UCLA D|MA

LightFest 3.0: AI Tools for Microscopy in Medicine and Media Arts UNESCO International Day of Light (IDL) at UCLA May 15–16, 2026 UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) & The Fowler Museum at UCLA Presented by the UCLA Art|Sci Center in collaboration with the Advanced Light Microscopy & Spectroscopy (ALMS) Lab at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) and the Smart Image Content Research Center at Chung-Ang University, South Korea. LightFest 3.0 brings together artists, scientists, medical researchers, and cultural practitioners to explore light across scales—from AI microscopy and spectroscopy to media arts, sustainability, and contemplative cultural practices. Organized in conjunction with UNESCO International Day of Light, the two-day symposium examines how imaging technologies are transforming medicine, scientific research, and creative expression. The 2026 UNESCO theme of Light for a Sustainable Future, frames the symposium’s focus on the relationship between light, health, environmental awareness, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Across scientific imaging, AI research, medicine, and media arts, the program asks how technologies of light can contribute to more sustainable and interconnected futures. Held each May in honor of the first successful laser demonstration on May 16, 1960, in Malibu, California, the program also highlights emerging collaborations between UCLA CNSI, Leica Microsystems, the UCLA Art|Sci Center, and Chung-Ang University’s Smart Image Content Research Center, Yangchenma Arts, and the Gaden Shartse Monastic University, connecting AI research, scientific imaging, and media arts through interdisciplinary exchange. For more info please visit: /event/lightfest-3-0-ai-tools-for-microscopy-in-medicine-and-media-arts/

Join us at Plot @plooooooot on Saturday, May 23rd to celebrate the book launch of 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴?, an anthology responding to darkness, in its vast interpretations. A limited edition run of 50 will be available for purchase. 📍Saturday, May 23, 7–9PM At Plot @plooooooot 937 Sun Mun Way Chinatown, Los Angeles No RSVP required! 7:00–9:00PM Doors at 7:00PM Performances and readings at 8:00PM Contributions by: Aidan Strong, @str0nkyk0ng Banyi Huang, @cropp_topp Elliot Bear Yu, @sorry.loser Hyunseo Cho, @haeummyocean Jiapei Yao, @kiwipeidia Monica Juarez, @monimonimonimonimoni_ Peijing Mou, @melodrama_yu Ren Burch, @r__en___ Rowena Kou, @greenish._.rowena Roxanne Harris, @alsoknownasrox Sadia Quddus, @sadiaaa Thomas Noya, @tsnoya Yoona, @yo0n___a Flyer by @alsoknownasrox @str0nkyk0ng @sorry.loser Special thanks to Alice Yuan Zhang, @aliceyuanzhang This publication was produced in the Arts Publishing Practicum course led by @mindyseu in the UCLA Design Media Arts MFA program @ucla_dma .

Upcoming Events: ✖The Sea Within Us: Caring for the Deep • THURSDAY MAY 21, 2026 3:00PM -5:30 PM Organized by Professors Elizabeth DeLoughrey and Rebeca Méndez, and co-presented by the Hammer Museum with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s award-winning and widely influential book, The Sea Around Us, an interdisciplinary group of Indigenous culture bearers, scientists, artists, and ocean storytellers will address the legacy of DDT+, industrial, and radioactive waste dumping off the southern California coast. https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/sea-within-us-caring-deep ✖Out of Plain Sight • THURSDAY MAY 21, 2026 7:30 PM Post-screening conversation with UCLA English Professor Elizabeth DeLoughrey, UCLA Design Media Arts Professor Rebeca Méndez, and the film’s co-director, investigative journalist Rosanna Xia Co-presented by the Hammer Museum with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, Out of Plain Sight is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Post-screening conversation with UCLA English Professor Elizabeth DeLoughrey, UCLA Design Media Arts Professor Rebeca Méndez, and the film’s co-director, investigative journalist Rosanna Xia Co-presented by the Hammer Museum with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/out-plain-sight

Mere days remain until the launch of CORPOREAL TECHNOLOGIES, a group exhibit featuring new works by the Design Media Arts MFA 2026 cohort: @chellyjin @Dredgeops @lanxinerr @sadiaaa @sagan.yee CORPTECH eschews total assimilation by joining discrete operations into literal bodies of work: Fractured echoes of an entombed body coalesce and resurrect under an algorithmic gaze. Virtual bodies contort at the press of a button, subject to cartoon gravity and gamified spectacle. Global crisis gives way to hivemind psychosis, while choreographed code traces an uncertain future history with every gesture. Join us at the UCLA Broad Art Center’s New Wight Gallery on May 14 at 5pm for opening night, where we look forward to the interplay of our collective shadows mingling upon the gallery wall. corptech.show Animated poster by @sadiaaa #CorporealTechnologies #CorpTech #DesignMediaArts #DMA #DMA26 #laart

You are invited to CORPOREAL TECHNOLOGIES, a group exhibit featuring new works by the Design Media Arts MFA 2026 cohort: @chellyjin @Dredgeops @lanxinerr @sadiaaa @sagan.yee Exhausting itself through the mere act of witness, the body achieves unlikely agency via that selfsame circuitry. Through data stream and surveillance feed, projection map and physics engine, CORPTECH renders our collective body legible to machinic and organic processes alike: operating/operated upon, metabolized/metastasizing, sovereign/laid bare. 🎉Opening Night: Thurs May 14 from 5 to 8 PM 📅Exhibit Run: May 14 to May 28 📍Location: New Wight Gallery, Broad Art Center 240 Charles E Young Drive North Los Angeles, CA 90095-1456 Free and open to the public. Poster design by @sadiaaa Follow us: Instagram: @corp_tech Website: corptech.show #CorporealTechnologies #CorpTech #DesignMediaArts #DMA #DMA26 #laart

Can technology expand creative practice? At the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts, that question drives everything. Working across graphic design and branding, video, animation, game design, and digital fabrication, faculty and students develop new forms of artistic expression, cultivating practices in which next-generation tools drive discovery and experimentation. Their work spans galleries, labs, stages, publications, and digital platforms, often anticipating cultural shifts and technological breakthroughs before they reach the mainstream. As creative technologies continue to evolve, so too does DMA, continually pushing the boundaries of expression and reshaping how we engage with the world. #BruinGivingDay #UCLAArts #UCLA

CORPOREAL TECHNOLOGIES: Spring MFA Exhibition Opening May 14th! You are invited to CORPOREAL TECHNOLOGIES, a group exhibit featuring new works by the Design Media Arts MFA 2026 cohort: Chelly Jin, Sadia Quddus, Sagan Yee, Stamatis Hamouzas, and Xiner Lan. Through data stream and surveillance feed, projection map and physics engine, CorpTech renders our collective body legible to machinic and organic processes alike: operating and operated upon, metabolized and metastasizing, sovereign and laid bare. Opening Night: Thurs May 14, 5 - 8 PM Exhibit Run: May 14 to May 28 Address: New Wight Gallery, Broad Art Center 240 Charles E Young Drive North Los Angeles, CA 90095-1456 Free and open to the public. Follow us for updates: Instagram: @corp_tech Website: corptech.show

Flux is a festival of creativity showcasing bold innovations in moving image and sound as artists experiment with emerging tools and technologies. It presents an unparalleled snapshot of the global creative zeitgeist presented through a thoughtfully curated program of screenings, talks, sensory exhibits, hands-on workshops, and performances. The next iteration, is taking place April 24–25 at BLUM in Los Angeles, includes faculty, alumni, and current students from the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts, including Casey Reas, Eli Joteva, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Roxanne Harris, Spectra Studio, and Will Wharton. Visit for more info! Here's the list of artists in this festival, with a * after DMA alums/current students/faculty: Andrew Thomas Huang Angus Oakes Cardin Chung Casey Reas * Eli Joteva * MFA Esteban Arellano Geller Hugo Shiboski Jona Bechtolt (YACHT) Kordae Jatafa Henry Kyle McDonald Lachlan Turczan Lauren Lee McCarthy * Michael Naffier mots Portrait XO Roxanne Harris * Current MFA Samantha Gorman Sara Silkin Spectra Studio * MFA Tender Claws Tina Tarighian Will Wharton * BA Yaloo

You are invited to our final Spring DMA Lecture Series Featuring Pippin Barr - Playing the Variation Game: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Game Design This DMA Lecture Series is Co-sponsored by Game Lab. This lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. Pippin Barr is an experimental game designer and Associate Professor of Computation Arts at Concordia University. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka and is a prolific maker of videogames, producing work addressing everything from airplane safety instructions to the nature of videogames and videogame technologies. He is a well-known figure in the independent and artistic videogame scenes and makes his games, source code and process documentation publicly available via his website pippinbarr.com. His latest book The Stuff Games Are Made Of (The MIT Press, 2023), discusses videogame design as a conversation with materials.

You are invited to our first Spring DMA Lecture Series Featuring Martin Grasser The Art of Infrastructures This event will be Hosted by Jeff Davis from The Generative Art Foundation and will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. This lecture is free and open to the public! To register for in-person or virtual attendance please visit /orybjb0q Remote viewing will be available at: /@ucladesignmediaarts97 Martin Grasser is an artist based in the Bay Area. His work explores systems and forms of repetition. Each project uses repetitive variation to create multiples; each image is a node in a network, both self sufficient and part of the larger group. This DMA Lecture Series is Co-sponsored by: UCLA Department of Design Media Arts The Generative Art Foundation UCLA Social Software

The second sound: A Mid Residency Exhibition by Lea Shum “Come to the EDA at Broad Art Center next Tuesday at 5pm to wander in a high school stage, through a lonely auditorium, somewhere in Hong Kong.” Opening Reception: Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 5pm Location: EDA, UCLA Broad Art Center, Room 1250, 240 Charles E Young Dr N Los Angeles, CA 90024 Gallery Hours: April 7-9 from 12-5pm

The Sea Around Us: Open to the public today and tomorrow! Tue March 31st - Wed April 1st The Sea Around Us You are invited to artist Rebeca Méndez’s video installation The Sea Around Us, commissioned by the Laguna Art Museum for the Art & Nature Festival. Méndez directly references Rachel Carson’s book of the same title. The installation is a 360° immersive and cinematic experience that portrays the adjacent Pacific Ocean as a fully animated body as well as a place of deep interconnectedness where multispecies kinship fosters a sense of awe within us. Open to the public today and tomorrow: Tuesday, 3/31, from 2–6 pm. Wednesday, 4/1, from 12–4 pm. UCLA, Broad Art Center, Experimental Digital Arts (EDA) 240 Charles E Young Drive North, room 1250 Los Angeles, CA 90095 Other Events: Symposium: DDT+ & Ocean Stewardship Thursday, May 21, 3–5:30 pm Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024 Out of Plain Sight, Screening Thursday, May 21, 7:30 pm Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum. 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024