Graduate
Currently I am supervising two Ph.D. students at the Empowerment Informatics Program (EMP), at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. John Brumley (recent graduate from UCLA Design Media Arts program) and Aisen Caro Chasin (who took my classes while I was visiting Professor at Parsons, NY).
Every year, I organize a field trip for the students to view the largest collection of kinetic art in the world, at the David Bermant foundation in Santa Ynez. I feel that this is critical in their education as media artists – to see the lineage they come from and understand that much of what they are doing is indeed not new. This view is shared with my colleague, media archeologist, Erkki Huhtamo who has joined these tours since we started working together in 2000.
Many of my students participate and / or work in the installation work and I am sure that this experience is really valuable and complementary to their studies. I believe that it is really important for students to be directly involved with the creative and production process of putting an artwork in public.
PhD Advisor at the Empowerment Informatics Program, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
Since 2017 I am a Visiting Professor at the MFA Interface Cultures, University of Linz, Austria
Interface: Major Studio
MFA Critique
DESMA 258: Database Aesthetics
DESMA 258: Database Aesthetics (co-taught with Mark Hansen)
Database Aesthetics (spring 04)
Dematerialized Utopias (spring 00)
Fusion 2001 (spring 01)
Networking and Consciousness (spring 02)
Undergraduate
The two main classes I teach at UCLA are: Introduction to Art, Science & Technology (DESMA 9) and Biotechnology & Art (Honors 177). Students are truly from every discipline imaginable.
DESMA 9 started as a lecture class in 2005 and over the years I developed it into a online class (sponsored by UCOP as one of the first pilot online courses) offered. Now it is offered to the entire UC campus and there are plans to open it up to the larger community.
For the past three years, I have been teaching freshmen undergraduate students the FIAT LUX class that introduces them to the connection of Art & Science.
Both classes benefit from the ongoing events that I organize for the Art Sci center. In fact, I plan and schedule the program keeping in mind the classes and this connects them directly with the content I teach.
Current Classes
Online class: DESMA 9: Introduction to Art, Science + Technology
Yangchenma — Vibrations Matter Seminar
Interface Cultures — Intro to Art, Sci & Tech
UCLA - SciArt Lab+Studio
UCLA - Honors 177 - Biotech+Art
UCLA - Desma 160 - Biotech+Design
UCLA - FiatLux / Food Studies 19 - Hox Zodiac
Previous Classes
DESMA 9: Art, Science & Technology (Winter 09)
DESMA 9: Art, Science & Technology (Spring 07)
Senior Projects (winter 04)
Fashion & Technology (winter 03)
Design | Media Arts in Times of War (winter 02)
Senior Projects (fall 02)
The Role of Art and Technology in Times of War (fall 01)
Introduction to the Creative use of the Internet (fall 00)
High School
In 2006, I designed a two-week SciArt Lab+Studio Summer Institute course based on the DESMA 9 class with an emphasis on nanotechnology -- NanoLab. This undergraduate class is for high school students who are interested in pursuing the sciences, but also love / practice art and music and feel that they have to give this up. By mixing up art, science and technology with hands on experience and demonstrations, they leave understanding that the most important thing is to think creatively and outside the box.
DESMA 6: Introduction to Art, Science + Technology
