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NEWS & EVENTS

Past Events

2023

  • Symbiotic Architectures: Synergistic Compositions in Extended Reality, a Masters presentation by Iason Paterakis.
  • Tuesday, December 12th, 2023
    11am PST
    transLAB (Room 2615, Elings Hall) and via Zoom

    Abstract

    The coming wave of new media technologies relying on generative composition and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has introduced novel opportunities in transmodal synthesis and creative synergies within real-time composition networks. The term ‘perforated systems’ as proposed by Marcos Novak, is used to describe the collaborative systems that arise from dialogues between diversified environments operating through flowing fields of data. Such systems allow for the creation of complex artificial, physical, and hybrid environments in Extended Reality (XR) through real-time collaboration.

    This master thesis delves into the intersection of XR technologies, transmodal environments, and generative AI in speculative architectural composition, unveiling paradigms of hybrid ‘perforated systems’ in the form of interior and urban installations. These installations propose alternative environments through a fusion of tangible artifacts, olfactory, audio, and visual components, and explore the interplay between dynamic and diverse data-driven compositions in XR.

    Ranging from biodata-driven abstract worlds in Virtual Reality (VR), to Mixed Reality (MR) installations like the ‘Synaptic Time Tunnel’ presented in SIGGRAPH 2023, and AI-generated urban projection mapping performances, these endeavors fuse cutting-edge technologies with generative AI tools to achieve maximal complexity with minimal initial conditions.

    In the age of data, networks, and AI, the potential for collaboration between different fields and creators is vast and profound. The present thesis aims to demonstrate how transdisciplinary ‘perforated’ networks can generate complex and abstract compositions that emerge from simple elements and expand into Extended Reality. The objective is to harness the potential of merging "perforated systems" with AI, XR technologies, and the built environment, to foster the development of immersive and collaborative experiences that push the boundaries of worldmaking.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Prime Objects: Digital Clay and Its Modernist Origins
  • Speaker:   Jenni Sorkin

    Monday, December 4th, 2023 at 12pm noon PST in room 1605 Elings Hall and via Zoom

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    Abstract

    In looking back to Arts & Crafts predecessors, this lecture argues for a historical framework for digital ceramics.

    Bio

    Jenni Sorkin is Professor of History of Art & Architecture at University of California, Santa Barbara, and is affiliated in the Art, Feminist Studies, and History Departments. She writes on the intersections between gender, material culture, and contemporary art, working primarily on women artists and underrepresented media. Her books include: Live Form: Women, Ceramics and Community (University of Chicago, 2016), Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women Artists, 1947-2016 (Skira, 2016) and Art in California (Thames & Hudson, 2021), as well as numerous essays in journals and exhibition catalogs. She serves on the University of California Press Editorial Board, as the Co-Executive Editor of Panorama: the Association of Historians of American Art, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Modern Craft. She received her PhD in the History of Art from Yale University.

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Demining Reimagined
  • Speaker:   Anna Mansueti

    Monday, November 27th, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Benjamin Fernandez

    Abstract

    In Demining Reimagined, I explore new ways to supplement and improve humanitarian demining practices, UXO mission planning and reporting procedures, and mine action campaigning. The project consists of a booklet containing Anna’s research on this topic, stories about landmines and cluster munitions, drawings, detailed maps, and a video performance titled ‘Hazardous Fragmentation Distance(s)’.

    Bio

    Anna Mansueti is an interdisciplinary artist and designer. She completed her BA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2012, and upon graduating, commissioned in the US Navy as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer. For the following ten years, she served as a bomb technician and diver, conducting humanitarian mine action missions and multinational training operations with foreign partner forces in Europe and Southeast Asia. During her time as a Master in Design Studies (MDes) candidate at the GSD, Anna focused on the aftermath of war, unexploded ordnance and environmental degradation, and post-conflict reconciliation. She has also worked on a series of projects about veteran mental health, post-traumatic stress, gender equity, and is currently interested in new ways to supplement and improve the demining space. She is passionate about using artistic intelligence to reimagine new ways in the face of sustained periods of violence.

    www.qrcreator.com/qr/DC50F2D1

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Natural History of Networks
  • Speaker:   Ralf Baecker

    November 20th, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    After publishing his comprehensive book, Professor and artist and researcher Ralf Baecker is returning to the MAT Seminar to present his latest research and performance endeavor, Natural History of Networks in discussion with Professor Marko Peljhan and curators Daria Parkhomenko and Andreas Broeckmann.

    Bio

    Ralf Baecker (*1977 Düsseldorf, Germany) is an artist working at the interface of art, science, and technology. Through installations, autonomous machines, and performances, he explores the underlying mechanisms of new media and technology. His objects perform physical realizations of thought experiments that act as subjective epistemological objects to pose fundamental questions about the digital, technology and complex systems and their entanglements with the socio-political sphere. His projects seek to provoke new imaginaries of the machinic, the artificial and the real. A radical form of engineering that bridges traditionally discreet machine thinking with alternative technological perspectives and a new material understanding that makes use of self-organizing principles.

    Baecker has been awarded multiple prizes and grants for his artistic work, including the grand prize of the Japan Media Art Festival in 2017, an honorary mention at the Prix Ars Electronica in 2012 and 2014, the second prize at the VIDA 14.0 Art & Artificial Life Award in Madrid, a working grant of the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn, the Stiftung Niedersachsen work stipend for Media Art 2010 and the stipend of the Graduate School for the Arts from the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Einstein Foundation.

    His work has been presented in international festivals and exhibitions, such as the International Triennial of New Media Art 2014 in Beijing, Künstlerhaus Wien, ZKM | Center for Art and New Media in Karlsruhe, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, WINZAVOD Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, Laboral Centro de Arte in Gijón, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, Kasseler Kunstverein and Malmö Konsthall.

    rlfbckr.io

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • The Expressive Computation Lab led by MAT professor Jennifer Jacobs is hosting a friendship bracelet design workshop.
  • November 18th, 1-5pm
    Elings Hall room 2024

    The workshop is part of a research project aimed at investigating the application of computer-aided design in drafting Macramé friendship bracelet patterns. It will start with a short crafting session to introduce participants to the basics of making friendship bracelets, a form of Macramé textile craft, as well as common design characteristics of friendship bracelet patterns. It will then present a node-based, visual programming design system as the main digital tool for participants to use to create their very own bracelet patterns. The workship aims to combine aspects of manual textile crafting, parametric design, and visual programming.

    • No prior knowledge or experience is required.
    • Participation is free. All necessary materials will be provided.
    • You need to be at least 18 years old to participate.

    To learn more about the workshop and the work involved in the project, visit ecl.mat.ucsb.edu/events/parametricMacrame.

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  • MAT Seminar Series: Representation and Visualization of Movement to Support Data-driven Knowledge Discovery
  • Speaker:   Somayeh Dodge

    Monday, November 6th, 2023 at 1pm PDT Room 1605 Elings Hall and via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Visualization is a key element in data-driven knowledge discovery and computational movement analysis. With the widespread increase in the availability and quality of space-time data capturing movement trajectories of individuals, meaningful representations and visualization techniques are needed to map and communicate movement patterns captured in the data. Proper representation of movement patterns and their dependencies grounded on cartographic principles and intuitive visual forms can facilitate scientific discovery, decision-making, collaborations, and foster understanding of movement. Using several use cases, this presentation discusses different approaches to mapping movement in static and dynamic displays to support knowledge discovery from human and animal movement data. I will also demo DynamoVis, an open-source software developed in Java and Processing to design, record and export custom animations and multivariate visualizations from movement data, enabling visual exploration and communication of animal movement patterns.

    Bio

    Somayeh Dodge is an Associate Professor of Spatial Data Science in the UCSB Department of Geography. She received her PhD in Geography with a specialization in Geographic Information Science from the University of Zurich in 2011. She is a recipient of the 2021 NSF CAREER award, and the 2022 Emerging Scholar Award from the Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group of the American Associations of Geographers. Her research focuses on developing data analytics, knowledge discovery, modeling, and visualization techniques to study movement in human and ecological systems. Somayeh is the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Spatial Information Science, and a member of the editorial boards of multiple journals, including Geographical Analysis, and Cartography and Geographic Information Science, and the Journal of Geographical Systems.

    somayehdodge.info

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • Media Arts and Technology presents the First Thursday Event "RARE: Realities Altered Realities Emerged" at SBCAST in downtown Santa Barbara.
  • Thursday, November 2, 2023 from 6-10pm.

    The University of California, Santa Barbara's Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program is a unique graduate program that combines computer science, engineering, digital art research, electronic music, and emerging media. On November 2nd, MAT will showcase its students' cutting-edge research and new media artworks at the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology (SBCAST).

    Location: 513 Garden St, Santa Barbara
    Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
    6-10pm

    Participating Artists:

    • Devon Frost
    • Elijah Frankle
    • Erik Mondrian
    • Iason Paterakis
    • Jazer Sibley-Schwartz
    • Marcel Riccelli
    • Nefeli Manoudaki
    • Ryan Millett
    • Sabina Ahn
    • Siddharth Chattoraj
    • Stejara I. Dinulescu
    • Yifeng Yuan
    • Shaw Xiao
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    sbcast.org

  • MAT Seminar Series: Artificial Aesthetics and Other Insights?
  • Speaker:   Lev Manovich

    Monday, October 30th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Dr. Lev Manovich is a Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the founder and director of the Cultural Analytics Lab. In 2013 Manovich appeared in the List of 25 People Shaping the Future of Design (Complex). In 2014 he was included in the list of 50 most interesting people building the future (The Verge).

    Manovich played a key role in creating four new research fields: new media studies (1991-), software studies (2001-), cultural analytics (2007-) and AI aesthetics (2018-). He is the author and editor of 15 books including Artificial Aesthetics (2022), Cultural Analytics (2020), AI Aesthetics (2018), Theories of Software Culture (2017), Instagram and Contemporary Image (2017), Software Takes Command, (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Black Box - White Cube (Merve Verlag Berlin, 2005), Soft Cinema (The MIT Press, 2005), The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001), Metamediji (Belgrade, 2001), Tekstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture (Chicago University Press, 1993) as well as 180 articles which have been published in 35 countries and reprinted around 700 times. He is also one of the editors of Quantitative Methods in Humanities and Social Science book series (Springer).

    The Language of New Media is translated into 14 languages and is used a textbook in tens of thousands of programs around the world. According to the reviewers, this book offers "the first rigorous and far-reaching theorization of the subject"; "it places [new media] within the most suggestive and broad-ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan."

    Manovich was born in Moscow where he studied fine arts, architecture, and computer programming. He moved to New York in 1981, receiving an M.A. in Visual Science and Cognitive Psychology (NYU, 1988) and a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester (1993). Manovich has been working with computer media as an artist, computer animator, designer, and developer since 1984.

    His digital art projects were shown in 120 group and 12 personal exhibitions worldwide. The lab’s projects were commissioned by MoMA, New Public Library, and Google. "Selfiecity" won Golden Award in Best Visualization Project category in the global competition in 2014; "On Broadway" received Silver Award in the same category in 2015. The venues that showed his work include New York Public Library (NYPL), Google's Zeitgeist 2014, Shanghai Art and Architecture Biennale, Chelsea Art Museum (New York), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, US), KIASMA (Helsinki, Finland), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), ICA (London, UK), and Graphic Design Museum (Breda, The Netherlands).

    In 2007 Manovich founded Software Studies Initiative (renamed Cultural Analytics Lab in 2016.) The lab pioneered computational analysis and visualization of massive cultural visual datasets in the humanities. The lab's collaborators included the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, Getty Research Institute, Austrian Film Museum, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Image, and other institutions that are interested in using its methods and software with their media collections. Since 2012 and 2016, Manovich directed a number of projects that present an analysis of 16 million Instagram images shared worldwide.

    He received grants and fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, US National Science Foundation, US National Endowment for the Arts (NEH), Twitter, and many other agencies.

    Between 1996 and 2012, Manovich was a Professor in Visual Arts Department at University of California San Diego (UCSD) where he was teaching classes in digital art, new media theory, and digital humanities. In addition, Manovich was a visiting professor at California Institute of the Arts, The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Amsterdam, Stockholm University, University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Hong Kong Art Center, University of Siegen, Gothenburg School of Art, Goldsmiths College at the University of London, De Montfort University in Leicester, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, The University of Tyumen, Tel Aviv University and Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Shanghai. Between 2009 and 2017, he was a faculty at European Graduate School (EGS). He was also the core faculty member at The Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture, and Design, Moscow (2016-2019) and a visiting faculty in School of Cultural Studies and Philosophy, Higher School of Economics, (Moscow, Russia (2020 - 2021).

    Manovich is in demand to lecture on his research topics around the world. Since 1999 he presented over 750 invited lectures, keynotes, seminars, and master classes in North and South America, Asia, and Europe.

    Topical writings: manovich.net

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Can Computers Create Art?
  • Speaker:   Aaron Hertzmann

    Monday, October 23rd, 2023 at 1pm PDT. Room 1605 Elings Hall and via Zoom.

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    Aaron Hertzmann is a Principal Scientist at Adobe, and Affiliate Faculty at University of Washington. He received a BA in computer science and art/art history from Rice University in 1996, and a PhD in computer science from New York University in 2001. He was a Professor at University of Toronto for 10 years, and has also worked at Pixar Animation Studios and Microsoft Research. He has published over 100 papers in computer graphics, computer vision, machine learning, robotics, human-computer interaction, visual perception, and art. He is an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow.

    research.adobe.com/person/aaron-hertzmann

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • Sound Synthesis by Computer: Models for the Interaction of the Player with Strings, a lecture by professor Gianpaolo Evangelista.
  • Thursday, October 19th, 2023 at 5pm. Room 387-1015.

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    Abstract

    Models for the interaction of the player with the instrument are fundamental to the accurate synthesis of sound based on physically inspired models. Depending on the musical instrument, the palette of possible interactions is generally very broad and includes the coupling of body parts, mechanical objects and/or devices with various components of the instrument. In this talk we focus on the interaction of the player with strings, whose simulation requires accurate models of the fingers, dynamic models of the bow, of the plectrum and of the friction of objects such as bottle necks. We also consider collisions and imperfect pressure on the fingerboard as important side effects and playing styles. Our models do not depend on the specific numerical implementation but are simply illustrated in the digital waveguide scheme.

    Gianpaolo Evangelista is professor of Music Informatics at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria. Previously he was professor of Sound Technology at Linköping University, Sweden, researcher and assistant professor at the University “Federico II” of Naples, Italy and adjunct professor at the Polytechnic of Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He received the Laurea in Physics from the University “Federico II” of Naples and the Master and PhD in Electrical and Computing Engineering from the University of California Irvine. He has collaborated with several musicians among including Iannis Xenakis (Paris) and Curtis Roads. His interests are in all applications of Signal Processing, Physics and Mathematics to Sound and Music, particularly for the analysis, synthesis, special effects and the separation of sound sources.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Participatory vs Extractive Filming.
  • Speaker:   Lydia Zimmermann

    Monday, October 16th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Bio

    Lydia Zimmermann (Barcelona, 1966) has written and directed fiction films, TV movies, documentaries, video art and produced filmic installations. She has taught filmmaking at universities and NGOs. She has filmed in Spain, Australia, Mexico, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Colombia, combining humanitarian and teaching work. She has participated in the creation of Cine Institute, a school for young Haitian filmmakers (2011-2015), taught workshops at the Gambidi acting school in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2017-2018), and supported the creation of the indigenous media collective Ñambi Rimai (2018-201).

    In her filmography, she explores the hybrid combination of genres and acting naturalism. She currently lives between Zurich and Barcelona and is writing her next fiction film, a co-production between Eddie Saeta (SP) and Tilt Production (CH).

    www.lydiazimmermann.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Art+DIY Electronics - lecture and book presentation.
  • Speaker:   Garnet Hertz

    Monday, October 9th, 2023 at 1pm PDT.

    Room 1605 Elings Hall and via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Author of "Art + DIY Electronics" (MIT Press, 2023). A systematic theory of DIY electronic culture, drawn from a century of artists who have independently built creative technologies.

    Since the rise of Arduino and 3D printing in the mid-2000s, do-it-yourself approaches to the creative exploration of technology have surged in popularity. But the maker movement is not new: it is a historically significant practice in contemporary art and design. This book documents, tracks, and identifies a hundred years of innovative DIY technology practices, illustrating how the maker movement is a continuation of a long-standing creative electronic subculture. Through this comprehensive exploration, Garnet Hertz develops a theory and language of creative DIY electronics, drawing from diverse examples of contemporary art, including work from renowned electronic artists such as Nam June Paik and such art collectives as Survival Research Laboratories and the Barbie Liberation Organization.

    Hertz uncovers the defining elements of electronic DIY culture, which often works with limited resources to bring new life to obsolete objects while engaging in a critical dialogue with consumer capitalism. Whether hacking blackboxed technologies or deploying culture jamming techniques to critique commercial labor practices or gender norms, the artists have found creative ways to make personal and political statements through creative technologies. The wide range of innovative works and practices profiled in Art + DIY Electronics form a general framework for DIY culture and help inspire readers to get creative with their own adaptations, fabrications, and reimaginations of everyday technologies.

    Bio

    Garnet Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts, and is Associate Professor of Design at Emily Carr University. His art and research investigates DIY culture, electronic art and critical design practices. He has exhibited in 18 countries in venues including SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, and DEAF and has won top international awards for his work, including the Oscar Signorini Award in robotic art, a Fulbright award, and Best Paper Award at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). He has worked as Faculty at Art Center College of Design and as Research Scientist at the University of California Irvine. His research is widely cited in academic publications, and popular press on his work has disseminated through 25 countries including in publications like The New York Times, Wired, The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, NBC, CBS, TV Tokyo and CNN Headline News.

    conceptlab.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Leading AI researcher Mustafa Suleyman will be the guest lecturer for THEMAS 80TH on October 5th, 2023 at 2pm.
  • Suleyman will also give a lecture for the UCSB Arts and Lectures series in Campbell Hall on October 5th, 2023 at 7:30pm.

    artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/events-tickets/events/23-24/mustafa-suleyman

    Mustafa Suleyman CBE is a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur who is the co-founder and former head of applied AI at DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company acquired by Google and now owned by Alphabet. He is currently the CEO of Inflection AI, and author of the book "The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century's Greatest Dilemma."

    Suleyman recently was recently interviewed on MSNBC, and discussed the future of AI and it's impact on humanity.

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  • MAT Seminar Series: A Luddite's Guide to Cybernetics.
  • Speaker:   Michael Candy

    Monday, October 2nd, 2023 at 1pm PDT.

    Room 1605 Elings Hall and via Zoom.

    Bio

    Michael Candy is an artist whose work reflects the socio-political currents of contemporary technologies. Acting as a witness to the nature of cybernetics and digital culture, Candy positions the viewer in a physical and moral confrontation with issues challenging post-industrial society.

    His installations, sculpture, and video works often emerge as social experiments or ecological interventions in public space. This didactic practice is fuelled by the accelerated development of emerging technologies, creating work in immediate dialogue with new systems, theories, hardware and software.

    Candy has been involved in many international exhibitions and residencies, notably: Water, (GOMA, Brisbane), Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, (AGSA, Adelaide), Ars Electronica Festival, (Linz, Austria), The Kathmandu Triennale (Kathmandu, Nepal), The Forum of Sensory Motion (Athens, Greece), The Instrument Builders Project + Hackteria Lab (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), and Hawapi (Huepetuhe, Peru).

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    https://michaelcandy.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • Emerging Ecosystems: Transmodal Sensory Experiences in Immersive Environments, a Masters presentation by Nefeli Manoudaki.
  • Thursday, September 21st, 2023
    1pm PDT
    transLAB (Room 2615, Elings Hall) and via Zoom

    Abstract

    This master's project thesis delves into the dynamic intersection of human sensory perception, computational media, environmental design, and emerging technologies. Within this comprehensive inquiry, my contributions span several interconnected team projects. Notably, 'Hydnum' delves into the synthesis of olfactory stimuli and emotional states within the immersive realm of extended reality. 'Echoes' explores the enigmatic liminal space between perception and meaning, while 'Synaptic Time Tunnel' pays tribute to the evolutionary trajectory of computer graphics by delving into synaptic interconnections.

    As my exploration unfolded, it became evident that each project built upon the lessons of the previous one, progressing from 'Hydnum,' a low-level interactive network translated into tangible forms, to 'Echoes,' an intermediate project that translates networks into both tangible artifacts and virtual environments with medium interactivity, and ultimately to 'Synaptic Time Tunnel,' where the focus shifts to a fully immersive virtual network experience with high-level interactivity.

    These pivotal projects stand as the embodiment of my extensive explorations within the realm of worldmaking in Extended Reality (XR), the expressions of transmodal data in various formats, and the intricate nuances of interaction design. To delve into specifics, in Hydnum, my primary contribution revolves around the procedural design of physical and digital structures that emerge from biodata, with a particular emphasis on the role of olfactory stimuli in shaping spatial presence. In ‘Echoes’, my central involvement centers on the translation of biodata into an olfactory glass artifact. Lastly, in the case of ‘Synaptic Time Tunnel’, my contribution takes the form of an immersive interconnected system, serving as an expressive medium that bridges the gap between data and interaction.

    In essence, the unwavering goal is to create innovative, immersive experiences that connect users with the natural world and explore its intricate traces, guided by the profound principles of morphology and cognition.

  • Emotion-aware Creativity Tools: Research on Emotions and Painting Through Creativity Tools with an Interactional Approach, a PhD dissertation defense by Jungah Son.
  • Wednesday September 20th, 2023
    3pm PDT
    Experimental Visualization lab (Room 2611, Elings Hall) and via Zoom

    Abstract

    In affective computing, there exist various interactive systems allowing users to easily express their emotion by adapting in real time to reflect the perceived emotional state of the viewer. For instance, “empathic painting” created by Maria Shugrina is a painter-rendering system that automatically creates digital paintings with parameterized painting features. The system can estimate the viewer’s purposefully displayed emotional state through facial expression recognition. However, almost no attempt has been made to provide materials for a painting application to allow users to easily express their emotions in their works. As artists use formal elements such as forms and colors to express desired emotions, we need tools that help the users to add emotional conditions for these elements while creating paintings.

    Through the introduction of emotion-based brushes, the following research question was explored: how do we incorporate emotions into drawing/painting tools and enable users to control expression through the use of these tools? Especially since an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment is more effective in producing emotions than less-immersive displays, the application has been designed in the immersive VR environment. This dissertation examines how the incorporation of emotions into a VR painting application with a provided range of formal elements affects awareness and expression of human emotions and presents two contributions: design of prototype drawing/painting applications for incorporating emotion with an interactional approach, and an analysis of user evaluation results.

  • Coherent Digital Multimodal Instrument Design and the Evaluation of Crossmodal Correspondence, a PhD dissertation defense by Myungin Lee.
  • Monday, August 14th, 2023
    1pm PDT via Zoom

    Abstract

    The rapid development of the current availability of advanced hardware and software is opening up new opportunities for digital creation every day. This circumstance provides great freedom for new artistic expressions with advanced audio, graphics, interface, and algorithms including machine learning. However, while our nature is multimodal, these modalities in the digital domain are genuinely separate, and the computational platform allows innumerable varieties of linkages among them. For this reason, the holistic multimodal experience is highly dependent on the design and connection of different modalities. This dissertation desires to explain the properties of coherent digital multimodal instruments and discuss their creative opportunity from the aspect of the process of music composition and performance. The chapters introduce the related projects with their design process demonstrating the role of crossmodal correspondence in scientific simulation and propose a numerical method to evaluate the crossmodal correspondences using the correlation coefficient between the modalities. This dissertation aims to contribute to reorganizing the design process of multimodal instruments beyond the old and recent customs.

  • Augmenting Real-World Haptic Interactions, a PhD dissertation defense by Anzu Kawazoe.
  • Monday June 26th, 2023 at 3pm PDT.
    In-person location TBD and via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Future haptic augmented reality systems could transform our interactions within many environments by furnishing haptic feedback that augments touch interactions with physical objects. However, most prior haptic technologies involve controllers, wearables, or devices that either impede free-hand interactions or make it impossible to directly touch physical objects with the skin. This Ph.D. presents several haptic design approaches and findings that can overcome these limitations, and that provide new methods for augmenting free-hand interactions with physical objects. The first part of the Ph.D. presents a new haptic augmented reality system for the hand. It introduces Tactile Echoes, a finger-wearable system that provides responsive haptic feedback that augments touch interactions with physical surfaces. It renders these effects by capturing touch-elicited vibrations in the skin and processing them in real time in order to enliven tactile experiences. Using computational and spatial tracking techniques, different haptic effects may be spatially painted onto different objects or surfaces. This chapter presents experiments characterizing how these novel haptic effects are perceived, demonstrations of several applications, and a user study showing how they can enhance augmented or mixed reality applications.

    The second part of this Ph.D. was motivated by observations obtained using Tactile Echoes that indicate that the perceived strength of haptic feedback increases when it is supplied tens of milliseconds after a touch event. This observation is consistent with findings from prior perception research on tactile forward masking. However, prior studies of forward masking have been confined to passive conditions rather than active touch, as occurs in Tactile Echoes. This chapter presents research revealing prominent modulatory effects of the timing, amplitude, and perceptual similarity between the feedback and the transient skin oscillations elicited via touch contact. Forward masking produced a greater attenuation of the perceived intensity of feedback as delay time decreased, with the maximum attenuation reaching nearly 10 dB. These findings shed light on the interplay between perception and action in the haptic system and have important implications for the design of haptic interfaces.

    The third part of this Ph.D. presents another method for augmenting touch interactions that exploit mechanical wave propagation in the skin. This method, called Beatactile, involves supplying vibrations on the finger and on the surface with slightly different frequencies. When a surface is touched, the two vibration sources interfere, producing beat frequencies between vibrations in the finger that cause a flat surface to feel coarsely textured. The BeaTactile hardware and software system enables parametric control over these novel effects.

    The final part of this Ph.D. concerns thermal augmentations of touch interactions, based on the thermal grill illusion. It presents a newly developed thermal grill haptic interface that exploits juxtaposed warm and cool areas to render surprisingly intense thermal sensations. The results revealed perceived intensity to increase, and response time to decrease, monotonically with temperature differences. An augmented reality demonstration highlights potential applications of this technique haptic design and engineering. This research contributes to knowledge about thermal perception and suggests new design approaches for thermal interfaces.

    www.re-touch-lab.com

  • "Developing Audio Plugins, a Masters presentation by Nathan Blair.
  • Thursday, June 15, 2023, 2-4pm PDT.
    MAT Conference Room, Elings Hall, room 2003 and via Zoom.

    Abstract

    Since the beginning of 2022 I have developed four audio plugins using the C++ framework JUCE. In doing so, I accumulated various strategies for enhancing the dependability and efficiency of my programs; for example, I learned to avoid memory allocation in the audio thread, refuse third party libraries, and refrain from invoking system calls. However, I also discovered specific circumstances where each of these principles was no longer desirable. Rather than relying on rules of thumb and general guidelines, I sought to develop a set of first principles for developing production-level audio software.

    I argue that many good audio programming practices can be derived from the following fact: audio plugins are multi-threaded programs subject to a firm real-time constraint. With this framing in mind, I present The Template Plugin: a starting point for new plugin projects that integrates the best practices and creative solutions I have implemented in my own work. I justify the design of The Template Plugin by discussing effective strategies for thread synchronization, optimization, program state management, user interfaces, and build systems within the context of multi-threaded and real-time applications.

  • "Equivalence: An analysis of artists’ roles collaborating with Image Generative AI from the perspective of Conceptual Art through an interactive installation design practice, a Masters presentation by Yixuan Li.
  • Thursday, June 15, 2023, 10:30am - 12pm PDT
    Experimental Visualization Lab (Room 2611, Elings Hall) and via Zoom.

    Abstract

    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.

  • "GDJ: A Tempo Synchronized Granulator, a Masters presentation by Jack Kilgore.
  • Wednesday, June 14th, 2023, 3pm PDT.
    MAT Conference Room, Elings Hall, room 2003.

    Abstract

    Music technology has opened up possibilities for highly sophisticated sound design and composition. Composers are able to build temporally dense and sonically eclectic phrases that are not feasible for humans to play in real time. How do we blend the world of offline, complex composition and performance? I look towards the paradigm of a DJ, where one becomes an expert at taking composed, static (typically grid-based) music and recontextualizing it in a live setting via chopping, filtering, remixing, etc. This idea can be taken a step further through deconstructing composed music via granulation. My contribution is the GDJ (Granular DJ); a granular synthesis tool with guard rails to keep sonic output on tempo, allowing for the liquid sound design associated with granulation while constraining it to a grid used in popular songwriting and dance music. The GDJ leverages the granular tool kit to completely transform source material, while also using systems of staying in time and key, as seen in DJ workflows, to keep the tool constrained enough for solo or multi-performer contexts. GDJ is written in Max/MSP and is currently being used in a live performance system with the author and friend.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Descripting the Ecological Systems Diagram: Enclosed Life Support at Biosphere 2, 1991-1993.
  • Speaker:   Meredith Sattler

    Monday, June 5th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Systems diagrams are powerful tools that may be employed in a multitude of ways to understand and actualize complex phenomena. But like their cousins, algorithms, their scripts contain concealed biases, often in the form of feedback loop logics that can evolve into circumstances and/or entities that catch their authors off guard. This research examines how the “Economic System of B2” diagram translated the Biospherians’ rarefied synthetic environmental epistemology into a mini-Anthropocene ontology, acted as a ‘Rosetta Stone’ that facilitated interdisciplinary and quantitative design processes, produced the tightest building envelope ever constructed at its scale, and ultimately scripted the life-support generating performances of the crews inside Biosphere 2’s [B2] enclosure missions. It draws parallels between the Biospherians’ “Human Experiment” design approaches, heavily informed by their training as environmental managers, explorers, and Thespians, and their performances within B2, which increasingly manifest through tensions between the technocratic tendencies of their ‘scripted’ and ‘rehearsed’ biogeochemical molecular economy, and the emergent circumstances that necessitated their ‘off-script’ ‘improvisations.’ Ultimately, I argue that Art, Engineering, and Life reconfigured within B2 in surprising ways, which may reveal and forecast our own performances within the increasingly circular and accelerating evolution of the Anthropocene.

    Bio

    Meredith Sattler is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a PhD candidate in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, and a LEED BD+C. Her current research and teaching interests include conceptualizations of dynamic sustainable architectural systems in historic and current contexts; interdisciplinary structure and practice within functional territories between design and the ecological sciences; and the designer’s influence on the health of natural environment-technology-human interactions. She is founder and lead designer of cambioform, a furniture and environmental design studio, received the Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship at the Norfolk Yale Summer School of Art, and has exhibited and published internationally. She holds Masters of Architecture and Masters of Environmental Management degrees from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College.

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    meredith-sattler.net

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • "Punchprint: Creating Craft Artifacts by Integrating Punch Needle Embroidery and 3D Printing, a Masters presentation by Ashley Del Valle.
  • Wednesday, May 31st, 2023
    10:30am PDT via Zoom

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    Abstract

    New printing strategies have enabled 3D-printed materials that imitate traditional textiles. These filament-based textiles are easy to fabricate but lack the look and feel of fiber textiles. I seek to augment 3D-printed textiles with needlecraft to produce composite materials that integrate the programmability of additive fabrication with the richness of traditional textile craft. I present PunchPrint: a technique for integrating fiber and filament in a textile by combining punch needle embroidery and 3D printing. Using a toolpath that imitates textile weave structure, we print a flexible fabric that provides a substrate for punch needle production. I integrate our technique into a parametric design tool and produce functional artifacts that show how PunchPrint broadens punch needle craft by reducing labor in small, detailed artifacts, enabling the integration of openings and multiple yarn weights, and scaffolding soft 3D structures.

  • The AlloSphere Research Group presents "The Man in the Mangroves Counts to Sleep", a thirteen minute 3D digital surround-sound opera novella based on the poem of the same name, by composer James A. Moorer. Wednesday, May 31, 2023, starting at 6pm in the UCSB AlloSphere Research Facility.
  • Wednesday, May 31, 2023

    6pm in the UCSB AlloSphere Research Facility

    This thirteen-minute digital surround-sound performance composed by James A. Moorer, a renowned composer, former Vice President of research and development at Lucasfilms Droid works and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science Award winner. The librettist of this production, Donna Decker, is the gifted writer of the sound poem Man in the Mangroves. The producer of this production, Ralph Guggenheim, has decades of experience in the entertainment industry, and is the founder of PIXAR.

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  • MAT Seminar Series: Adjustments
  • Speaker:   Emily White

    Monday, May 22nd, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Some contemporary thinkers argue that the image is supplanting the drawing as the currency of contemporary architectural practice. This is not just a theoretical position; as we are all well aware, it is possible to envision, detail, and build buildings from information extracted from digital models presented as pictures on a computer screen. But even as an architecture of digital objects and images is increasingly possible, there has been a recent resurgence of enthusiasm for drawing, and specifically for techniques of projection, in late 20th century and contemporary discourse. This talk is about drawing practices and how real and imagined material characteristics continue to inform architectural work- drawn, built, and modeled.

    Bio

    Emily White is an artist and architect who works with materials ranging from foam to inflatables to sheet metal. She has exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Materials & Applications and has a permanent project installed in the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. She teaches design studios in Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She has a MARCH from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University.

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    emilywhiteprojects.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Generative AI Image Synthesis
  • Speaker:   George Legrady

    Monday, May 15th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    This presentation will report on a selection of projects realized in a class exploring generative AI image synthesis in the fall of 2022 as softwares such as Dalle-2, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion began to circulate within the image-making communities. The presentation will introduce the concept of the course, and follow with student work.

    Bio

    George Legrady is Distinguished Professor in the Media Arts & Technology PhD program at UC Santa Barbara where he directs the Experimental Visualization Lab. His research, pedagogy and artistic practice address the impact of computation on the veracity of data, specifically the photographic image. A pioneer in the field of digital media arts with an emphasis on digital photography, data visualization, interactive installation, machine-learning and natural language processing, his projects and research have been presented internationally in fine art digital media arts installations, engineering conferences and public commissions.

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    vislab.mat.ucsb.edu

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Seeking the Sublime: Transforming Data into Resonate Experiences
  • Speaker:   Rebecca Ruige Xu

    Monday, May 8th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    The sublime, a long-sought artistic ideal, embodies grandeur that inspires awe and evokes deep emotional or intellectual responses. How do artists today employ data as a primary material to achieve this elusive quality while creating work that is both enigmatic and captivating? Additionally, how can they craft art experiences that resonate with audiences? By discussing a few of her recent projects, Rebecca Xu shares her exploration and insights on this subject, shedding light on how data-driven art pieces challenge traditional conventions of artistic expression and reshape the quest of the sublime in our digital era.

    Bio

    Rebecca Ruige Xu teaches computer art as a Professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Her research interests include artistic data visualization, experimental animation, visual music, interactive installations, digital performance, and virtual reality. Xu’s work has appeared at many international venues, including IEEE VIS Arts Program; SIGGRAPH & SIGGRAPH Asia Art Gallery; ISEA; Ars Electronica; Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy; Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, etc. Xu is the co-founder of China VIS Arts Program. Currently, she serves as the Chair of ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Committee and IEEE VIS’23 Arts Program Co-Chair.

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    rebeccaxu.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Communion and Cohabitation
  • Speaker:   Robert Twomey

    Monday, May 1st, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Recent advances in generative and perceptive AI have radically expanded the breadth, scope, and sophistication of human-machine interactions. Whether through creative co-production, confessional communion, or quantified selves under machine observation—we have invited ML systems to participate in our innermost spaces. In this talk I discuss my research into machine cohabitation, exploring the ways that we share space with these technological others. Spanning smart environments, robotic automation, data science, and real-time performance, my projects explore emergent technological possibilities while centering human dynamics of the interactions. Are these acts of high tech ventriloquism, psychological self-stimulation, mediumistic extensions of a creative unconscious, or collaborations with computational others? However we decide these questions of autonomy and agency, the value of these systems lie in what they reveal about human imagination and desire.

    Bio

    Robert Twomey is an artist and engineer exploring the complex ways we live, work, and learn with machines. Particularly, how emerging technologies impact sites of intimate life: what relationships we engender with machines, what data and algorithms drive these interactions, and how we can foster a critical orientation in developing these possibilities. He addresses these questions through the Machine Cohabitation Lab (cohab-lab.net), as an Assistant Professor at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

    Twomey has presented his work at SIGGRAPH (Best Paper Award), CVPR, ISEA, NeurIPS, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the California Arts Council, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, and HP. He received his BS from Yale with majors in Art and Biomedical Engineering, his MFA in Visual Arts from UC San Diego, and his Ph.D. in Digital Arts and Experimental Media from the University of Washington. He is an artist in residence with the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego.

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    roberttwomey.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Generative Art and Deep Learning AI
  • Speaker:   Nettie Gaskins

    Monday, April 24th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Dr. Gaskins will discuss generative art and artificial intelligence or AI art, which are forms of art created using algorithms, mathematical equations, or computer programs to generate images, sounds, animations, or other artistic creations. Generative art can be seen as a collaboration between the artist and the machine, where the artist sets the framework, and the machine creates the artwork within those constraints.

    Bio

    Dr. Nettrice Gaskins earned a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. She received a doctorate in Digital Media from Georgia Tech in 2014. Currently, Dr. Gaskins is a 2021 Ford Global Fellow and the assistant director of the Lesley STEAM Learning Lab at Lesley University. Her first full-length book, Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation is available through The MIT Press. Gaskins' AI-generated artworks can be viewed in journals, magazines, museums, and on the Web.

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    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: The Origin and Future of Life
  • Speaker:   Bruce Damer

    Monday, April 17th, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    How did life begin on the Earth approximately four billion years ago and how might it get started elsewhere in the universe? New science over the past decade suggests that life on Earth started not deep in the oceans but on land, in a 21st Century version of what Charles Darwin originally proposed: a "warm little pond." Our modern setting is a hot spring pool subject to regular cycles of wetting and drying. Feeding this pool is a mix of copious inputs of organics cooking up a proper "primordial soup" to stir populations of protocells into a living matrix of microbes. Can this scenario of our deepest ancestry inform us about the nature of life itself and provide insight into us humans, our technology and our civilizational future? This talk by Dr. Bruce Damer will take us on an end-to-end journey from the first flimsy proto-biological sphere to a possible future for the Earth's biosphere as it extends out into the cosmos.

    Bio

    Dr. Bruce Damer is Chief Scientist of the BIOTA Institute and a researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering, UC Santa Cruz. His career spans four decades including pioneering work on early human-computer interfaces in the 1980s, virtual worlds and avatars in the 1990s, space mission design for NASA in the 2000s, and developing chemical and combinatorial scenarios for the origin of life since 2010.

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    biota.org

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Independent Community Rooted Research?
  • Speaker:   Timnit Bebru

    Monday, April 10, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    The Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) was launched on December 2, 2021, by Timnit Gebru as a space for independent, interdisciplinary community-rooted AI research, free from Big Tech’s pervasive influence. The institute recently celebrated its 1 year anniversary. Timnit Gebru will discuss DAIR's research philosophy consisting of the following principles: community, trust and time, knowledge production, redistribution, accountability, interrogating power, and imagination. She will discuss the incentive structures that make it difficult to perform ethical AI research and give examples of works at DAIR, hoping to forge a different path.

    Bio

    Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Prior to that, she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. She received her PhD. from Stanford University and did a postdoc at Microsoft Research, New York City, in the FATE (Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics in AI) group, where she studied algorithmic bias and the ethical implications underlying projects aiming to gain insights from data.

    Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian high school students, free of charge.

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Sensing the Unseen: How Do We Document and Experience Vanishing Worlds in the Digital Age?
  • Speaker:   Jakob Kudsk Steensen

    Monday, April 3, 2023 at 1pm PDT via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Ecosystems are disappearing, but so are our ways of sensing, performing, singing, and expressing ourselves in relation to them. Artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen digitizes vanishing natural environments in collaboration with scientists, authors, artists, performers, and researchers as a way to rejuvenate lost sensibilities toward specific ecosystems. His artworks use advanced technology to create hyper-sensory recreations of natural environments, featuring real-time interactive technologies as a new spatial language for connecting and collaborating.

    Bio

    Jakob Kudsk Steensen (B. 1987, Denmark) is an artist working with environmental storytelling through 3d animation, sound and immersive installations. He creates poetic interpretations about overlooked natural phenomena through collaborations with field biologists, composers and writers. Jakob has recently exhibited with his major solo exhibition “Berl-Berl” in Berlin at Halle am Berghain, commissioned by LAS, and at Luma Arles with “Liminal Lands” for the “Prelude” exhibition. He was a finalist for the Future Generation Art Prize at the 2019 Venice Biennale. He received the Serpentine Augmented Architecture commission in 2019 to create his work The Deep Listener with Google Arts and Culture. He is the recipient of the best VR graphics for RE-ANIMATED (2019) at the Cinequest Festival for Technology and Cinema, the Prix du Jury (2019) at Les Rencontres Arles, the Webby Award - People’s Choice VR (2018), and the Games for Change Award - Most Innovative (2018), among others.

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    www.jakobsteensen.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • "Formalized Harmony", a Masters presentation by Pau Roselló Diaz.
  • Thursday, March 16th, 2023 at 1:30pm PT
    transLAB (room 2615) Elings Hall

    Abstract

    The progress in electronic and computer sciences has transformed music, introducing new techniques and tools that have completely impacted the way we compose, perform, and distribute music. As creators and consumers, our experience with music has been shaped by these new technologies, resulting in a rapid evolution of the art form.

    However, Western music theory has remained largely unchanged, with technology settling into the current system and formalizing its rules in each protocol and platform developed. Since Western music, and specifically its harmonic rules, were developed in a technological context that has since changed, it stands to reason that the theory should evolve as well. Several artists have expanded their artistic practice by exploring new systems, such as serialism, stochastic music, and microtonality. Composers such as Xenakis, Partch, Johnston, and Tenney have laid the foundation for a new computational system in music.

    My goal is to organize and codify the principles and rules of harmony into a systematic and recognizable form that reflects the evolution of music and its relationship with technology. To address this issue, I propose a new theory for music harmony that offers a common mathematical formalization for harmonic structures in any tuning system. My proposal is based on the results of a music perception study that examines the relationship between mathematical structures and our perception of harmony.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Machine Learning for Composition.
  • Speaker:   Gina Collecchia

    Monday, March 13th, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    The opportunities for machine learning to intersect with music are vast, with many ways to approach the transcription of polyphonic music. So what can—and should--artificial intelligence do with the transcription itself? In this talk, I will give a broad overview of some of the software libraries available to retrieve information from music, and we will speculate together on how machine learning might be able to aide music composition.

    Bio

    Gina Collecchia is an audio scientist specializing in music information retrieval, room acoustics, and spatial audio. She has worked as a software engineer at SoundHound, Jaunt VR, Apple, and most recently, Splice. She holds her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Reed College, and a masters in music technology from Stanford University. Her senior thesis at Reed entitled The Entropy of Music Classification would lead to the publication of the book Numbers and Notes: An Introduction to Music Technology in 2012 by PSI Press, founded in 2009 by the physicist Richard Crandall. Though once a happy and enduring dweller of the Bay Area, she now lives in Brooklyn.

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    http://ginacollecchia.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Chasing Shadows in the Night: How NASA's Kepler and TESS Missions Are Revolutionizing Exoplanet Science.
  • Speaker:   Jon Jenkins

    Monday, February 27th, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    The first planet outside our own solar system was discovered almost thirty years ago in an extremely unlikely place, orbiting a pulsar, and the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star was discovered nearly 26 years ago. In the time since, we’ve detected over 5000 planets and over 75% of these have been detected by transit surveys. The Kepler Mission, launched in 2009, has found the lion’s share of these exoplanets (>3200), and demonstrated that each star in the night sky has, on average, at least one planet. Kepler’s success spurred NASA and ESA to select several exoplanet-themed missions to move the field of exoplanet science forward from discovery to characterization: How do these planets form and evolve? What is the structure and composition of the atmospheres and interiors of these planets? Can we detect biomarkers in the atmospheres of these planets and learn the answer to the fundamental question, are we alone? NASA selected the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2014 to conduct a nearly all-sky survey for transiting planets with the goal of identifying at least 50 small planets (<4 Rearth) with measured masses that can be followed up by large telescopic assets, such as the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. TESS has discovered 285 exoplanets so far, 104 of which are smaller than 2.5 REarth with measured masses. In this talk I will describe how we detect weak transit signatures in noisy but beautiful transit survey data sets and present some of the most compelling discoveries made so far by Kepler and TESS.

    Bio

    Jon Jenkins is a research scientist and project manager at NASA Ames Research Center in the Advanced Supercomputing Division where he conducts research on data processing and detection algorithms for discovering transiting extrasolar planets. He is the co-investigator for data processing for the Kepler Mission, and for NASA’s TESS Mission, launched in 2018 to identify Earth’s nearest neighbors for follow-up and characterization. Dr. Jenkins led the design, development, and operations of the science data pipelines for both Kepler and TESS. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics, a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

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    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Interactive Audio and MetaSounds in UnReal Engine 5.
  • Speakers:   MAT alumni Aaron McLeran and Phillip Popp

    Monday, February 13th, 2023 at 1pm PST. Elings Hall, room 2611 (Experimental Visualization Lab) and via Zoom.

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    Abstract

    Game audio is one of the most complex audio applications incorporating audio DSP, spatial and physical modeling, linear audio production and interactive sound design. The next generation of game audio engines offer a unique tool capable of creating distributable works of interactive audio alongside state-of-the-art animation, physics, visual effects, and graphics pipelines. In this talk we will explore the expressiveness of game audio engines and consider the problems they were designed to solve. We will also dive into MetaSound, a next generation interactive DSP graph tool for game audio. We will discuss its design including directed acyclic flow graphs, sample accurate timing, flexible subgraph composition and low latency interactivity from a perspective of computational performance and usability.

    Aaron McLeran Bio

    Aaron McLeran is a 2009 alumnus from MAT (2009) and has more background in physics and music. He was a sound designer and composer in video games before becoming an audio programmer. He's now the Director of the Audio Engine at Epic Games working on Unreal Engine 5. He's worked on game audio for Spore, Dead Space, Call of Duty, Guild Wars 2, Paragon, and Fortnite, as well as all of Epic's tech demos and many special projects since 2014.

    Phillip Popp Bio

    Phillip Popp works in the nexus of audio tools, DSP and machine learning. He has over a decade of professional experience researching and developing a wide variety of audio analysis, machine learning, personalization and real-time synthesis technologies. As a Principal Audio Programmer at Epic Games he advances the state-of-the-art in game audio by building flexible, expressive and performant tools to power the next generation of interactive audio experiences.

    www.unrealengine.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Once More, with Feeling: Feminist Frameworks for Biofeedback Music.
  • Speaker:   Erin Gee

    Monday, February 6th, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    Since the 1960s, composers have used technology to interrupt, amplify, and distort the relationship between music and its psychosomatic perception, seemingly dissolving Cartesian dualisms between mind/body while ushering in a new era of musical experience. At the borders of "new music" and "electronic music,” biofeedback music is often articulated through futurist, cybernetic, and cyborg theory. I argue that the revolutionary promise of biofeedback music is compromised by its situatedness in traditional systems of value typical to European art music, in which patriarchal, humanist, and colonial bias quietly dominate the technological imaginary through metaphor.

    In this presentation I contextualize biofeedback music history through the work of feminist musicologists and art historians, and also share examples of my own work in affective biofeedback: the development of low-cost and accessible open-source technologies, as well as the development of performance methods influenced by hypnosis, ASMR, and method acting as applied to choral music, robotic instruments, and VR interfaces.

    Articulating biofeedback composition through principles of emotional reproduction and emotional labor, I emphasize wetware technologies (body hacking, social connection, empathetic and affective indeterminacy, and psychosomatic performance practice) as crucial compliments to biofeedback hardware and software.

    Bio

    Canadian performance artist and composer Erin Gee ( TIO’TIA:KE – MONTREAL) takes inspiration from her experience as a vocalist and applies it to poetic and sensorial technologies, likening the vibration of vocal folds to electricity and data across systems, or vibrations across matter. Gee is a DIY expert in affective biofeedback, highlighting concepts like emotional labor, emotional measurement, emotional performance, and emotional reproduction in her work that spans artificial intelligence technology, vocal and electronic music, VR, networked performance, and robotics. Gee’s work has been featured in museums, new media art festivals, and music concert halls alike. She is currently a Social Studies and Humanities Research Council Canada Graduate Scholar at Université de Montréal, where she researches feminist methods for biofeedback music.

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    Presence (2020) by Erin Gee and Jen Kutler.

    eringee.net

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • Media Arts and Technology hosts an exhibition of student and alumni work at SBCAST, the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology.
  • Thursday, February 2nd 2023, 6 - 9pm

    The current MAT students and alumni that will present their work are:

    • Graham Wakefield
    • Haru Hyunkyung Ji
    • Iason Paterakis
    • Nefeli Manoudaki
    • Ryan Millet
    • Sabina Hyoju Ahn
    • Myungin Ben Lee
    • Jack Kilgore
    • Mert Toka
    • Sam Bourgault
    • Pau Rosello
    • Deniz Caglarcan

    The event is organized by the MAT Student Reps (Nefeli Manoudaki, Iason Paterakis, and Pau Rosello Diaz).

    SBCAST is located at 513 Garden St, Santa Barbara, 93101

    sbcast.org

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  • MAT Seminar Series: Reconsidering Technolgy Through the Lens of Weaving.
  • Speaker:   Laura Devendorf

    Monday, January 30th, 2023 at 5pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    This talk will present a speculation rooted in my experience weaving electronics and developing software for weaving electronics. I will introduce the basics of woven structure in terms of its mechanical properties as well as methods by which it is designed and manipulated. I will also present some of the exciting opportunities for design and interaction when we consider weaving as a method of electronics production: such as the ability for textile structures to unravel, mended, and to be continually modified. Each of these underlying discussions will frame a provocation about alternative ways we might build, use, and unbuild our electronic products.

    Bio

    Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information science with the ATLAS Institute, is an artist and technologist working predominantly in human-computer interaction and design research. She designs and develops systems that embody alternative visions for human-machine relations within creative practice. Her recent work focuses on smart textiles—a project that interweaves the production of computational design tools with cultural reflections on gendered forms of labor and visions for how wearable technology could shape how we perceive lived environments. Laura directs the Unstable Design Lab. She earned bachelors' degrees in studio art and computer science from the University of California Santa Barbara before earning her PhD at UC Berkeley School of Information. She has worked in the fields of sustainable fashion, design and engineering. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, has been featured on National Public Radio, and has received multiple best paper awards at top conferences in the field of human-computer interaction.

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    www.colorado.edu/atlas/laura-devendorf

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: Black Fictions and Speculative Ecologies.
  • Speaker:   Jeremy Kamal

    Monday, January 23, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    In the context of the American landscape, the black body has historically been viewed as an “earth machine”. A technology used to lift the soil, root the flora, sow the seeds, break the stone, and pump the water. Before John Deers and Bob Cats, there were Black slaves. The till, plow, jackhammer, excavator, piston, and axe condensed into a single metric. In addition to an exploitative capitalistic enterprise, slavery was also a cruel geoengineering project.

    This talk reframes the historic narrative of the Black identity as a landscape technology through the exploration of a fictional world entitled Mojo. Distinctions between blackness, landscape, and technology, are blurred allowing black creativity, expression, and spirituality to materialize on an ecological scale. What would our landscapes look like if shaped by the values of a different culture? We unpack this question through a collection of CGI Afrofuturist vignettes that engage storytelling and science fiction as critical means to envision new trajectories of black identity.

    Bio

    Visual artist Jeremy Kamal engages CGI storytelling to explore relationships between Blackness, technology, and ecology. He is a design faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He studied Landscape Architecture at Harvard GSD and received a Master of Arts in SCI-Arc’s postgraduate Fiction and Entertainment program. His work uses themes of landscape and fiction to envision speculative environments in which Black life is at the center of geological phenomena. Through fiction, Kamal is interested in making explicit the connection between cultural abstractions and ecological realities. His focus on landscape-centric narratives is the driving force behind the worlds he brings to life through animation, game engine technology, music, and storytelling. Kamal's work offers another perspective on the way we think about space and the cultural behaviors that shape it.

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    jeremykamal.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.

  • MAT Seminar Series: My Own Private Oracle.
  • Speaker:   Mitchell Akiyama

    Monday, January 9, 2023 at 1pm PST via Zoom

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    Abstract

    This talk will explore my approach to working with technology in bad faith. The technologies we rely on are meant to provide frictionless solutions to problems, and when things work as they should, these tools are meant to recede from the user’s attention. But when we intend to break technological tools and processes, their logic and the ideologies that they conceal become more apparent or present to hand. I will discuss recent work, including work in progress, that brings my interest in the obtuse and the obstinate to AI, which has recently included an effort to create personal AI oracles for exploring the aesthetics of subjectivity after Machine Learning.

    Bio

    Mitchell Akiyama is a Toronto-based scholar, composer, and artist. His eclectic body of work includes writings about sound, metaphors, animals, and media technologies; scores for film and dance; and objects and installations that trouble received ideas about history, perception, and sensory experience. He holds a PhD in communications from McGill University and an MFA from Concordia University and is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies in the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.

    www.mitchellakiyama.com

    For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:  seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.

    For previous seminars, please visit our MAT Seminars Video Archive.