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Sci | Art Lab + Studio Summer Institute

Combine the scientific method and artistic processes to imagine the impossible.

Make connections between scientific research, popular culture, and contemporary arts

 

In the highly competitive Sci|Art Studio + Lab, students are immersed in science and art practices to simultaneously develop and sharpen analytical and creative skills. This program prepares students for interdisciplinary thinking before they begin their undergraduate education.

During this intensive two-week program, students make connections between cutting-edge scientific research, popular culture, and contemporary arts. Through historical retrospectives, surveys of current art-science collaborations, and science fiction movie screenings, students are exposed to the interface of science, art, and culture with a focus on multidisciplinary collaborations.

Fees and Payment Info

The program fee includes the unit fees for the UCLA coursework offered as part of the program and thus varies by UC student status. In addition to the program fee, students are assessed other campus and administrative fees during the summer. This is a summary of fees that commonly apply to the selected student type.

Actual tuition and fees are subject to change by the University of California. Visit the fees, payment, and financial aid section for important disclaimer, as well as more details on fees, payment instructions, and information on delinquency, refunds, and financial aid.

Virtual Program Fees:
In addition to the program fee, students are assessed other campus and administrative fees during the summer.
High School Student: $2220
Incoming UCLA Student: $1896
Incoming UC Student: $1896

Program Fee
$3,344.00
Registration Fee
$350.00
IEI Fee
$61.00
Document Fee (for first-time Summer Sessions students)
$50.00
Total Estimated Fees:
$3,805.00
* Fees only apply for certain student types

Meet your instructors

Victoria Vesna

Founder & Director

Victoria Vesna, Ph.D., is a media artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts and Director of the Art|Sci center at the School of the Arts and California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). She is currently a senior researcher at IMéRA – Institut Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées in Marseille (2011-2013). Her work can be defined as experimental creative research that resides between disciplines and technologies. With her installations she explores how communication technologies affect collective behavior and how perceptions of identity shift in relation to scientific innovation. Victoria has exhibited her work in over twenty solo exhibitions, more than seventy group shows, has been published in excess of twenty papers and gave 100+ invited talks in the last decade. She is the North American editor of AI & Society and in 2007 published an edited volume – Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow, Minnesota Press and most recently an edited volume entitled Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. (co-edited with Christiane Paul and Margot Lovejoy). Intellect Press, 2011.

Jim Gimzewski

Scientific Director

Jim Gimzewski is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles; Director of the Nano & Pico Characterization Core Facility of the California NanoSystems Institute; Scientific Director of the Art|Sci Center and Principal Investigator and Satellites Co-Director of the WPI Center for Materials NanoArchitectonics (MANA) in Japan. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he was a group leader at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he research in nanoscale science and technology for more than 18 years. Dr. Gimzewski pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM.

His accomplishments include the first STM-based fabrication of molecular suprastructures at room temperature using mechanical forces to push molecules across surfaces, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of new micromechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. This approach was recently used to convert biochemical recognition into Nanomechanics. His current interests are in the nanomechanics of cells and bacteria where he collaborates with the UCLA Medical and Dental Schools. He is involved in projects that range from the operation of X-rays, ions and nuclear fusion using pyroelectric crystals, direct deposition of carbon nanotubes and single molecule DNA profiling. Dr. Gimzewski is also involved in numerous art-science collaborative projects that have been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

Ivana Dama

Assistant Director

Ivana Dama is a sound artist and researcher currently attending the Graduate Program in School of Art at Yale University. She graduated from UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture in the Design Media Arts and Digital Humanities department. Her art practice includes audio-video installations, robotics, web projects, as well as music performances. Her work explores the themes of sound and space ranging from microscopic, architectural, and satellite scale.