Zemi17, or the person known as Aaron Taylor Kuffner, is a composer, musician, and media artist.

In the 1990's, Zemi17 brought his studies in new physics, technology, mixed media installation and experimental performance into the underground art scenes of New Orleans and San Francisco. In 1997, he moved to New York and formed the experimental multi-media performance group Ransom Corp. This group hosted events and performed in warehouses, on boats, subways and streets throughout New York and Europe. Kuffner founded the 23 Windows Collective community arts studio in Brooklyn in 2001 and co-created and curated The Resonant Wave Experimental Multi Media Art Festival in Berlin in 2002. He was a guest composer at Theater Thikwa for mentally disabled adults in Berlin in 2003.

From 2004 through 2006, he lived and worked in Indonesia with the support of scholarships and grants from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry. He collected extensive field recordings of nature and researched classic gamelan music, performing with professional groups in Yogyakarta and Bali. His study focused on two archaic forms of gamelan: Sekatan from the courts of Central Java and Selonding from the Bali Highlands. His audio recordings and notation in System Notasi Nusantara were compiled into a summary report for the Indonesian Dharmasiswa Council for the propagation of Indonesian Arts.

For the last three years Kuffner has concentrated on synthesizing his knowledge and experience with new compositional and technological forms. He is the co-creator, composer and art director of the Gamelatron: the world's first and only fully robotic gamelan orchestra. With sculptor Ryan O'Connor and designer / producer William Etundi he is one of three ingredients of the fine art group Emma. He regularly composes for dance, theater and multi-media productions, owns and operates a 15kw sound system and performs with the experimental music groups Zero Gravity Thinkers and The Akashic Currency Bureau (ACB).

He has received grants and sponsorship from The Experimental Television Center, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Berlin Arts Council, Kulture Im Spannwerk, ID-Media, Schloss Brollin, The European Union Arts Council, James F. Robison Foundation, The Soros Foundation and Swiss Air.