success, why not try entrepreneurship myself?”

Entrepreneurship: AI-Generated Nail Art

Later, a few friends and I started a project together. At first it was interest-driven—we worked on AI-generated press-on nail designs.

It was much harder than it looked. We went through three iterations. For example, our first interface design turned out not to meet user needs, so we kept refining it. We even did a campaign during NYU’s graduation season, designing graduation-themed press-on nails, then worked with artisans in China to produce them and ship them to the U.S.

The process was fascinating. We even won some international awards and exhibited in New York and soon in LA. But eventually, we realized it was very difficult to scale and not a viable profitable business. It was more like a creative exploration.

Startup Challenges: Marketing

Xiao:
Who were your target customers at the time? How did you do marketing?

Heidi:
At first, our target customers were young women, especially students. Graduation ceremonies were a perfect entry point. Marketing relied mainly on Instagram and some TikTok, but online promotion was very tough. Offline events worked better, like putting up posters or using school mailing lists.

Later, we realized that the biggest challenge was marketing itself. We spent a lot on ads, but click-through and conversion rates were very low. We even consulted some marketing studios. They said that sometimes “mundane but absurdly funny” videos could go viral, but clients had to be willing to experiment.

Another method was small-scale ad placements across different channels, testing which converted best, then doubling down.

I found that the most effective was actually private-domain marketing: reaching target audiences through communities and community organizers.

Pivot to Social Media and AI

During the nail art project, we increasingly realized that marketing was one of the toughest part of B2C business. So we decided to pivot—to work on social media–focused entrepreneurship, researching how to use AI to understand and leverage social media data. That became our new startup direction.

Growth Through Entrepreneurship

Xiao:
If you look back on this entrepreneurial journey, how would you describe it?

Heidi:
I think it was an extremely intense but fast-growth experience. It made me braver, more willing to explore the world, meet different people, and make decisions.

I used to be more introverted, preferring to work alone. But entrepreneurship made me realize that many things that seem impossible might actually be achievable. In the future, it might not necessarily take the form of a tech startup, but I’ll definitely continue creating interesting and valuable things.

Recommended Films

Xiao:
At the end of our interviews, we usually ask guests to recommend a book, film, or podcast. What would you recommend?

Heidi:
I’ll recommend two films.

The first is Spirited Away.

This film reminds me not to be blinded by superficial fame and fortune. Truly successful entrepreneurs often pursue their work to the extreme, not for titles or money. If you’re just chasing external “skyscrapers,” you’ll easily be crushed by negative feedback. But if you stay focused on what you love, you can truly create value.

The second is About Time.

The protagonist has the ability to travel back to any day in his life. His father tells him the right way to use it is: live the same day three times. The first time normally, the second time fixing regrets, and the third time fully enjoying it. But eventually, he stops using the ability because he’s already learned to live each day fully and beautifully without needing to redo it.

This film reminds me: the most important thing is how we spend today.

Xiao:
That’s beautifully said! Thank you so much, Heidi, for sharing with us today.

Heidi:
Thank you!

Image credit: © Studio Ghibli / Spirited Away (2001), directed by Hayao Miyazaki.