MAT End of Year Show 2025
Dates:
UCSB Elings Hall - June 3rd
SBCAST - June 5th
Develop your technical literacy
and creative design skills
For more information, visit:
UCSB Summer Sessions website
Bio
George Legrady is an interdisciplinary digital media artist, author, researcher and Distinguished Professor in the Media Arts & Technology Graduate program at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he directs the Experimental Visualization Lab. The overall focus of his research and practice is based on the study of how image-generating technologies (camera, computer imaging systems, software) inadvertently redefine the data they process, and how this affects the content and meaning of the images, objects, and time-based media that these image-generating machines produce.
Legrady belongs to the first generation of photographic-based artists to integrate computational processes in the mid-1980s for creating “Born-Digital” visualizations. His current artistic and research projects explore algorithmic processes for photographic imaging and data visualization through semantic categorization and self-organizing systems, interactive computational-based art installations, and mixed-realities narrative development. A key focus is the creative potential of such technologies for aesthetic coherence and expression.
Legrady has held previous academic appointments at University of Western Ontario (Photography, 1977-1981), University of Southern California (Photography and computer art, 1984-1988), San Francisco State University (Conceptual Design / Information Arts, 1989-1997), Merz University of Visual Communication, Stuttgart (Digital media, 1995-2000) and visiting faculty positions at North Texas State University, Denton, Texas (Photography, 1976), Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax, (Photography, 1979), California Institute of the Arts (Photography, 1982-1984), UCLA (Photography, 1983; Digital media, 1998), Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest (Intermedia, 1994), Fellow at the Institut des Mines, ParisTech (Diaspora Lab, 2017, 2018), and University of New South Wales, Sydney (iCinema Center for Interactive Research lab, 2018).
His artistic practice and research have been funded by a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2016), Graham Foundation Advanced Institute for the Fine Arts grant (2019). Robert W. Deutsch Foundation (2011-2014), National Science Foundation (IIS, 2011, ASC 2012), Creative-Capital Foundation Emerging Trends (2003), the National Endowment for the Arts (1996), the Daniel Langlois Foundation for the Arts, Science and Technology (2000), the Canada Council for the Arts (multiple), Ontario Arts Council (multiple). University research grants awarded at the University of Southern California, San Francisco State University, and UC Santa Barbara.
Legrady has exhibited his works at major museums internationally with over 60 solo exhibitions, and they are in permanent collections at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2021); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2009, 2019); Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2019); ZKM, Centre for Art & Technology (1996, 2016); 21c Museum & Hotel, Cincinnati (2013); San Francisco Museum of Art (2012); D.E.Shaw & Co Consulting, NYC (2008); Corporate Executive Board, Arlington (2008); Pro Ahlers Art Foundation, Hanover, Germany (2008); Whitney Museum of American Art (2005), NYC; McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London (2020); Centre Gantner, Belfort, FR (2005); American Museum of Art at the Smithsonian, Washington (1987); Canada Council Art Bank (1982, 1990); National Galleries of Canada, Ottawa (1986); Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal (1984); Museum London, Canada (1980).
He has completed three data-based commissions: “Making Visible the Invisible”, Seattle Public Library (2005-present), “Kinetic Flow”, Santa Monica / Vermont Station, Hollywood Red line, Los Angeles Metro Rail (2006), and “Data Flow”, Corporate Executive Board, Arlington VA (2007-2008).
For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:
seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.
Liberatory Collections and Afrofuturist AI: Reimagining AI Development from Black Data Stewards
Abstract
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into mass cultural production has brought its underlying limitations—stereotypical representations, distorted perspectives, and misinformation—into the spotlight. Many of the risks of AI disproportionately impact minority cultural groups, including Black people. Now that AI is embedded in institutions like education, journalism, and museums, it is transforming how we access and reproduce sociocultural knowledge, while continuing to exclude or misrepresent many aspects of Black culture, if they are included at all. To reimagine AI systems as tools for meaningful and inclusive creative production, we must look beyond conventional technical disciplines and embrace a radical, decolonized imagination. I am to use Afrofuturism—a methodological framework rooted in Afrodiasporic visions of the future and grounded in critical engagement with race, class, and power—as a rich foundation for creating more equitable and imaginative technological innovations.
As a starting point, I build on existing calls to develop technology that does more than mitigate harm—a space I define as liberatory technology. Within this space, I identify liberatory collections—community-led repositories that amplify Black voices—as powerful models of data curation that empower communities historically marginalized by traditional AI and archival systems. My survey of fourteen such collections reveals innovative, culturally rooted approaches to preserving and sharing knowledge. I use these findings to argue for consent-driven training models, sustained funding for community-based initiatives, and the meaningful integration of Black histories and cultures into AI systems.
Expanding on this foundation, I have conducted preliminary interviews with Afrofuturist data stewards—Black technologists who carefully collect, curate, store, and use data related to Black speculative projects. My early analysis shows that these creators approach AI with a strong sense of cultural responsibility—not only to critique it, but to retool it in service of Black life. They navigate this historically fraught technological space by reclaiming tools once used for harm and repurposing them toward Black joy, rest, and healing. Through Afrofuturist perspectives, they reimagine historical data and artifacts, envisioning futures grounded in possibility rather than oppression.
Data, Vision, and Perception: Multimodal Approaches to Human-Centered Understanding in Generative and Interpretable Visual Systems
Artist: Sabina Hyoju Ahn (KR/US)
In collaboration with Ryan Millet, Nefeli Manoudaki, Iason Paterakis and Junsoo Kim
Microbial Mindscapes is an interactive audiovisual installation and performance exploring the impact of the human gut microbiota on emotions. Inspired by the artist’s struggles with panic disorder and depression, this project merges biophysics, gastroenterology, microbiome research, microbiology, pharmacology, and AI. Using scientific discoveries on molecular interactions and microscopic techniques, it links gut microbiota with mental health and cognitive functions, highlighting the influence of lifestyle on well-being. The project explores philosophical and scientific correlations between humans and microbes, prompting a reevaluation of consciousness and self-identity. Through an immersive visual and auditory experience, the project encourages reflection on the interplay between art, science and human emotion. It broadens understanding of mental and physical health, emphasizing gut microbiota’s role in shaping our emotional and cognitive states and advocating for a holistic approach to health.
Microbial Mindscapes premiered at Ars Electronica 2024:
Embodied Minds: Affective Computing In Virtual Reality through Ubiquitous Measures of The Body
Abstract
Embodied Minds presents a theoretical framework for affective computing that integrates ubiquitous body computing within VR environments. VR technologies enable detailed embodied interactions, where the human body serves as an active medium to acquire, process, and present information within a virtual setting. This framework not only tracks body actions to enhance interaction but also seeks to examine users' mental states by quantifying bodily signals.
To assess the practicality of this framework and identify potential challenges, a pilot study was conducted to investigate how subtle hand and head gestures could reflect fear-related emotions during embodied interactions in VR. This presentation will present the design strategy used to elicit emotions through interaction, outline the data collection approach focused on emergent non-performative body actions, and discuss findings from the user study.
α-Forest: An Immersive Sound and Light Journey Through Inner-consciousness Exploration
Production Team: Olifa Hsieh (MAT visiting scholar), Timothy Wood (MAT researcher), and Weihao Qiu (MAT PhD student).
The subconscious is where your intrinsic qualities thrive; where seeds of inspiration reside; and where many impulses, emotions, and thoughts are hidden and never expressed. Sometimes they only appear in dreams.
α-Forest is a participatory immersive theater with healing qualities, created by the following three artists: Olifa Ching-Ying Hsieh, Timothy Wood, and Weihao Qiu. The work integrates electronic sound, interactive design, and AI algorithmic imaging technology to capture the audience’s brainwaves (Electroencephalography, EEG) and collect data on their physical movements, resulting in real-time co-created content. At a residency base offered by the Experimental Forest of National Taiwan University, the artists collected unique forest sounds from a mountainous area in central Taiwan, Nantou. They also visited the region’s indigenous tribe and learned about their culture.
More about the exhibition (PDF)
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
Sketches of Sensorium
Sketches for Sensorium showcases core elements of the late environmental artist Newton Harrison’s (1932 - 2022) long-term project, Sensorium for the World Ocean. It will premiere at the AlloSphere as a satellite to the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art and Technology’s forthcoming exhibition, Future Tense: Art, Complexity, and Uncertainty, produced in partnership with the 2024 Getty PST Art: Art and Science Collide initiative. The installation will incorporate immersive audio and visual scientific climate and ocean health data provided by the Ocean Health Index of the Halpern Lab at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.
Sketches for Sensorium is a project of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure in collaboration with Virtual Planet Technologies, Almost Human Media, and the AlloSphere Research Group. It will premiere with an original spatialized composition and an interactive data world, following Newton’s wish to impart a sense of hope to audiences.
For more information, please visit:
www.independent.com/2024/09/11/sketches-of-sensorium-part-of-getty-pst-art-at-uc-santa-barbara
allosphere.ucsb.edu/research/sketches_of_sensorium/2024.html
Metacomposition and Transmodality
Abstract
Throughout history, composers and artists alike have constructed correspondences between sensory modalities. In contemporary media art, practitioners increasingly operate within a technological landscape that is inherently multimodal. As the current media environment evolves towards greater integration of sensory experience through multimodal technologies, so too must compositional practice evolve to holistically structure artworks across modalities. The fusion of senses and sensibilities through technology in contemporary media art suggests the need for a practice that organizes the ways in which modalities become linked in new media artworks. The task of establishing these linkages invites the artist to consider all modalities as aspects of a single compositional and perceptual unity. We call this approach transmodality. Transmodal artworks require compositional structures that are abstract enough to communicate essential formal ideas across the many expressive vectors of transmodal space. This dissertation addresses this challenge by applying an extended notion of music composition to the problem of formally structuring this space. Towards this end, the concept of metacompositon is developed, wherein generative abstract structures organize the formal characteristics of transmodal artworks. Through an extended series of experiments in the creation of metacompositional systems, this dissertation establishes transmodal metacomposition, a framework for producing dynamic, heterogeneous and unbounded families of transmodal artworks.
Kinematic User Profiling for Interface Design: Reachability and Motion Cost Analysis of Hands for Designing Personalized Grasp Proximate Interfaces
Abstract
Everyday objects and tools, such as power drills and game controllers, are typically designed with interfaces optimized for easy access by the grasping hand, allowing users to interact while maintaining a secure hold. Designing personalized, hand-reachable interfaces tailored to individual grasping conditions remains a significant challenge. Recent advancements in parametric and generative design technologies present new opportunities to reduce the workload of developing customized interfaces. Furthermore, as physical and virtual realities increasingly intersect, designers face complex challenges and opportunities to create hybrid interfaces seamlessly integrating physical and digital UI elements. Understanding and characterizing user-specific hand-object interactions is central to this endeavor. To address these challenges, this work introduces a novel empirical design approach that seeks to shift the design workflow to provide personalized interfaces and adapt the interface to the user instead of the user adapting to a generic interface. By leveraging hand-tracking technology, this approach generates kinematic profiles that capture individual finger reachability during object grasping. Additionally, the approach incorporates physiological signals, such as electromyography (EMG) and displacement costs, to explore how they can characterize physical effort within their reachable space. Building on previous work (Aponte and Caetano et al. 2024), we present a design framework that utilizes volumetric boundaries and trajectories derived from user data to create personalized interaction profiles. These profiles can be integrated into standard 3D modeling tools to assess user-specific hand-object interaction conditions and identify optimal regions of interest for UI element placement, providing a foundational baseline for the interface design process. The results and insights from an initial formative user study on reachability, motion cost, and guidelines for implementing the introduced design methodology are presented. This approach makes personalized interface development more feasible by enabling designers to create new interfaces from standard poses, refine existing designs, and evaluate scenarios involving limited mobility.
Maquinas, Imaginarios y Visiones LatinoAmericanas: Un Panorama de Aportes Profundos
Abstract
Different Engines Media Technologies from Latin America" investigates the emergence of technologies in Latin America to create images, sounds, video games, and physical interactions. The book contributes to the construction of a historiographical and theoretical framework for understanding the work of creators who have been geographically and historically marginalized through the study of five exemplary and yet relatively unknown artifacts built by engineers, scientists, artists, and innovators. It offers a broad and detailed view of the complex and sometimes unlikely conditions under which technological innovation is possible and of the problematic logics under which these innovations may come to be devalued as historically irrelevant. Through its focus on media technologies, the book presents the interactions between technological and artistic creativity, working towards a wider understanding of the shifts in both fields that have shaped current perceptions, practices, and design principles while bringing into view the personal, social, and geopolitical singularities embodied by particular devices. It will be an engaging and insightful read for scholars, researchers, and students across a wide range of disciplines, such as media studies, art and design, architecture, cultural history, and the digital humanities.
Bio
Andrés Burbano is Professor in the Arts and Humanities School at the Open University of Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain) and Visiting Lecturer at Donau-Universität (Krems, Austria). He holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California at Santa Barbara (California, EEUU) and has developed most of his academic career in the School of Architecture and Design at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Burbano works as a researcher, curator, and interdisciplinary artist. His research projects focus on media history and media archaeology in Latin America and the Global South, 3D modeling of archaeological sites, and computational technologies' historical and cultural impact. Burbano has been appointed as ACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Chair.
Professor Burbano's latest book:
Different Engines - Media Technologies From Latin America
For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:
seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.
RARE_vol.02: Realities Altered Realities Emerging
Works by:
Synthux Hackathon projects:
"Vitrified Sounds"
"MYS"
"TouchPulse BitBox"
Guest Artist:
Professor George Legrady
The Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology (SBCAST) is located at 513 Garden Street in downtown Santa Barbara.
Song Cycle
Speaker: Chris Kallmyer
Abstract
The lecture will explore how sound and context transform the way we use technology to inspire meaning and change in listeners. Through this talk we will outline the strategies employed by mid-century experimentalists, pre-enlightenment collectivists, and the prospect of a post-industrial revolution. Chris will expand upon the generative work currently installed in Elings Hall, Song Cycle, and the emerging relationships between audience and performer – artist and community – technology and environment.
Bio
Chris Kallmyer is an artist working at the intersection of music, architecture, and design. Through his work, he creates collective experiences driven by his interests in listening, landscape, and community. His multi-disciplinary works have been exhibited and performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and STUDIO TeatrGaleria in Warsaw among other spaces in America, Europe, and Asia. His studio is located on the Silver Penny Farm in Petaluma, CA.
For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:
seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.
Equivalence: An analysis of artists’ roles collaborating with Image Generative AI from the perspective of Conceptual Art through an interactive installation design practice.
Throughout the past year, the public has witnessed a multitude of high-performance text-to-image Generative AI models pushing the boundaries of image synthesis. These advancements have reshaped the art domain and sparked a great debate surrounding the role of artists and the nature of creativity in artwork created with Image Generative AI. This master's project aims to analyze artists' roles and their relationship with machines when creating artwork with Image Generative AI. Drawing inspiration from Rhodes' 4P model of creativity, an analytical framework of 5P+E (Purpose, People, Process, Product, Press, and Evaluation) has been developed to compare the art-creating processes of Conceptual Art and Image Generative AI. To exemplify this framework, a practical case study titled "Equivalence" has been conducted. Equivalence is a multi-screen interactive installation that converts users' speech input into continuously evolving paintings constructed with Natural Language Processing Algorithms and Stable Diffusion Model. Instead of just using users' text prompts, this installation analyzes the emotion, grammar structure, and word choice, converting this information into architectural structures to investigate the relationship between language and image. Through comprehensive analysis and the execution of the case study, this master's project aims to broaden the understanding of artists' roles and foster a deeper appreciation for the creative aspects inherent in artwork created with Image Generative AI.
In collaboration with the Clay Studio, the lecture will feature our current Experimental Clay Residency artists Eun-Ha Paek and Raina J. Lee.
The lecture will be split into two 30-minute lectures that each include 20-minute talks and 10 minutes left for any questions. Eun-Ha and Raina are both working in the UCSB Expressive Computation Lab for the Summer as a part of our NSF funded research project on Computational Ceramics Fabrication.
Clay studio is located at 351 Holiday Hill Rd, Goleta, CA 93117.
The lecture is free to attend.
The Loop Lab Busan Exhibition is a collaborative citywide event spanning approximately 20 cultural spaces, including public and private museums, alternative spaces, and galleries throughout Busan, Korea.
www.looplabbusan.com/exhibition
www.ocadu.ca/events-and-exhibitions/research-talks-dr-haru-ji
The software creates personalized visuals and abstract art in an immersive landscape that is based on the memories of the crew members. The news articles highlight their work on a software pipeline that was being used at the St. Kliment Ohridski base on Livingston Island, Antarctica.
For more information, please see:
UCSB's The Current news magazine article:
New frontiers for well-being in Antarctica and isolated spaces.
Santa Barbara Independent article:
UC Santa Barbara Researchers Design Tools to Combat Isolation in Extreme Environments.
Iason Paterakis, Nefeli Manoudaki - AI driven visuals: Icescape
Iason Paterakis, Nefeli Manoudaki - AI driven visuals: Beach
Iason Paterakis, Nefeli Manoudaki - AI driven visuals: Plains
The title of the NSF award is Dynamic Control Systems for Manual-Computational Fabrication. Professor Jacobs was awarded the NSF Career Award to further her research in integrating skilled manual and material production with computational fabrication.
The CAREER Program offers the NSF's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Professor Jacobs thanks all of the amazing members the Expressive Computation Lab whose research contributed the intellectual foundations of this award.
UCSB News: Making Automation More Human Through Innovative Fabrication Tools
NSF link: Dynamic Control Systems for Manual-Computational Fabrication
George Legrady: Scratching the Surface. Digital Pictures from the 1980s to Present.
RCM Galerie, Paris
Tuesday, December 17 2024 to Sunday February 16, 2025
32 rue de Lille, 75007
Tue-Fri 2pm-7pm & by appointment
whitehotmagazine.com/articles/32-rue-de-lille-paris/6789
α-Forest: An Immersive Sound and Light Journey Through Inner-consciousness Exploration
Production Team: Olifa Hsieh (MAT visiting scholar), Timothy Wood (MAT researcher), and Weihao Qiu (MAT PhD student).
The subconscious is where your intrinsic qualities thrive; where seeds of inspiration reside; and where many impulses, emotions, and thoughts are hidden and never expressed. Sometimes they only appear in dreams.
α-Forest is a participatory immersive theater with healing qualities, created by the following three artists: Olifa Ching-Ying Hsieh, Timothy Wood, and Weihao Qiu. The work integrates electronic sound, interactive design, and AI algorithmic imaging technology to capture the audience’s brainwaves (Electroencephalography, EEG) and collect data on their physical movements, resulting in real-time co-created content. At a residency base offered by the Experimental Forest of National Taiwan University, the artists collected unique forest sounds from a mountainous area in central Taiwan, Nantou. They also visited the region’s indigenous tribe and learned about their culture.
More about the exhibition (PDF)
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
From the author/composer:
"For this album I have assembled a collection of contrasting works from the archives. Some have previously been released, others not. Three pieces: Sculptor, Touche pas, and Bubble chamber are based on the microsound techniques of granular synthesis and micro-montage. By contrast, Modulude, Clang-tint, and Still life were conceived before my microsound period."
"For any given piece, my compositional practice usually takes years. For example, Modulude was initially conceived in 1998 and finished 23 years later. What I call my microsound period began in 1998 and culminated in the book Microsound (The MIT Press) and the album POINT LINE CLOUD (2004), re-issued by the Presto?! label (Milan) in 2019. Sculptor appeared on that album. Clang-tint traces back to 1991. It was finally released in 2021 by the SLOWSCAN label (’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands) in a limited edition LP. Prior to this, the first movement of Clang-tint, Purity, appeared on the album CCMIX Paris (2001 Mode Records, New York). The origins of Still life date back even further, to the 1980s. Touche pas appeared on the DVD FLICKER TONE PULSE (2019 Wergo Schallplatten, Mainz). Bubble chamber is a new release."
ellirecords.bandcamp.com/album/electronic-music-1994-2021
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Media Arts and Technology (MAT) at UCSB is a transdisciplinary graduate program that fuses emergent media, computer science, engineering, electronic music and digital art research, practice, production, and theory. Created by faculty in both the College of Engineering and the College of Letters and Science, MAT offers an unparalleled opportunity for working at the frontiers of art, science, and technology, where new art forms are born and new expressive media are invented.
In MAT, we seek to define and to create the future of media art and media technology. Our research explores the limits of what is possible in technologically sophisticated art and media, both from an artistic and an engineering viewpoint. Combining art, science, engineering, and theory, MAT graduate studies provide students with a combination of critical and technical tools that prepare them for leadership roles in artistic, engineering, production/direction, educational, and research contexts.
The program offers Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Media Arts and Technology. MAT students may focus on an area of emphasis (multimedia engineering, electronic music and sound design, or visual and spatial arts), but all students should strive to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and work with other students and faculty in collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects and courses.
MAT Seminar Series: Exploring the Aesthetics of AI, Data, Interactivity & Materiality. Speaker: George Legrady. 1pm Monday, May 19th, 2025 via Zoom.
α-Forest: An Immersive Sound and Light Journey Through Inner-consciousness Exploration, is on exhibit at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts from January 18 - March 30, 2025.
Sketches of Sensorium, an immersive audio visual event in UCSB's AlloSphere, will continue with shows in February, March and April. Reservations can be made below ↓
MAT Seminar Series: Maquinas, Imaginarios y Visiones LatinoAmericanas: Un Panorama de Aportes Profundos. Speaker: Andrés Burbano. Monday, April 15th, 2024 at 1pm PST via Zoom.
Realities Altered, Realities Emerging - a show by MAT at SBCAST in downtown Santa Barbara. Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 6 - 10pm.
MAT Seminar Series: Song Cycle. Speaker: Chris Kallmyer. Monday, March 11th, 2024 at 1pm PST. Elings Hall room 1605 and via Zoom.
The Expressive Computation Lab led by Assistant Professor Jennifer Jacobs, is hosting a guest artist lecture on Friday August 18th from 4-5pm.
The audio-visual work Artificial Nature by MAT alumni Graham Wakefield and Haru Ji is being exhibited at the Busan Loop Lab exhibition and Roof Top Busan Festival in Busan, South Korea.
An AI driven audio-visual system developed by MAT PhD students Iason Paterakis and Nefeli Manoudaki has been featured in the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper and the UCSB Current magazine. The system was developed to help researchers cope with the difficulties of working in remote, extreme environments.
MAT Professor Jennifer Jacobs has been awarded the NSF CAREER Award to conduct research in Dynamic Control Systems for Manual-Computational Fabrication.
Professor George Legrady’s exhibit “Scratching the Surface” at the RCM Galerie in Paris, France, receives a great review by Jospeph Nechvatal in White Hot Magazine, February 2025.
α-Forest: An Immersive Sound and Light Journey Through Inner-consciousness Exploration, is on exhibit at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts from January 18 - March 30, 2025.
A new album and CD of professor emeritus Curtis Roads’ work is being released in May 2025 by Elli Records, France. The album is titled “Electronic Music 1994-2021.
