Thomas Noya

Media Artist · Creative Technologist · Educator
Los Angeles, CA · tsnoya@gmail.com · thomasnoya.com

Profile

Media artist and creative technologist working at the intersection of generative AI, computational systems critique, and time-based media. My practice spans diffusion-model image series, WebGL/GLSL shader development, generative audiovisual systems, and pen-plotted output, grounded in critical theory and post-photography documentary practice. Current research develops the computational grotesque and the coined framework of SlopMaxxxing to examine AI-generated body culture and American kitsch. Fluent in English and Spanish.

Education

MFA Candidate, Design | Media Arts — UCLA Anticipated 2027
Thesis: Rendered Beliefs. Committee: Erkki Huhtamo (chair), Casey Reas, Peter Lunenfeld, Jenna Caravello.
BSc Digital Arts Computing, First-Class Honours — Goldsmiths, University of London 2018–2021

Selected Projects

Rendered Beliefs 2025–present
MFA thesis: a diffusion-model image series and written project interrogating AI-generated evangelical masculine body culture through a queer/feminist art apparatus, framed by the computational grotesque, SlopMaxxxing, and post-photography documentary practice.
Biophonía (with Miguel Noya) Social Software Cycle 2, UCLA · 2026–ongoing
Generative audiovisual system translating decades of field recordings from the Valles Altos de Carabobo, Venezuela into circular visual scores; built as a three-part pipeline — Python score generator to WebGL refraction engine to stitch compositor — with a Tkinter control GUI. Developed in Casey Reas’s Scores for Social Software working group.
Refraction Engine
Real-time WebGL SDF ray-marching glass renderer (single-file React/Vite) with 14 SDF primitives, 9 placement patterns, 15 palettes, Sellmeier dispersion, thin-film interference, area lights, and subsurface-scattering presets.
Grammar Engine
Rule-based procedural text generator that reverse-engineers the language of right-populist masculinity influencer culture through a legible context-free grammar; exhibited as “Sort the Soul.”
Surveillance Project
Interactive D3/Leaflet mapping of LA County surveillance infrastructure, with meta-tracking that surfaces the user’s own data trail.

Professional & Research Experience

Graduate Researcher — DataX Pilot, UCLA (PI: Cindy Nguyen) Apr 2026 – present
Lead a quantitative open-source pipeline auditing cultural bias in multimodal AI models; co-authored a methodological workflow and a structured image-captioning protocol, and built reproducible Colab notebooks and documentation.
Project Manager — Aimée Wilder, New York, NY Feb – Jul 2024
Oversaw creative projects, coordinating timelines and budgets while streamlining workflows across design, production, and marketing.
Art Department Assistant (Freelance) — New York, NY 2023–2024
Supported set design and prop sourcing for media productions.
Project Manager — Observe Technologies, London, UK 2018–2022
Managed international data-annotation projects and developed remote training programs for machine-learning applications.

Teaching

UCLA Design | Media Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Summer Institute Instructor — Motion Summer 2025
Lead instructor for a pre-college experimental course on the moving image as a flexible language — poetic composition, rhythm, cinematography, and sound.
Teaching Assistant 2024–present
Special Topics in DMA (Spring 2026, Prof. Huhtamo); Media Arts Intro (Winter 2026, Prof. Huhtamo); Video and Motion (Fall 2025, J. Turpin). Prior: Design Cultures (Prof. Huhtamo), Generative Art (Prof. Reas), Interactivity (Imamović), Critical Game Culture (Prof. O’Grady), Art, Science & Technology (Prof. Vesna).

Exhibitions

  • 2026Epistemologies of Slop — tiat, San Francisco
  • 2026Rendered Beliefs — DMA Grad Gallery, Los Angeles(solo)
  • 2025Heft Booth — Paris Photo, Paris
  • 2025Groundwork — Heft, New York
  • 2024CYMATIC — Paris Photo, Paris(solo)
  • 2024Bright Moments Finale — Bright Moments, Venice
  • 2023Bright Moments Buenos Aires — Bright Moments, Buenos Aires
  • 2023Imperfections — Verse, London

Technical Skills

Creative Coding & Computer Graphicsp5.js, ml5.js, Processing, JavaScript, WebGL/GLSL shader development, React/Vite, D3 & Leaflet, HTML, CSS, Unity, Blender.
Generative AI (Local)Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI; local deployment/training of StyleGAN, pix2pix, CycleGAN.
Generative AI (Cloud)RunwayML, Midjourney, Magnific, Fuser, and related platforms.
Fabrication & Material PracticeAxiDraw pen plotting, spray painting (acrylic and solvent-based), 3D printing, microcontrollers.
Post-ProductionAdobe Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop; Final Cut Pro; DaVinci Resolve; Inkscape.