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.
PhD student
aponte (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Shashank Aswathanarayana is a music technologist, percussionist and researcher from Bengaluru, India. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to this, Shashank was a music information retrieval engineer at a San Francisco-based mobile startup, Humtap. He holds a Masters degree in Music Technology from New York University and a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in India. His research interests include spatial/3D audio, soundscape studies and music information retrieval. In his free time, he enjoys trekking, traveling and playing sports.
Nathan Blair is a music producer, computer scientist, and emergent media artist from Los Angeles, California. He is currently looking for new ways to synthesize audio with machine learning. Prior to arriving at UCSB, he studied electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley. He also spent multiple summers researching computer vision for asteroid and comet detection at NASA JPL.
PhD student
samuellebourgault (at) mat.ucsb.edu
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.
PhD student
acardenas (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Mengyu Chen is an artist and designer working in the realms of technology, philosophy, and culture. His projects adopt an anti-anthropocentric approach to design and engineering, conceptualizing machines and objects on the same ontological level as human beings.
As a working artist, he completed his Masters in digital + media at RISD while a member of the Data Visceralization Research Group, and a permanent collaborator of the Mestizo Robotics at RISD and RPI. Areas of investigation include interactivity, ideology, prosthetic social extensions, object-oriented aesthetics, and autonomous machines.
Enrica was raised in an Italian hamlet by the Mediterranean sea; her deep sea diver dad taught her early on the value of knowing how to build her creative projects. She studied Architecture in Genova (Italy), urban design in Lyon (France) and media arts and technology in Santa Barbara (U.S.A.). In life she embraced creative fields in which it was indispensable to own the technical side of her creations. Architecture, more than any, requires the knowledge of design as well as construction, materials, and sustainable practices, all merging to make a living sculpture.
Pau Roselló is a multimedia artist and developer from Catalonia based in Santa Barbara. With works in the nexus of art and technology, he focuses on computational art, generative graphics, software and color music. He researches the expressive potential of algorithms and code and has published open-source tools for different languages and frameworks. His recent works explore the simplicity and potential of fragment shaders, and the blockchain as a new tool for creative expression. Pau holds a degree in Multimedia from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and is currently pursuing a Media Arts and Technology MSc at UCSB.
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.
PhD student
diarmid (at) mat.ucsb.edu
MSc student
jhutson (at) mat.ucsb.edu
PhD student
masood (at) mat.ucsb.edu
PhD student
anzu (at) mat.ucsb.edu
MSc student
jkilgore (at) mat.ucsb.edu
I'm interested in exploring new ways of interaction in immersive mixed reality. I strive to bring an immersive theater experience in augmented reality, designed for a wide-area outdoor environment. I envision a computational world that captures the delicacy of human communication and relationships. I love to infuse joy and play into the game world I make, where community and life can transform.
Myungin Lee is a researcher designing multimodal instruments based on scientific theory, composition, signal processing and machine learning, and gestural interface. He pursues cohesive multimodal instrument design and compositions by establishing the crossmodal correspondence between different modalities including physics, audio, graphics, and interface. Currently, he is a PhD candidate affiliated with the AlloSphere Research Group at UCSB, and previously held an internship in the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) program at Nokia Bell Labs in 2020. Myungin received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electronics and Computer Engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
MSc student
yixuan (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Yixuan Li is interested in the technologies of understanding various forms of arts and presenting artworks to the mass, including data visualization, computer vision, etc. She received her BSc degree in Data Science and Technology from Fudan University in China. Besides, she has years of experience performing modern dance, Chinese classical dance, and street dance. She is currently looking for ways to combine computer technology and dance together.
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.
MSc student
rmillet (at) mat.ucsb.edu
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.).
PhD student
anshulpendse (at) mat.ucsb.edu
PhD student
reardon (at) mat.ucsb.edu
PhD student
jungah (at) mat.ucsb.edu
MSc Radiation Applied Life Science, Seoul National University. BS Electrical Engineering, Korea University.
PhD student
merttoka (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Mert received his BS degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Sabanci University, Turkey, and worked as a research assistant in Behavioral Analytics and Visualization Lab (BAVLAB) in the same institution. His primary interests include Computer Graphics, Interaction Design, Data Visualization and Physical Computing.
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.
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.
