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.

Professor Kuchera-Morin will discuss the connections between a selection of artworks with another presenter Frederick Janka, Executive Director of the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation. The selected artworks will be discussed along with the connections between them and current and upcoming artworks and projects at the Allosphere and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.

You can register for this event here: COLOR, LIGHT, MOTION episode 28.

Orchestrating AI Models for Visual Expression: Artistic and Technical Approaches for Designing and Intervening in AI-Based Image Systems

Abstract

The advent of generative AI has introduced unprecedented creative capacities in image-making, accompanied by a parallel expansion in automation. Yet, because these systems are trained on vast datasets calibrated for statistical normativity, they risk engendering a homogenization of visual culture—flattening aesthetic diversity, marginalizing visual histories, and diminishing creative complexity. Furthermore, the considerable computational resources and specialized technical competencies required for meaningful engagement with these models pose significant barriers to access and customization, further constraining their creative potential.

This dissertation explores how computational creatives can address these challenges by reclaiming agency within generative AI systems through artistic and technical interventions that involve repurposing and combining different models and designing novel computational systems. It proposes that creative authorship resides not only in the final output but also in the systems configured to produce them. Rather than treating generative AI as a fixed tool, this research approaches AI models as elements within flexible systems—comprising modular components, datasets, and workflows—that can be reconfigured based on aesthetic objectives, artistic intentions, and cultural contexts.

Grounded in a practice-led systems-oriented methodology, the research investigates three main aspects: (1) applying AI models in art projects to meet creative computational needs; (2) extending the creative affordances of AI models by designing hybrid code–AI workflows and real-time interactive experiences; and (3) mitigating the visual culture gap between AI-generated imagery and advanced photographic aesthetics through systematic model fine-tuning, feature engineering, dataset curation, and the composition of cross-model AI systems.

Through these practices, the research demonstrates how computational artists can act as orchestrators of generative AI systems—building custom datasets with AI models, combining multiple models to solve complex tasks, and designing novel interfaces to reshape the user experience—thereby shaping and diversifying aesthetic outcomes beyond the constraints of current AI image systems.

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:

news.ucsb.edu/2024/021608/immersive-ocean-health-project-premieres-ucsbs-allosphere-part-getty-pst-art

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