Applying to MAT for Fall 2025
The deadline for applying to MAT for Fall 2025 is December 18th, 2024 at 11:59pm (PST).
For more information please visit www.mat.ucsb.edu/admissions
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 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. The installation incorporates 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.
AlloSphere Facility Program Dates:
September 12, October 10, and November 14: from 5:30pm to 7:30pm
September 28, October 26, and November 23: from 1:30pm to 3:30pm
To reserve a time, you can sign up on this page.
For more information, please visit:
www.independent.com/2024/09/11/sketches-of-sensorium-part-of-getty-pst-art-at-uc-santa-barbara
allosphere.ucsb.edu/research/sketches_of_sensorium/2024.html
Microbial Mindscapes
Artist: Sabina Hyoju Ahn (KR/US)
Lead Scientist: Yoojin Oh(KR/AT)
Sound: Ryan Millett (US)
Visual & Space Architects: Nefeli Manoudaki (US/GR), Iason Paterakis (US/GR)
Fabrication: Junsoo Kim (KR)
Scientists: Christina Watschinger (AT), Tobias Ruff(DE/AT), Rong Zhu(CN), Peter Hinterdorfer(AT)
Abstract
Microbial Mindscapes is an interactive audiovisual installation and performance exploring the impact of the human gut microbiota on emotions. Inspired by the artist’s struggles with panic disorder and depression, this project merges biophysics, gastroenterology, microbiome research, microbiology, pharmacology, and AI.
Using scientific discoveries on molecular interactions and microscopic techniques, it links gut microbiota with mental health and cognitive functions, highlighting the influence of lifestyle on well-being. The project explores philosophical and scientific correlations between humans and microbes, prompting a reevaluation of consciousness and self-identity. Through an immersive visual and auditory experience, the project encourages reflection on the interplay between art, science and human emotion. It broadens understanding of mental and physical health, emphasizing gut microbiota’s role in shaping our emotional and cognitive states and advocating for a holistic approach to health.
Bios
Sabina Hyoju Ahn is an artist working with auditory perception, tactile sense, visual elements, and a mix of digital and analog technology. Her research explores hidden patterns in nature and the relationships between humans and non-humans by translating imperceptible data into different perceptual experiences. Using biological materials, she combines them with machines to create transformative works. Her recent research focuses on human perception through post-digital media concepts and contemporary scientific and artistic methods.
Ryan is a composer, programmer, and PhD student in the Media Arts & Technology (MAT) program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work extends an ancient lineage of musical tradition through methods and models informed by contemporary theories of computation, mediated by the inherent abstraction of sound, and imbued with creative inspiration drawn from the natural world. As a member of the MAT transLAB, Ryan applies his research to collaborative multimedia systems and installations, integrating computational methods with collective artistic practices.
Nefeli Manoudaki is an Architect-Engineer and a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program. Her bio-design works intersect nature and human senses, utilizing emerging technologies. Her research encompasses XR, AI, and generative architectural forms in both tangible and digital media. Her projects have been featured in exhibitions such as ACM SIGGRAPH, Erasmus XR Symposium, MIT Reality Hackathon, and more.
Iason N. Paterakis is a California-based Architect-Engineer and Media Artist pursuing a Ph.D. in Media, Arts & Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a member of the transLAB, where he researches, designs, and integrates generative AI, neurobiological data, and architectural mediated environments. He has exhibited and published work in international exhibitions and conferences, including SIGGRAPH's "Synaptic Time Tunnel," the International Astronautical Congress, "EcoRedux 02" at Disseny Hub Barcelona, and Ars Electronica.
For more information about the MAT Seminar Series, go to:
seminar.mat.ucsb.edu.
Weihao is currently a PhD candidate in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program, where his research is centered on improving the modularity, customizability, and interactivity of Generative AI tools. His primary goal is to enhance the diversity, expressiveness, and audience connectedness of AI-based artworks. Weihao's research contributions have been published in conferences, such as Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), and The International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). His artwork has been exhibited in venues such as Beijing Times Art Museum, FeraFile, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (MOXI), SIGGRAPH, and UCSB MAT End of Year Shows.
The intent of the fellowship is to provide graduate students who are passionate about exploring the intersection of multiple fields related to the initiative with the opportunity to participate in research projects and activities organized as part of the annual summit.
Mellichamp Initiative in Mind & Machine Intelligence Summit 2024
The Computer Music Tutorial, Second Edition (2023) by Curtis Roads
Curtis Roads, professor in Media Arts and Technology and affiliate faculty in Music at UCSB, has announced the publication of an expanded, updated, and fully revised Second Edition of his textbook The Computer Music Tutorial (2023, The MIT Press, 1257 pages).
Essential and state-of-the-art, The Computer Music Tutorial, Second Edition is a singular text that introduces computer and electronic music, explains its motivations, and puts topics into context. Curtis Roads's step-by-step presentation orients musicians, engineers, scientists, and anyone else new to computer and electronic music.
The new edition continues to be the definitive tutorial on all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, and psychoacoustics, but the second edition also reflects the enormous growth of the field since the book's original publication in 1996. New chapters cover up-to-date topics like virtual analog, pulsar synthesis, concatenative synthesis, spectrum analysis by atomic decomposition, Open Sound Control, spectrum editors, and instrument and patch editors. Exhaustively referenced and cross-referenced, the second edition adds hundreds of new figures and references to the original charts, diagrams, screen images, and photographs in order to explain basic concepts and terms.
Features include:
New chapters on virtual analog, pulsar synthesis, concatenative synthesis, spectrum analysis by atomic decomposition, Open Sound Control, spectrum editors, instrument and patch editors, and an appendix on machine learning.
Two thousand references support the book's descriptions and point readers to further study.
Mathematical notation and program code examples used only when necessary.
Twenty-five years of classroom, seminar, and workshop use inform the pace and level of the material.
As Prof. Roads states: "I finished writing the first edition in 1993. It finally came out in 1996, the year I joined the UCSB Music faculty as a Visiting Associate Professor. Writing the Second Edition required going through the research literature in the field since 1993. It often felt overwhelming but I just had to keep going. In 2017 I devoted all my creative time to the project. I promised myself I would finish it in 2020, and at 10 PM on 31 December 2020 I finished writing. Time for Champagne! The production process took all of 2021 and most of 2022. In a way it was a perfect project for the pandemic lockdown, as it gave me a daily purpose in a time of isolation. The textbook has been the core of my teaching at UCSB."
An article about the release of the 2nd edition was published in the UCSB Current:
The book can be found at MIT Press:
mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044912/the-computer-music-tutorial
Professor Roads's previous books include Microsound (2001, The MIT Press) and Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic (2015, Oxford University Press).
This SPARKS session focuses on the innovative interactive digital artwork and pioneering artists prior to the year 2000. Interactive digital art’s roots began forming in the 1960s and blossomed in the following decades. By relinquishing the power to control the outcome of a work of art, digital artists in the 1960-1990s established a democratic, reciprocal relationship with the viewer. Without a defined history, artists were free to experiment and create works that capitalized on the concept of “possibilities”. These individualized personal art experiences took many forms including screen-based art, immersive installation environments, haptic device art, and much more.
Presentations:
Vladimir Bonačić’s interactive digital installations 1969 – 1971
Darko Fritz
Media Art as Thinking Space
Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss
Interactive Plant Growing – a journey of an interactive garden created in 1992
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau
Searching for Conditions of Possibility: Jeffrey Shaw’s Artistic Practice in Expanded Cinema
Lukasz Mirocha
Engaging Subjectivity Through Interaction
Greg Garvey
The enduring telematic vision of a coexistent third space
Paul Sermon
From Music Composition to Multimodal Interactive Composition – An Historical Overview
JoAnn Kuchera-Morin
https://dac.siggraph.org/sparks/feb-2024-pioneering-interactive-art-and-artists
This event is co-moderated by MAT alumni Dr. Myungin Lee and co-sponsored by the ACM SIGGRAPH History Committee.
Synaptic Time Tunnel, SIGGRAPH 2023.
Sponsored by Autodesk, the Synaptic Time Tunnel was a tribute to 50 years of innovation and achievement in the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques that have been presented at the SIGGRAPH conferences.
An international audience of more than 14,275 attendees from 78 countries enjoyed the conference and its Mobile and Virtual Access component.
Contributors:
Marcos Novak - MAT Chair and transLAB Director, UCSB
Graham Wakefield - York University, UCSB
Haru Ji - York University, UCSB
Nefeli Manoudaki - transLAB, MAT/UCSB
Iason Paterakis - transLAB, MAT/UCSB
Diarmid Flatley - transLAB, MAT/UCSB
Ryan Millet - transLAB, MAT/UCSB
Kon Hyong Kim - AlloSphere Research Group, MAT/UCSB
Gustavo Rincon - AlloSphere Research Group, MAT/UCSB
Weihao Qiu - Experimental Visualization Lab, MAT/UCSB
Pau Rosello Diaz - transLAB, MAT/UCSB
Alan Macy - BIOPAC Systems Inc.
JoAnn Kuchera-Morin - AlloSphere Research Group, MAT/UCSB
Devon Frost - MAT/UCSB
Alysia James - Department of Theater and Dance/UCSB
More information about the Synaptic Time Tunnel can be found in the following news articles:
Forbes.com: SIGGRAPH 2023 Highlights
ACM SIGGRAPH is the premier conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques. This year they celebrate their 50th conference and reflect on half a century of discovery and advancement while charting a course for the bold and limitless future ahead.
Burbano is a native of Pasto, Colombia and an associate professor in Universidad de los Andes’s School of Architecture and Design. As a contributor to the conference, Burbano has presented research within the Art Papers program (in 2017), and as a volunteer, has served on the SIGGRAPH 2018, 2020, and 2021 conference committees. Most recently, Burbano served as the first-ever chair of the Retrospective Program in 2021, which honored the history of computer graphics and interactive techniques. Andres received his PhD from Media Arts and Technology in 2013.
Read more from the ACM SIGGRAPH's website and this article on the ACMSIGGRAPH Blog.
The next ACM SIGGRAPH conference is in August 2023 and will be held in Los Angeles, California s2023.siggraph.org.
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Media Arts and Technology (MAT) at UCSB is a transdisciplinary graduate program that fuses emergent media, computer science, engineering, electronic music and digital art research, practice, production, and theory. Created by faculty in both the College of Engineering and the College of Letters and Science, MAT offers an unparalleled opportunity for working at the frontiers of art, science, and technology, where new art forms are born and new expressive media are invented.
In MAT, we seek to define and to create the future of media art and media technology. Our research explores the limits of what is possible in technologically sophisticated art and media, both from an artistic and an engineering viewpoint. Combining art, science, engineering, and theory, MAT graduate studies provide students with a combination of critical and technical tools that prepare them for leadership roles in artistic, engineering, production/direction, educational, and research contexts.
The program offers Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Media Arts and Technology. MAT students may focus on an area of emphasis (multimedia engineering, electronic music and sound design, or visual and spatial arts), but all students should strive to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and work with other students and faculty in collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects and courses.