The MFA in Media Arts at UCLA is a three-year program for artists working critically and experimentally with media, technology, and contemporary culture. Through studio practice, technical and theoretical seminars, group critiques, and individual tutorials with faculty, students develop ambitious bodies of work while questioning established ideas about art, technology, and what it means to be a media artist today.
Located in Los Angeles within UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, the program combines the intimacy of a small graduate cohort with the resources of a major research university. Students work closely with faculty whose practices span computational and generative art, moving image, performance, games, sound, design, critical media studies, AI, networked culture, and experimental forms of publishing and research.
Students have access to financial aid, paid teaching and research assistantships, grants, and fellowships, as well as 24-hour access to the department’s shop and digital fabrication facilities. Research and creative communities include the UCLA Game Lab, UCLA Social Software, Art|Sci Center, CounterForce Lab, and UCLA Arts Conditional Studio.
Faculty include Steve Anderson, Jenna Caravello, Erkki Huhtamo, Peter Lunenfeld, Lauren McCarthy, Chandler McWilliams, Rebeca Méndez, Romi Morrison, Sahej Rahal, Casey Reas, Mindy Seu, Danny Snelson, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Eddo Stern. Students are also encouraged to work across UCLA, drawing on courses, research, and communities throughout the university.
We welcome applicants from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines, and forms of practice, particularly those whose work expands what media art can be.
The application deadline is January 4, 2027.
To learn more about the program or register for a virtual information session, visit mfa.dma.ucla.edu.