Computational Art is one of three majors in the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts, alongside Design and Games. These three majors offer distinct paths through creative work with digital technologies: Design focuses on visual communication and graphic design with digital tools; Games focuses on games as a creative, technical, and cultural medium; Computational Art focuses on computation as a material, method, and subject for artistic practice.

Computational Art at UCLA is for students who want to make creative work with code, systems, data, interaction, and emerging technologies. Students work across art, design, and media, but computation is at the center of the major, serving not simply as a tool, but as a creative material, a way of thinking, and a subject for artistic exploration.

Computational Art is not half computer science and half art. It is neither an art degree with a technical add-on nor a technical degree with a creative component. Artists, designers, engineers, and creative technologists have been developing this field for more than sixty years. It is a distinct creative field where code, images, systems, interaction, sound, data, networks, and emerging technologies become materials for artistic work.

Students drawn to this major may find themselves having a difficult time choosing between art or engineering, computer science or design, technical work or creative work. In Computational Art, these paths converge. Students combine creative imagination with technical skill, developing projects that could not exist through either art or computation alone. They also ask larger questions about technology: Who creates it? Who uses it? Who is affected by it? How do computational systems shape culture, creativity, and everyday life?

Students come to Computational Art with different strengths. Some arrive with experience in visual art, design, music, video, or performance. Others have explored coding, electronics, AI tools, interactive media, digital worlds, or experimental technologies. The program builds shared foundations while helping students develop a focused creative practice with computation.

As a B.A. program within a research university, Computational Art combines studio practice, technical learning, and broad liberal arts study. Located in Los Angeles, UCLA is an ideal place to study this field as it is part of California’s globally influential ecosystem of software, technology, art, design, entertainment, and media culture. At UCLA, students have room to explore courses across campus while developing a creative practice centered on computation as an artistic medium. They may extend their studio and technical work through electives, minors, and courses across the School of Arts and Architecture and the broader campus, including areas such as Digital Humanities, Disability Studies, Architecture, Art, Film, Music, Engineering, and other fields.

The Computational Art B.A. prepares students for creative and technical roles such as:

Creative Coder / Creative Technologist
Media Artist / Digital Artist / Motion Designer / XR Artist
Generative Artist / Computational Designer / Artist working with AI systems
Design Technologist / UX Engineer

The degree can also prepare students for further study in areas such as:

Graduate study in Media Art or Art
Graduate study in Design or Architecture
Graduate study in Games, Digital Media, and related fields
Graduate study in Computer Science and other engineering fields

During the first two years, students take shared foundation courses with students from the other majors in the Department. In the third and fourth years, Computational Art students specialize through upper-division courses, electives, and independent creative work. Through their elective choices, students can shape an individual path within the major, in areas such as creative coding, generative systems, interactive media, 3D graphics, sound, image, data, networks, AI systems, and experimental technologies.

The program culminates in a self-directed Senior Capstone Project and Exhibition, a two-course sequence in which each student develops, produces, and presents a substantial original work that reflects their individual interests and creative direction.

Most courses are taught as studios of no more than 20 students, encouraging individual growth, close faculty mentorship, and a strong sense of creative community within the department.

Preparation for the Major Lecture Courses
DESMA 8- Media Histories
DESMA 29- Social Computing

Preparation for the Major Studio Courses (ALL REQUIRED)
DESMA 21- Digital Image
DESMA 24- Video and Motion
DESMA 27- 3D Modeling
DESMA 28- Interactivity

Preparation for the Major Studio Courses (1 REQUIRED)
DESMA 22- Fabrication and Materials
OR
DESMA 25- Typography

Core Lecture Course
DESMA 101- Media Arts: Introduction

Core Studio Courses (ALL REQUIRED)
DESMA 110- Tangible Media
DESMA 111- Art and the Internet
DESMA 113- Generative Art
DESMA 114- Arts Research and Practice
DESMA 116- Sonic Media
DESMA 143- Disability and the Web

Elective Upper Division Courses (CHOOSE 3)
DESMA 104-Design Futures
DESMA 107- Game Histories and Analyses
DESMA 112- Performing User
DESMA 115- Art and Science Collaboration
DESMA 125- Game Design
DESMA 126- Game Engine
DESMA 127- Interactive Animation
DESMA 128- Worldbuilding
DESMA 129- Collaborative Game Lab
DESMA 130- Experiments in Virtuality
DESMA 140- Word and Image
DESMA 141- Web Design and UI/UX
DESMA 142- Design Systems
DESMA 144- Type in Motion
DESMA 145- Design Research
DESMA 150- Professional Practice Justice Practice
DESMA 150- Professional Practice
DESMA 160- Special Topics in Design Media Arts

Senior Project
DESMA 159A- Senior Praxis
DESMA 159B- Senior Capstone Project

Please note that requirements are subject to change prior to the start of the 2027 - 2028 academic year

More information regarding the new Fall 2027 application process will be available soon