ArtistSpeaker
Victoria Vesna
Professor & Director, Art|Sci Center UCLA
Internationally renowned artist investigating how communication technologies reshape collective behavior and identity — through collaborations with scientists worldwide.
Meet the people that shape this event
Brave New Work Community
ArtistMusician
Beatie Wolfe
Musician & Conceptual Artist
Anglo-American artist and composer known for visionary music formats — from a space broadcast via the Holmdel Horn Antenna to collaborations with Brian Eno and Mark Mothersbaugh.
ArtistMusician
JoAnn Kuchera-Morin
Director, AlloSphere Research Facility, UCSB
Composer and chief scientist behind the AlloSphere — a 30-foot immersive research instrument — and founder of UCSB's Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology.
Artist
Richelle Ellis
Nomadic Artist & Analog Astronaut
Expeditionary artist and founding director of Supercollider; creates artworks etched on satellites and placed on the surface of the moon.
Artist
Tomas Peeters
Sculptor & Inventor
Sculptor and inventor of the Space-Collapsing Observatories.
Artist
Minga Opazo
Textile Artist
Minga Opazo is a fourth-generation textile crafter who explores the relationship between climate change, contemporary textile production, and Chilean textile history and design. Born in Chile, Minga immigrated to Los Angeles at the age of 16. Opazo's recent works question the textile industry by creating a series of cultural works that explore the idea of solastalgia, a term which describes the mental or existential distress caused by environmental change and living in an era of excess, constantly consuming and throwing away.
Artist
Kira Xonorika
Artist & Futurist
Groundbreaking Guarani artist using AI as a collaborative medium to challenge colonial boundaries of identity, ancestry, and indigenous worldviews.
Artist
Nefeli Manoudaki
Architect-Engineer & Media Artist
Ph.D. researcher at UCSB whose immersive AI installations merge biological data with generative systems; exhibited at Ars Electronica and SIGGRAPH.
Artist
Iason Paterakis
Architect-Engineer & Media Artist
Ph.D. student in transLAB at UCSB specializing in brain organoid data, AI environments, and large-venue projection mapping across four continents.
Speaker
Kenneth S. Kosik
Harriman Professor of Neuroscience, UCSB
World-renowned neuroscientist and co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute, focused on the brain's fundamental biology and the science of organoids.
Speaker
Marcos Novak
Professor of Media Arts & Technology; Director, transLAB, UCSB
Pioneer of generative design and "liquid architectures"; director of transLAB and originator of the Q.GOO quantum organoid orchestra network.
Speaker
Marko Peljhan
Chair, Media Arts & Technology, UCSB
Professor Peljhan holds joint appointments with the Department of Art and the Media Arts & Technology graduate program at the University of California Santa Barbara and was appointed as Co-Director of the UC Institute for Research in the Arts in 2009, where he is coordinating the art/science Integrative Methodologies Initiative.
ArtistSpeaker
Voldemars Johansons
Artistic Director, Festival of Immersive Sound · Lecturer, Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
The work of Voldemars Johansons merges his interests in visuality, sound and science and explores the perception and nature of experience in visible and audible domains. He creates experimental projects that synthesize art, science and technology to explore diverse phenomena and represent the experience through environments assembled from the visual, acoustic and spatial structures.
Speaker
Jonathan Schooler
Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UCSB
Jonathan Schooler is an American psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who researches topics that intersect cognitive psychology and philosophy, such as belief in free will, meta-awareness, mindfulness, mind-wandering, memory, creativity, and emotion. Schooler is also known for his sometimes controversial research on topics such as anomalous cognition and the decline effect.
Speaker
Andrea Young
Professor of Physics, UCSB
Experimental condensed matter physicist whose UCSB group builds electronic devices from layered two-dimensional materials such as graphene to realize and measure exotic quantum states. A co-inventor of van der Waals heterostructures and 2018 New Horizons Prize in Fundamental Physics laureate, Young was named a Brown Investigator in 2024 to develop longer-lived qubits in two-dimensional materials.
Speaker
Kevin Davis
Director, AGI–Information, Amazon
Leads AI product strategy at Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence division; previously co-founded Graphiq, a semantic knowledge graph company.
Speaker
Michael Delgado
Executive Producer, Brandwell Arts
Artist, writer, and curator; former LA Weekly Arts Editor and producer of large-scale brand activations for MTV, Maserati, PlayStation, and more.
Speaker
Alan Macy
Founder & R&D Director, BIOPAC Systems
Engineer and applied science artist designing psychophysiology research tools; his artistic practice explores human nervous system extension and cybernated sculpture.
Speaker
James Glisson
Chief Curator, Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Ph.D. art historian and five-time award-winning author; recently appointed Chief Curator at SBMA after serving at The Huntington Library.
Speaker
Pat Hanlon
Author, Primal Branding & AI and Primal Branding
Best-selling author of Primal Branding (now translated into 8 languages) and AI and Primal Branding, thought-leader Hanlon has guided consumer engagement by top-echelon brands around the world including Google, Nike, and Samsung among many others.
Speaker
Rick Carter
Two-Time Oscar-Winning Production Designer
Two-time Oscar winner, Rick Carter is best known for his work with Steven Spielberg (Lincoln, Jurassic Park) and James Cameron (Avatar) as well as legendary collaborations with Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), and is recognized as an early adopter of AI technologies.
Speaker
Nathan Lipps
Director of Operations, Unite to Light
Director of Operations at Unite to Light, the Santa Barbara nonprofit providing solar light and power to students, families and healthcare providers in communities without reliable electricity. Lipps moderates the closing panel, “Architects of Reality.”
Musician
Gene Coleman
Composer, Musician & Director
Gene Coleman is a composer, musician and director. His most recent awards include Guest Composer at Chigiana International Festival (2026), Guest Composer at Contemporanea Monferrato (2024), and a New Jersey Arts Council Fellowship (2024). His recent research and compositions explore Neuro Music, Neuroaesthetics and Neurotechnologies.
Musician
Money Mark
Musician & Producer (Mark Ramos Nishida)
Known as the "4th Beastie Boy", Money Mark is an internationally recognized musician who provided the Beastie Boys with their iconic beats. He has also toured and recorded with Beck, The Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop.
Musician
Dr. Daniel Gee
Director, Santa Barbara Youth Symphony Program
The Director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony Program, Dr. Gee is an Assistant Professor of Music at Westmont College, where he conducts the College Choir and Chamber Singers.
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