Sabina Hyoju Ahn is an artist engaging with various media represented through auditory perception, tactile sense, visual elements and a mixture of digital and analog technology. Her research seeks to find hidden rules and patterns in natural elements and multi-layered relationships between human and non-human beings by translating imperceptible data in natural elements into different perceptual experiences. In her work, biological materials are often used, combined or connected to machines, and transformed. Her recent research focuses on the physical nature of the human perceptual system driven by a post-digital media concept and applying a contemporary scientific and artistic research method.
Alejandro Aponte-Lugo is a researcher born and raised on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. He earned his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. Alejandro’s undergraduate research spans instrumentation development, mechanism design, biomedical devices, assistive technology, digital fabrication, robotics, and user-centered design. As a graduate student, Alejandro focuses on the intersection of instrumentation development, system design, and digital fabrication, using computational methods to explore new multimodal interactions that bridge the gap between physical and virtual experiences. His work aims to leverage emerging XR and AI technologies to revolutionize hardware design for interaction and user-centered data collection, particularly in assisting users with complex physical tasks. Alejandro’s master’s research centered on system design, digital fabrication, interactive multimodal interfaces, and egocentric data collection, with publications at top HCI conferences, including CHI '23, UIST '23, and DIS '24. His master's final project explored user-centered hand mobility profiling, leading to the development of grasp-proximate user interfaces based on reachability and motion cost for user-specific fabrications. Now pursuing his PhD, Alejandro continues to explore instrumentation development and system design, utilizing digital fabrication and computational methods to create innovative physical interaction tools that uncover new ways to connect the physical and virtual realities with a focus on XR and AI physical task guidance applications.
Sam Bourgault (she/they) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Media Arts and Technology program at University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed a master of science from UCSB (2022), a Bachelor in Computation Arts from Concordia University (2019), and a Bachelor in Physics Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal (2015). Through collaboration with domain experts and research creation, she develops digital fabrication systems that support and extend craft practices. Her work has been exhibited at ISEA (Paris, 2023), perte de signal (Montreal, 2022), IEEE-ICRA-X Robotic Program (Montreal, 2019), Sight & Sound Festival (Montreal, 2019), Ars Electronica Campus Exhibition (Linz, 2018), OFFTA (Montreal, 2019), RIPA (Montreal, 2019), Mutek Festival (Montreal, 2017), Art Matters (Montreal, 2018), the VAV gallery (Montreal, 2018). She has participated in the Projet Émergent residency at perte de signal (2020-2022), the New Media Grant residency at OBORO (2019), and LA SERRE - You Are Here live art residency (2018). sam has performed at Mutek (Montreal, 2021), Nuit Blanche (Montreal, 2019), Induction (Montreal, 2019), VAULT (Montreal, 2018), LIP (Montreal, 2018), Algorave (Montreal, 2018), and more. Finally, she has published in conferences and journals such as CHI, UIST, COLA, VL/HCC, and ISEA.
Emma's work focuses on memory and mundanity. In her free time, she can be found inline skating.
MAT MSc student, PhD student in Music
deniz (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Deniz Çağlarcan is a Los Angeles-based composer, violist, and conductor initially from Istanbul, Turkey. He investigates the sonic quality of electronic music by any means and realizes this idealized environment as a model for his musical language. Çağlarcan’s music explores the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronic sounds within their sonic morphology. Besides, he is intrigued to create an environment by utilizing various immersive audio techniques as well as visuals and spatial elements that surround the audience. He performs interdisciplinary works collaborating with media artists, computer graphics developers, and machine learning engineers.
His works include solo instrumental pieces, chamber music, large ensembles, tape/electroacoustic works, live-electronic, mixed works, audio/visual compositions, site-specific sound installations, arrangements as well as film and video games scores.
Besides his composition career as a violist, he performs in solo concerts, chamber music, new music ensembles, and popular music. He is also co-founder of the ADE Duo ensemble.
He studied orchestral conducting for over eight years, and at Central Michigan University, he continued very in-depth study with José-Luis Maúrtua.
He holds degrees in Master of Music in Viola Performance from Central Michigan University and a Master of Arts in Composition from Bilkent University.
Çağlarcan is currently a Ph.D. student in Composition studying with João Pedro Oliveira and Master of Science in Media Arts and Technology with Curtis Roads at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He has studied with notable composers and performers; Mark Andre, Beat Furrer, Tolga Yayalar, Bruno Mantovani, Ken Ueno, Pierluigi Billone, Clara Iannotta, Alberto Posadas, Isabel Mundry, Ulrich Kreppein, Laura San Martin, Jay C. Batzner, Alicia Valoti, Sheila Browne, Scott Woolweaver, Yuri Gandelsman, Tatjana Masurenko, Walter Küssner, Hartmut Rohde, Alexander Zemtsov, Ulrich Mertin, Christine Ruthledge.
Ana Maria Cardenas (She/Her/Ella) is a PhD student in the Media Arts and Technology Program in the Expressive Computation Lab. She received her M.S. in Information at the University of Michigan, her B.S. in Computer Science, and a B.A. in Design at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. She has worked with the Museum of Memory in Colombia to create AR exhibitions for narratives of the armed conflict in Colombia. She has also worked with companies like Snap and Adobe, exploring AR’s use for social connection, storytelling, and performance.
Ana Maria is interested in creating technologies that support storytelling and foster human connection through narrative. She has experience designing and developing Augmented Reality experiences and studying users’ interactions with them. In her research, she is particularly interested in supporting artists, institutions, communities, and organizations using Augmented and Virtual Reality to create narratives that help foster empathy and understanding of sensitive stories.
Pingkang Chen focuses on designing and developing immersive audio experiments, specifically on spatial hearing perception and evaluation. He has an in-depth background with all major spatial audio-related formats and off-the-shelf/custom equipment, enabling him to achieve immersive spatial audio interaction and user experience. He holds an MA in Audio Technology from American University, Washington, D.C. His work has been published by the Audio Engineering Society, where he recently received the 'Best Student Paper' award at the 157th AES International Convention. Outside of his work in immersive audio, Pingkang is a well-rounded musician with credits including national award-winning productions.
Payton Croskey is a visual artist and tech justice scholar designing liberatory tools for a more just world. Pursuing a Ph.D. in UC Santa Barbara’s Media Arts & Technology (MAT) program, Payton’s research seeks to explore and create innovative technology that challenges the consentless, invasive narrative that characterizes today’s devices. Payton previously received her Bachelor’s in African American Studies and Computer Science at Princeton University. Outside of her studies, Payton is also the creative content director and lead researcher of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. Ultimately, Payton’s work asks: What will bloom when we combine the beauty of the arts, critical thinking of the humanities, and specialized knowledge of the sciences to plant something freeing, beautiful and out-of-the-box?
Stejara Iulia Dinulescu holds bachelors degrees in Psychology, Studio Art, and Creative Computation from Southern Methodist University. She is currently a fourth year PhD candidate in UCSB’s Media Arts and Technology Department, and is a 2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Her doctoral research is on the development of haptic technologies that enable the sharing and reproduction of our touch experiences. Through her work in the Re-Touch lab, advised by Yon Visell, she is constantly learning about designing technologies for the sense of touch, perceptual phenomena arising from social touch, and wearable soft robotics for augmenting functionality of the body. Her physical and media art practice additionally consider topics of perception and behavior, agency, free will, consciousness, embodiment, and computational intelligence.
Diarmid Flatley is a composer, media artist and researcher. His work develops metacompositional approaches to artmaking that link disparate modalities and media through underlying generative processes. Topics of interest include: high-dimensional spaces, dynamical systems, emergent structures, crossmodal correspondences, and multisensory integration.
Diarmid holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California, San Diego and a Masters of Music in Theory and Composition from New York University. He is currently a PhD candidate in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Devon (they/them) is an artist, coder, and dancer. They are researching digital fabrication and creativity support in the Expressive Computation Lab.
Yuehao Gao’s academic focus spans across music composition, media technology, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. As an international student, Yuehao was originally trained with both Western and Chinese classical music. He then pursued his undergraduate degree at Northeastern University (Boston) with a combined major between computer science and music technologies, where he started his studies in music composition, analysis, audio signal processing, computer algorithms, and software engineering, and designed a machine-learning-base chord and harmony recommendation software for his graduate project.
Currently, Yuehao focuses on the aesthetic value of music and its impact on human emotion, creativity, and cross-cultural understanding. He utilizes artificial intelligence, neuroscience experimental data, and mathematical models to explore how music is perceived and understood, and how music brings genuine pleasant experiences for listeners, eventually boosting the harmonicity of societies. His journey reflects on his interdisciplinary approach to deepen our understanding of music’s role in human experiences.
Amanda Gregory is a multimedia researcher and sound artist pursuing a PhD in Media Arts and Technology at UCSB with an emphasis in Cognitive Science. Her research focuses on the development of immersive audiovisual systems for investigating consciousness phenomena, interspecies communication, and multi-scale pattern emergence through empirically-validated experiential paradigms.
She holds a Master of Music in Opera from Manhattan School of Music, currently serves as a research affiliate with META Lab at UCSB, is a remote resident at the Santa Barbara Center for Arts, Science and Technology (SBCAST), and is an alumna of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute and the Design Science Studio. Gregory's work has been featured at venues and events such as BrainMind, DWeb, Neurotherapy Conference, NeuroLeadership Institute, Science of Consciousness Conference, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Google I/O Conference, Obscura Digital, Global Energy Conference, Sivananda Ashram, Museum of Art Santa Barbara, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Museum of Sensory and Movement Experiences, Synesthesia Festival in Portugal, the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, Zunya, and the 4DSOUND Institute.
Gregory's research integrates neurobiology, psychophysiology, consciousness studies, environmental science, and quantum physics. Her sound experiences synthesize vibrational resonance theory, live voice-generated psychoacoustics, environmental frequencies, neural oscillation patterns, biorhythm sonification, electromagnetic field frequencies, and multi-scale vibrational coherence. Previous implementations have incorporated motion capture systems, projection mapping, and extended reality interfaces. Her current research focuses on integrating data sonification and micro sound particalization with 4D acoustic spatialization across the full spectral range (sub-20 Hz to >20 kHz), investigating self-similar geometric morphologies and logarithmic spiral invariances that manifest across multiple orders of magnitude in natural systems—from quantum phenomena to cosmological structures.
Gregory's research initiatives include computational audiovisualizations of the Nested Observer Window Theory of Consciousness (Schooler & Riddle) and the Three Dimensions of Time Theory (Schooler), examining their hierarchical organizational patterns across dimensional scales. This work extends to the sonification and visualization of multi-scale temporal dynamics, with particular focus on comparative chronobiology and species-specific temporal perception. In collaboration with organizations utilizing AI to decode biocommunication, she is developing species-specific compositions tailored to the hearing ranges and vibrational sensitivities of diverse life forms—from marine mammals and laboratory mice to old-grove trees in forests and brain organoids within UCSB's molecular biology lab.
Her research pipeline extends from prototyping in UCSB's AlloSphere and TransLab facilities to large-scale venues like the MSG Sphere, while maintaining parallel development of accessible versions that translate full-spectrum acoustic therapies and theoretical consciousness and nature of reality exploration paradigms to standard stereo and display configuration.
Ultimately, Gregory's research aims to advance understanding of the interconnections between human consciousness, hyperdimensional environmental dynamics, and multi-scale emergent networks through empirically-grounded methodologies that bridge theoretical frameworks with phenomenological understanding.
Joel A. Jaffe is an M.S. student with emphases in digital audio, electric instruments, and embedded systems. His off-campus pursuits revolve around rock music performance and production, as well as the maintenance, repair, and modification of instruments. His research investigates practical digital tools for electric instrumentalists and their development as meaningful interaction between music academia and practicing musicians.
Shaokang Li is a creative programmer with a focus on Computer Graphics. He is currently a master's student in Media Arts and Technology at UC Santa Barbara and is interested in real-time audiovisual systems and real-time rendering techniques.
MSc Media Arts and Technology
MSc Electrical and Computer Engineering, Control Systems
yuxilin (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Yuxi is currently pursuing Master's degrees in ECE and MAT. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Buffalo. He is primarily an observer, secondarily a photographer, a drummer, and an engineer. At MAT, Yuxi tries to throw together the technical tools he has and the (rare) things that attracts him to express his affinity for absurdity. He is interested in multi-sensory arts and non-human-centric approaches to arts.
Nefeli is an Architect – Engineer, currently an MS student at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program, and, until recently, a researcher at the TUC TIE Lab in Greece. She is a member of the transLAB, a trans-disciplinary laboratory under the supervision of professor Marcos Novak. Her work lies in the intersection of Nature, human senses, and design through the implementation of emerging technologies. Her research includes immersive environment design, artificial intelligence, and exploring allotropic architectural forms in tangible and digital (VR-AR-XR- AI/ML) mediums. Her goal is to develop innovative experiences that immerse the user into the natural world and its traces by following morphological and cognitive principles. Her recent work embodies digital morphogenesis through emotions in XR and olfactory stimuli. Her works are featured in international symposiums and conferences, such as the ACM SIGGRAPH Sparks, Erasmus XR Symposium, MIT Reality Hack 2022, S. ARCH 2020, HCII 2020, and others.
Ryan is a composer, programmer, and multimedia artist based in Santa Barbara, California.
His work extends an ancient lineage of musical tradition, informed by contemporary models of computation and inspired by the forms and dynamics of the natural world.
Ryan holds a BA in Computer Science and Electronic Music from UC Santa Cruz and an MSc in Media Arts & Technology from UC Santa Barbara, where he is currently a PhD student and researcher.
MSc/PhD student
mondrian (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Erik Alessandro Mondrian (he/they) is a writer, visual artist, vocalist, musician, filmmaker, scholar, and longtime explorer of virtual worlds. He holds a BA in French, with a minor in Spanish, from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; an MA in Communication, with a specialization in Mass Communication and Media Studies, from San Diego State University; and an Interschool MFA in VoiceArts & Creative Writing, with a concentration in Integrated Media, from the California Institute of the Arts. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Erik's video art was featured in the Supernova Digital Animation Festival three years in a row (prior to its rebranding as the Digerati Emergent Media Festival). Erik and his MFA thesis film have also been mentioned in The Guardian, appearing in an article about Second Life and its continued relevance to discussions around the so-called metaverse.
Erik was a Spotlight presenter at the 16th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference in March 2023, with a talk called Perspective and Place in Virtual Spaces — inspired by a video essay he had made of the same name. More recently, some of Erik's SL-based images were selected for inclusion in the 2023-24 "Imagining California" exhibition at UCSB's Platform Gallery, curated by the university's Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Lucian Parisi is a granular chamber composer, ethereal art-rock producer, and audio engineer. The California-based multi-instrumentalist creates psychedelic mixed-media experiences and environmental art. He is pursuing an M.S. in Media Arts and Technology at UCSB, researching bio-acoustics and digital signal processing for immersive media.
Iason N. Paterakis is an Architect- Engineer, Media Artist, and researcher in the field of Extended Reality. He is currently pursuing an MSc degree in Media, Arts & Technology (MAT) at the University of California, Santa Barbara while working as a T.A. in the graduate and undergraduate program of MAT. He is a member of the transLAB, a trans-disciplinary laboratory under the supervision of professor Marcos Novak. He began his research in speculative architecture and XR in 2012 as a researcher at the Transformable Intelligent Environments Laboratory (TIE Lab) at the School of Architectural Engineering TUC, under professor Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis. His field is linked to researching and developing methodologies, mechanisms, and know-how for designing and fabricating paradigms of mediated environments. He has been actively involved in workshops, exhibitions, and international interdisciplinary conferences. (e.g. SIGGRAPH Sparks 2022, Erasmus XR - Onassis Symposium "The art and design of XR", Culture and Computing | HCII 2020, International Astronautical Congress / IAC2015 | EXTRA TERRESTRIAL HABITATS workshop, TUC TIE Lab, UH SICSA, NASA | "EcoRedux 02: Design manuals for a dying planet" Disseny Hub Barcelona, etc.).
Anshul is a media artist, game designer and worldbuilder with a keen interest in bridging the gap between entertainment, wellness and spirituality. His doctoral research explores the intersection of ritual and play within the context of digitally mediated spirituality, informed by his experience and knowledge in animation & film, interactive media & games and a personal quest to explore and understand the variety of self-transcendent experiences available to humankind.
Anshul's career began in the film VFX industry working on massive worldbuilding projects such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and X:MEN, to name a few. His virtual reality and interactive media artworks have been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, Electronic Entertainment Expo, IndieCade & Dubai International Film Festival and won awards from the Walt Disney Company and NVidia. He has co-produced an immersive event series in LA called Visual Reality to curate immersive art experiences within the transformative experience genre. While completing his doctoral studies at UC Santa Barbara, Anshul has been building a remote global studio system called The Verse to enable creatives like himself to operate and collaborate from anywhere on planet Earth. After graduating, he plans to continue exploring his design and research interests through this global studio system.
Weihao Qiu, originally from China, resided in his home country until he completed his undergraduate studies in Computer Science. He started his media arts practices when he commenced his graduate studies in Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program at the University of California Santa Barbara. Starting with a foundation in Photography, he expanded his media arts practice to include the creation of interactive installations, information visualization, and the generation of algorithmic images and sculptures. His artistic works have been displayed in various venues such as the Beijing Times Art Museum, FeraFile, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (MOXI), SIGGRAPH, and UCSB MAT End of Year Shows.
Weihao is currently a PhD candidate in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program, where his research is centered on improving the modularity, customizability, and interactivity of Generative AI tools. His primary goal is to enhance the diversity, expressiveness, and audience connectedness of AI-based artworks. Weihao's research contributions have been published in conferences, such as Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), and The International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). His work reflects a dedication to advancing the capabilities and impact of AI in the realm of art and technology.
Marcel is a researcher and technician with the Systemics Lab, where his work is toward developing and deploying remote sensing systems for environmental survey and monitoring.
With a Bachelor of Architecture from Woodbury University. My academic journey has been driven by a passion for merging creativity, technology, and design. At UCSB's Media Arts and Technology program, I am exploring digital media, interactive design, and the integration of technology with creativity. My goal is to develop innovative projects that bridge the gap between architecture and technology, pushing the boundaries of both fields and contributing to the evolution of design.
Jazer Sibley-Schwartz is an audio/visual composer and maker. His work has been presented at SEAMUS, Max Expo, Five College New Music Festival, numerous New York venues, as well as internationally in Berlin, London, and Spain. He has collaborated extensively with Barbie Diewald Choreography with performances at Jacob’s Pillow, Performance Project Festival, and Ponderosa Dance Festival. He has Bachelor of Art degrees in Music and Physics from Skidmore College and Master of Music in Composition from the University of Massachusetts. His current research focuses on generative video and audio. When not making he can be found teaching, riding or fixing bicycles, and playing accordion.
Mert Toka is a researcher, computer scientist, and media artist. His research is focused on integrating computation into creative processes --through system engineering, digital fabrication, GPU programming, visualization, generative art, and design. He collaborates with domain experts, implements interactive audiovisual software, and develops techniques to make digital/physical artifacts. He is fascinated by the emergent self-organizing patterns in complex systems and how to model them computationally. He is also interested in the dichotomy between digital and physical environments, investigating how digital creative processes contribute/fall short in addressing issues in physical-making.
Mert is a Ph.D. candidate in Media Arts & Technology (MAT) at UC Santa Barbara. His interdisciplinary research is co-advised by JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, George Legrady, and Jennifer Jacobs. He currently works as a graduate student researcher in the Expressive Computation Lab.
He holds a master's degree from MAT as a Fulbright Scholar, where he focused on algorithmic composition and audiovisual live coding. He finished his bachelor's in CS at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkiye, where he worked as an undergraduate researcher at BAVLAB under the supervision of Selim Balcisoy.
Ashley Del Valle-Morales is a fiber artist and electrical engineer who received her BS degree from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She has been recognized as an NSF-GRFP awardee in STEM Education and Learning and a University Innovation Fellow (UIF). Currently, she is working in the Expressive Computation Lab (ECL), where she explores ways to support creative expression through the integration of digital fabrication and traditional textile crafts.
Shaw Yiran Xiao is a multidisciplinary media artist and researcher based in Southern California, working at the intersection of art, technology, and human experience. Her research explores how digital systems shape human perception and society, with a focus on data visualization, generative art, and machine learning. Through her visualizations, Shaw reveals the hidden operations of technology, uncovering the aesthetic dimensions embedded within data and algorithms. Her work encourages critical reflection on how digital infrastructures influence autonomy, cultural values, and individual identity.
Anna Borou Yu is a new media artist, interdisciplinary researcher, and dancer. She is the Cofounder and Creative Director of MYStudio, an experimental design group in Boston, integrating humanity, art, performance and technology. She is also a Collaborative Artist at MIT Music and Theater Arts, XR Track Member at NEW INC, Ambassador of Arte Laguna Prize, Judge of 2024 MIT AI for Filmmaking Hackathon, Judge of 2024 MIT Reality Hack, Reviewer of 2024 IEEE AIART Workshop, selected as AACYF Top 30 under 30 in 2023. She also teaches at Tsinghua University, China Academy of Art and Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Anna engages in contemporary interpretation of cultural heritage, embodied exhibition and cognitive performance in extended reality, and translation between media from artistic expression to science research. Her works have been featured at Arte Laguna Prize, Hermes Creative Awards, MIT AI Hackathon Best Film, etc. She has worked as Fellow and Project Lead at Harvard FAS CAMLab, and graduated from Tsinghua and Yale School of Architecture.
Yifeng Yvonne Yuan converts the frequency of herself losing socks into the frequency of the pitches; she weighs raindrops to determine the weight of her noteheads. She is a composer, performer, and media artist, born and raised in Taiyuan, China, and currently resides between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Yvonne is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Music Composition at UCSB. She is also a master's student in the MAT department. Yvonne holds a master’s degree in Music Composition and bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Musicology from UCLA.
Yvonne draws inspiration from the ritualistic practices of early human beings. Her works explore the transient and vulnerable aspects inherent to human existence. Sound and poetry are currently her primary mediums of artistic expression.
Susan Zhong is a sound designer and audio engineer with a passion for creating immersive experiences in games and multimedia, with a Bachelor in Electronic Production and Design from Berklee College of Music.
Her experience includes designing sound effects, remixing, composition, foley, and complex interactive and performative audio systems in both game environments and virtual reality.
She is currently pursuing her masters degree at UC Santa Barbara's Media Arts and Technology program, focusing on procedural audio and synthesis study, as well as developing audio-reactive visual systems for use in video game products.