Rebecca Allen Retires from the Department of Design Media Arts
At the end of this past academic year, we bid farewell to an esteemed faculty member who retired from the Department of Design | Media Arts (DMA) in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts): Professor Rebecca Allen. Allen’s dedication to the university leaves an indelible mark and inspiring legacy through the research she undertook, the students she taught, and the programs she shaped, including her vital contributions during her two terms as chair of the department (1996–2000 and 2014–2016).
“Rebecca has been an incredibly dynamic force in this department for decades,” said DMA Professor and Chair Christian Moeller. “As founding chair of DMA she helped usher in our focus on the media arts and connected us to so many worlds, from design to the arts to industry. She served two terms as chair, and has always used her prominence to promote the department, her colleagues, and her students. Her commitment to engaging with new technologies and crafting new aesthetic experiences is legendary, as is her standing in the field.”
Rebecca Allen joined the UCLA faculty in 1986. Over her 40 year career as an artist and researcher, Allen has collaborated with artists such as Kraftwerk, Mark Mothersbough (Devo), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Peter Gabriel, Carter Burwell, Twyla Tharp, Joffrey Ballet and Nam June Paik. Her artwork is exhibited internationally and is part of the permanent collection of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Whitney Museum, and Museum of Modern Art in New York. Awards include an Emmy award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Design. Her most recent interest in virtual reality and neuroscience involves collaborations with neuroscience research labs at UCLA and UCSF. Allen will continue her work as a research professor in DMA.