Peter Schweri was born on 20 June 1939 in
Dietikon. He began his professional career as an apprentice draftsman in structural engineering from 1956 to 1959 at the Zürich College of Applied Sciences, Gewerbeschule Zürich. From 1959 to 1960, he studied at the
Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, where Hansjörg Mattmüller served as his professor, mentor, and later, friend. From 1960 to 1961, Schweri studied graphic arts under
Josef Müller-Brockmann. Recognizing Schweri's drawing and artistic talent,
Paul Gredinger, a co-owner of the advertising agency GGK (Gerstner & Kutter), hired him in 1962 to create artwork that would enhance GGK's cultural image. In the 1960s, Schweri was deeply involved in photography and film. He produced films for various clients in studios located in Milan, Zürich, and Paris. During this period, he also worked as an interior designer and created an art film—a precursor to today's music videos—for a disco in Milan. Additionally, he developed a light show (a slide show combined with film footage), which was displayed simultaneously on three screens at the nightclub Black Out in Zürich-Kloten. From 1968 to 1976, Schweri lived and worked in the village of
Carona, located in the Ticino region of Switzerland. During this time, he collaborated and interacted with other notable artists residing in Carona, such as
Meret Oppenheim, David Weiss,
Markus Raetz,
Urs Lüthi, Christoph Wenger, and Anton Bruhin. Schweri dedicated himself to drawing during this period, producing numerous works using various techniques. Many of these drawings, created in Carona, are preserved in his estate. From 1974 to 1976, Schweri organized and managed the biological food store Mr. Natural in Zürich. This store was one of the first in Switzerland to sell macrobiotic and organic foods, gaining recognition far beyond Swiss borders as a pioneer of today's organic food movement. Beginning in 1975, Peter Schweri traveled to
Greece,
Egypt, and
Sudan. Later, from 1977 to 1983, he traveled extensively to Greece,
France, and Egypt. During his time in Greece, he spent a year
windsurfing and living out of a Mercedes D190 van, which he had personally customized. He continued to use this van for travel from 1984 to 1989. Schweri was a profound thinker and an insightful researcher. In 1986, his understanding of the "Universal Skeleton of Art" inspired him to develop the
ArtCode86, a system for creating art compositions using mathematical constraints. This concept deeply fascinated him and became a central focus of his work. In the summer of 1994, Paul Tanner, director of the ETH Zurich Graphic Collection, organized a group exhibition titled
Kicking Boxes Billiard at ETH Zurich. where he remained from 1994 until 2001, the onset of his blindness. During this period, Schweri and
Gutknecht developed the
Sakkara system, which allowed the drafting of "visual scores" for art compositions and both computer- and internet-based presentations. This innovation made it possible to create the first dynamic constructive artworks. Schweri conceptualized a unique form of art he called "Dynamic Art," which included the creation of interactive totems. After three years of intensive study of internet technologies, Schweri was recognized in 1997 as an internet expert by the Institute for Computer Systems at ETH Zurich. In the same year, he launched his first internet art site. From 1997 to 2001, he continued to develop his "Dynamic Art" on the internet. These evolutions enabled artistic forms to change fundamentally in real time, with durations ranging from a few seconds to several billion years, depending on the configuration of the totem. Due to a
Caldwell-Luc operation, performed without anesthesia during his childhood, Peter Schweri’s vision steadily deteriorated over the years. By 1999, his vision was reduced to just 5% of normal. Despite this, he continued to work independently on all his art systems and, in 2001, developed a new, refined Dynamic Art internet site. In 2002, at the age of 63, Schweri became completely blind. He died in
Zürich on 25 November 2016. His estate is managed by the artist Stella Diess. == Project Wirsindkunst ==