David Gere, PhD, is the founding director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and is a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where he teaches courses in arts activism. His extensive writing and global curatorial projects address arts-based public health interventions and projects.
John Halpern a.k.a. John DiLeva Halpern is a filmmaker, conceptual artist, and performance artist based in New York City. He is known for cultural activism and documentaries about art, artists, and Tibetan Buddhism.
Dr. Aisen Caro Chacin and Dr. Chris Zahner work together at the University of Texas Medical Branch at the Maker HEALTH SPACE, a medical device prototyping Lab. Together they have made an innovative design for ventilators - creating them out of standard medical supplies and Arduinos, for simple and inexpensive use and distribution all over the world.
Aisen is a long time member of the UCLA Art Sci collective: as a student of Victoria Vesna, collaborator and teacher in the Sci Art summer institute. We are very proud of her work as she truly exemplifies how media artists and scientists coming together can help in urgent situations such as we are facing now with COVID 19.
Dr. Aisen Caro Chacin holds a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Houston (UH), an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons in NYC, and a Ph.D. in Human Informatics from the University of Tsukuba, Japan.
Her work lies within the intersecting fields of art, science, and technology, focusing on the design and development of human-computer interfaces, medical devices, and Assistive Device Art. Her research delves into sensory substitution, human-echolocation, haptics, modeling bronchoscopes, emergency ventilation equipment, sample tracking, materializing patient data for surgical procedures, and adaptive fashion.
Currently, she is a medical device designer and developer at the University of Texas Medical Branch, an Adjunct Professor of New Media Art at UH, and chairs LASER Houston, a series of art and science talks sponsored by Leonardo, IAST and Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology.
Dr. Christopher Zahner is a clinical pathologist in the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Prior to medical school (Texas Tech Health Sciences Center) and residency (UTMB), he was a mechanical engineer (BS Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supporting the International Space Station (ISS) as an Operations Support Officer (OSO) and Mission Evaluation Room Life Support and Integration (MERLIN) officer.
Dr. Zahner’s basic science research is focused on medical devices and resulted in hardware development, grants, and patents in the fields of microbial growth, balance, acoustics, and sample processing, along with prototype hardware in ventilation, sample tracking, and hand hygiene.
Richard Lowenberg is an artist, planner/designer, and eco-cultural activist. In this episode of Particles, Richard traces his life spent at the intersection of art and science, exploring information as a living environment. His projects span making music from the bioelectric signals of plants for the 1976 film The Secret Life of Plants, collaborating with NASA on bio-telemetry performances, and large-scale surveillance and nuclear infrastructure installation at the 1986 Venice Biennale.
Richard Lowenberg has spent over 50 years creatively integrating understanding and grounded involvements in non-profit organizational development, architecture, environmental/ecosystems design, rural community and networked society planning, arts/sciences programs, new-media, performance and eco-arts practices. He has dedicated his creative life to understandings and creative realization of works exploring and setting examples for an ‘ecology of the information environment’, and the resulting opportunities for grounded development of a ‘cultural economy’.
Gustavo Alfonso Rincon, Ph.D., is educated as an architect, artist, curator, and media arts & design-engineering research scholar. He is an advocate for education and research as a human right. His academic and creative work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, while his professional practice has served clients across the globe.
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Curating Immersive Worlds: AI Visions, Spatial Narrative, and Speculative Media Architectures
A rethinking of the New Media Architectures (NMA) conceptual framework emerges as media arts research and technology continue to evolve through a series of curatorial investigations situated at the intersection of art, design, education, and immersive virtual environments (IVE) research. This presentation explores a journey through the language of experimental media design practices and speculative spatial systems that examine the future of artistic production, technological and sensory culture, and interdisciplinary research.
A range of creative research collaborations will be discussed, from investigations developed through the AlloSphere Research Facility to exhibition and community engagement initiatives presented through ACM SIGGRAPH conferences. The presentation will also reflect on a continuing series of online dialogues initiated at the beginning of the pandemic that explored AI, architecture, emerging media cultures, and science, organized in collaboration with Digital Futures.
Finally, the presentation revisits a series of ongoing curatorial projects as philosophical and experimental instruments for institutional critique, cultural reflection, and public engagement, offering a snapshot of the complex technological and social conditions shaping our world today.
We are excited to share our newest publications in person at the Jersey Art Book Fair on May 1-3, 2026 at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ. We are excited to share new Hox Zodiac prints, postcards, and journals designed by Maryam Razi who hosted the most recent Hox Zodiac online dinner honoring the Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse, with the guest artist CC Hart. We will also feature the limited edition [Alien] Star Dust Artist Book and postcards designed by Ivy Lovett.
On Sunday, May 3 from 4:30-6pm, Victoria and Maryam will lead a participatory performance, "HOX Year of the Fire Horse: A Tasting Ritual" at the Framing Gallery at Mana Contemporary at the JAB Fair. Presented as a live, durational tasting ritual, the experience unfolds in cycles, allowing visitors to enter and exit freely. Centered on the Fire Horse—an emblem of intensity, transformation, movement, and passion—participants engage through taste, smell, sound, and collective ritual. Each tasting becomes a portal, linking the body to planetary cycles, mythology, and contemporary life.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the Horse is associated with the Heart—governing blood and consciousness (Shen).
This is not a demo. It is a shared activation.
If you are in NJ / NY area, drop into our booth and join us for the performance!
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.
Dr. Paul Thomas, Honorary Professor at UNSW Art and Design and founder of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research as well as the founder and series-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2022. In 2000 he instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007. As an artist he is a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. His practice led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there.
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Visualising Duration: A Quantum Perspective
Throughout the 20th century, radical experimental artists have challenged the fundamental questions brought to the surface by quantum mechanics, highlighting the invisible forces at play. Here, the observer is integral to quantum physics, becoming part of what is observed, shaping the visualisations of the elusive quantum phenomena. Drawing examples of two artists, Thomas Wilfred, and Takis from the David Bermant Foundation, and artwork from Dr. Paul Thomas' own practice, he will discuss the concepts of duration from a quantum perspective in connection to related visualising phenomena. The artworks create visual sensations and expressions of the immense complexity of visualising the invisible, ineffable, and intangible.
Following the talk, we will be joined by special guests: Kurt Hentschläger, Andrea Rassell, and Bill Seaman
Western Stardust is a dynamic public augmented reality (AR) project for the Western Walk in Santa Clarita, CA, connecting the commuanity to its rich history and the cosmos. Using their phones, visitors can activate AR by pointing at a star embedded in the pavement, capturing an image of themselves surrounded by shimmering gold dust—a nod to the area’s Gold Rush roots and the universal truth that we are all made of stardust. With their permission, participants will have the option to contribute their photos to a digital gallery on the Santa Clarita town website, creating a collective celebration of the community’s spirit.
What do we value? What is value? To address this question, we are using gold atoms as a metaphor and as an actual material that has arrived on Earth from space. Through storytelling, projections, and food experiences covered in edible gold, the audience participates in a speculative narrative about value, matter, and the future of humanity. The project unfolds through four scenes, each accompanied by a tasting ritual and visual narrative: Cosmic Gold, Gold Rush, Atomic Gold, and Space Tourism.
