Room 2611, Elings Hall
University of California, Santa Barbara
vislab.mat.ucsb.edu, legrady (at) mat.ucsb.edu
Director: George Legrady

The Experimental Visualization Lab in the Media Arts & Technology graduate program at the University of California, Santa Barbara is dedicated to research and experimentation in multi-media based visual/spatial data visualization; arts-engineering collaboration; interactive public installations; and optical-computational visualization processes. Beginning fall 2011, research directions will be focused on data visualization, which integrates data mining, data analysis, and visualization, and computational photography which explores how computers integrated with optical devices can further our ability to see. In addition to artistic experimentation, there is a broad range of applications in engineering and the sciences.

Students in the program come from a broad range of backgrounds that include computational design, architecture, media arts, engineering, computer science and others. There is an emphasis on the synthesis of high-end skills in conceptualization, visualization, and computation. Current PhD researchers: Qian Liu, Yoon Chung Han, Rj Duran, Marco Pinter, Danny Bazo.

Current research is funded by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the UCSB Faculty Senate. 

Goals of the Lab

Goals include a) innovative exploration and implementation of real engineering problems informed by aesthetic knowledge with results of relevance to both artistic and engineering research interests, b) to present results in a broad range of contexts from peer reviewed papers to fine arts museum exhibitions covering the breadth of both disciplines. Examples include: Presentations at engineering conferences (InfoVis, Siggraph, etc.) and at media arts conferences (ISEA, V2, etc.) Publications in conference proceedings, refereed journals, specialized internet journals, fine arts exhibition catalogs. Peer reviewed presentations featured as demonstration models in engineering contexts, and as installations or as artworks in media arts festivals, fine arts galleries, museum institutions, or web based commissions. 

Selected Recent Exhibitions, Conferences, Publications Projects and Installations: Siggraph, Anaheim (2013); "Drone" Mois de la Photo, Montreal (2013); SOMArts Gallery, SF (2011); Media Biennale, Poznan, Poland (2010); Vancouver Olympics (2010); LHS Museum, Berkeley (2010; Shanghai eArts (2010); Wellesley (2009); Commission by Corporate Executive Board, Arlington, VA (, 2008); National Theater Poitiers Prize (2008), France; Art Center College of Design and CalTech NASA Spitzer Center (2008). 

Selected Conference Presentations/Publications: TEDxsv Palo Alto (2011); Net-Sci Budapest (2011); ZKM Karlsruhe (2011); CAA NYC (2011); ISEA Istanbul (2011); IEEE InfoVis (2010); IDEA Festival Louisville (2010); ACM Multimedia Beijing (2009); 

Projects funded by: Creative Capital Foundation, New York; NSF IGERT; Daniel Langlois Foundation for the Arts, Science, Technology; Canada Council for the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; Siemens Kultur Programm; University of California Santa Barbara Research Across Disciplines.

Alumni

• Enrica Dias Lovaglio (MA 2002) - faculty of architecture, CalPoly State University, San Luis Obispo.
• Ayoub Sarouphim (MA 2003 ) - Senior Design Associate, Klai Juba Architects, Las Vegas, Nevada. Practicing architect responsible for a number of designs in Las Vegas (Hard Rock Hotel, Ellis Resort, E Hotel/Casino, Gateway, and others)
• Andreas Schlegel (MS 2004) - Faculty of Digital Design, Lasalle University, Singapore. Internationally featured interactive works. Contributor to the processing.org software development. Previously worked with Art + Com, Berlin.
• Eunsu Kang (MA 2005) - Assistant professor of New Media, University of Akron, Ohio, PhD from DXARTS, University of Washington. Internationally exhibiting artist in Asia, US and Europe.
• August Black (MA 2005) - PhD 2011, Media Arts and Technology, UCSB. Internationally exhibiting artist.
• Ethan Kaplan (MFA 2005, Art dept) - Director of Technology, Warner Brothers, Burbank, California.
• Aldo Figueroa (MA 2006) - Instructor, 3D Animation, CSU Channel Islands.
• Wes Smith (MA 2008) - PhD student, Media Arts and Technology, UCSB. Exhibiting artist, software designer, consultant at cycling74.
• Rama Hoetzlein (MA 2008) - PhD 2010, Media Arts and Technology, UCSB. Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Media Technology, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark. Currently Senior Engineer, NVidia, Exhibited artist and published papers in ACM, SIGGRAPH, Leonardo.
• Jeungah Kim (MA 2009) - PhD student in Education, Boston University.
• Pehr Hovey (MS 2010) - Media artist/engineer, Los Angeles. Fiber optics suits featured at the Guggenheim Museum.
• Syed Reza Ali (MS 2010) - Designer/engineer. Has worked at Motion Theory, Nokia Research.
• Javier Villegas (PhD 2012) - Media artist/engineer, Los Angeles.
• Angus Forbes (PhD 2013) - Media artist/engineer. Faculty at School of Information: Science, Technology and Arts, University of Arizona.
• Andres Burbano (PhD 2013) - Media artist/historian, Professor, University of Bogota, Columbia.