Research Director

CalArts Extended Studies is seeking a Research Director for the CHANEL Center for Artists and Technology (CCAT) to lead and shape its research agenda in machine learning. The role involves overseeing lab direction, collaborating on interdisciplinary programs, mentoring fellows, and representing CCAT's technical vision to external partners.

Responsibilities:

• Define and evolve CCAT’s research agenda in alignment with the Center’s annual priorities and institutional thesis
• Collaboratively design and oversee the lab’s experimentation plan: research questions, development pathways, evaluation criteria, and propose publication or dissemination strategies
• Co-Establish and maintain methodological standards for ML work conducted under CCAT’s name, including demos, prototypes, and public-facing technical claims
• Conduct feasibility and risk review for proposed projects and programs where ML is a core medium or technical component
• Stay current with developments across model training, large language models, neural networks, and computing infrastructure, and bring that knowledge actively into CCAT’s program planning
• Familiarity with spatial computing, XR technologies, or robotics is a strong asset and will inform CCAT’s expanding technical scope
• Participate in Working Group co-development of program concepts, research thesis, and curatorial framing
• Surface technical opportunities, constraints, and risks that shape what CCAT can responsibly commit to publicly
• Partner with the 2 other Research Directors, Senior Curator, and Technical Director(s) to translate research into public programs, exhibitions, and knowledge-sharing outputs
• Serve as a required input on all programs where ML is a core medium or where public-facing claims about machine learning are involved
• As approved, Build and sustain relationships with peer research institutions, university ML labs, and external technical communities; support informal peer review of CCAT’s research output and help position the center’s work within the broader field
• Define fellowship parameters: research focus, time commitment, outputs, and integration into CCAT’s program and lab
• Identify and recommend faculty fellows whose work advances CCAT’s research priorities
• Mentor fellows as practitioners and emerging researchers, fostering independent inquiry within CCAT’s collaborative model
• Ensure fellows’ work contributes meaningfully to CCAT’s documentation, publications, and public-facing program outputs
• Support and contribute to the interdisciplinary dimensions of CCAT’s visiting artist program, contributing technical context and perspective to artist engagements
• Contribute to CCAT’s annual symposium, white paper publications, and other knowledge-sharing outputs as a technical author and co-thinker
• Represent CCAT’s technical vision to external partners, funders, and field participants with the same fluency applied internally
• As approved, Cultivate external institutional relationships that provide peer-level scholarly and technical feedback on CCAT’s research — establishing independent quality benchmarks in the absence of a traditional academic review structure, and strengthening CCAT’s credibility and reach within the research community
• Active participant in the CCAT Program Working Group