Born in Odessa in 1944, Peter Weibel studied medicine and mathematics as well as philosophy and film in Paris and Vienna. He became a central figure in European media art on account of his various activities as artist, media theorist and curator. Peter Weibel has published numerous books and essays on the history and future of visual media, and since 1976 has lectured widely at universities and academies in Europe and the US. After heading the digital arts laboratory at the Media Department of New York University in Buffalo from 1984 to 1989, he founded the Institute of New Media at the St‰delschule in Frankfurt-on-Main in 1989. Between 1986 and 1995, he was in charge of the Ars Electronica in Linz as artistic consultant and later artistic director, and from 1993 to 1998 he was curator at the Neue Galerie Graz. He commissioned the Austrian pavilions at the Venice Biennale from 1993 to 1999. Peter Weibel has been Chairman and CEO of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, since 1999.