Fully Funded Ph.D. opportunity in Expanded Cinema and Science-Art
Computational Media and Arts (CMA)
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou Campus, China.
Contact: Prof. Clea von Chamier-Waite (aka Clea T. Waite)
Duration: 4 years, beginning September 2025. Rolling admissions.
Commitment: Full-time.
Tuition, stipend, and housing provided.
Starting immediately, potential candidates can apply for a one to three-month trial research assistantship during the semester preceding matriculation.
CALL
Computational Media and Arts’ Expanded Cinema and Science-Art Group, led by Prof. Clea von Chamier-Waite, invites applications from creative, interdisciplinary researcher-practitioners in the areas of media art, embodied expanded/immersive cinema, and science-art. We are seeking Ph.D. students eager to engage in advanced artistic research that is interdisciplinary, technologically innovative, and both practice-based and theoretical, with research questions that critically engage the synergies between the arts, sciences, immersive moving images, and technological innovation as a means of creative expression.
Some of our current research themes within Expanded Cinema and Science-Art include expressing ecology and climate change, somatic montage/embodied perception, feminism, and the poetics of data using immersive media. Artist-researchers interested in pursuing rigorous research with backgrounds ranging from filmmaking, media arts, science and engineering, media theory, installation, and animation to VR/AR/XR, computer graphics, architecture, and climate studies are encouraged to apply. Applications from those with non-traditional routes into the university are welcome.
Candidates may apply from anywhere in the world, but they must be based in Guangzhou, China, during their studies. The language of study is English.
The Computational Media and Arts (CMA) Ph.D. program is investigating the transformation of artistic practices informed by emerging technologies, giving rise to new processes and means of expression that advance unique conceptual and societal challenges. We are a community of researchers, artists, designers, theorists, and inventors within a top science and engineering research university who collaborate across disciplines. It is a synergetic environment to develop the creators and scholars of tomorrow.
For consideration, please send to cleavcw@hkust-gz.edu.cn:
Statement of Interest
CV
Portfolio
Research Statement
Writing Sample
Follow the link for more on our areas of interest and details on how to apply to HKUST-GZ.
CALL
Clea von Chamier-Waite, Ph.D. (aka Clea T. Waite) is an internationally exhibited intermedia artist, scholar, engineer, and experimental filmmaker investigating the material poetics that emerge at the intersection of art, science, and technology. She is a pioneer of immersive, cinematic artworks engaging embodied perception, dynamic composition, and sensual interfaces – and one inter-species collaboration with several hundred tropical spiders. Her multidisciplinary practice is modeled on the experimental laboratory, combining research, art-making, and scientific collaborations. Waite’s research encompasses the areas of science-art as media-specific practice; spatial cinema/ immersive cinema, including: 360°-cinema, fulldome, multi-channel video installation, and alternative and emerging screen technologies; embodied form and somatic interfaces; xr/vr; experimental cinema; and data poetics. Her projects thematically examine climate change, water ecology, astronomy, particle physics, feminism, and popular culture.
Waite received her PhD from the University of Southern California in Media Arts + Practice, School of Cinematic Arts. She received her SMVis from the MIT Media Lab, 3D Computer Graphics and Animation Group, and her SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, in Physics and Electrical Engineering.
Waite’s artworks have been exhibited and awarded internationally, notably the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, IBM Innovation Prize for Artistic Creation in Art and Technology, the GC3 at the Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, the Lumen Prize, and the Open Sky Project for ICC Hong Kong. Waite’s fellowships include an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies Fellow, CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics artist-in-residence, and fellow at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne.