Dr. Gustavo Alfonso Rincon, Ph.D., M.Arch., M.F.A., B.Sc., B.A.
NEW MEDIA ARCHITECTURES | Date: 2026
New Media Architectures is a consultancy that engages problems as opportunities that can be realized as innovative projects through experience and vision. This work is an evolution of years in both academic and professional practice.
Rincon has leveraged a strong track record of driving successful outcomes through collaborative creative team building, overseeing projects from conception and funding through design and implementation for clients in industry and nonprofit institutions. A proven leader and advocate for education and research as a human right, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he has served clients globally.
He brings extensive experience as a director, educator, and entrepreneur in Southern California. His collaborations, mentorship, and teaching span conferences, colleges, and R1 universities.
As an initiator of solutions through informed contemporary process based research methods, facilitating dynamic team workflows are formed to create realtime higher level reactive results securing a high ROI.
Rincon is educated as an architect, artist, curator, entrepreneur, and media arts / design-engineering research scholar, he explores the limits of immersive virtual environments (IVE’s) for real-time arts–science research practice with the AlloSphere Research Group at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UC Santa Barbara.
Dr. Gustavo Alfonso Rincon earned his doctorate in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), his dissertation ,“Shaping Space as Information: A Conceptual Framework for New Media Architectures,” launches a new field of inquiry integrating the arts, architecture, and sciences. During his tenure at UCSB, Rincon worked as both an educator and researcher in the College of Engineering (Technology Management Program and Computer Science Department) and the College of Letters and Science (MAT Program and Art Department, Institute for Research in the Arts).
As a Ph.D., he developed curatorial projects, educational and community outreach programs, exhibitions, events, and research spanning the domains of art, computational design, engineering, and science. He holds master’s degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). He also holds dual bachelor’s degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the School of Architecture, Planning, & Preservation, and a Bachelor of Arts from the Department of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD).
Rincon also served as Director and Lead Curator for the Foundation for Art Resources (F.A.R.) in Los Angeles. His collaborative art and lecture events were presented at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Theatre, Barnsdall Art Park, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA - Grand).
His architectural practice has encompassed multiple roles—including architectural designer, computational designer, fabricator, media design researcher, project manager, and design director—serving clients across the Americas, China, Europe, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. Rincon has also served as a guest critic and reviewer at the doctoral and/or master’s levels for SCI-Arc, Tongji University, UCSB, and the University of Innsbruck, and at the undergraduate level for Cal Poly Pomona, FIU, NYIT, Otis College of Art & Design, UCLA, and Virginia Tech.
Rincon’s research and scholarly contributions have been published in catalogs, online media, conference proceedings, and journals, including ACADIA, ACMMM, Art in America, Computers and Graphics, Computer Music Journal, IEEE Virtual Reality (VR), ISEA, LA Times, Leonardo/MIT Press, OTIS College of Art & Design , and SIGGRAPH. He has presented, moderated, and contributed to panels for Ars Electronica @ ArtSci Center UCLA, the College Art Association (CAA), Contemporary & Digital Art Fair (CADAF), Leonardo/ISAST, Digital Futures World/International Inclusive Futures Festival, ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGGRAPH DAC, and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). His past affiliations include Leonardo/ISAST, the Lumen Prize, CPNAS (Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences), Digital Futures World, and the Guild of Future Architects.
Currently, Rincon serves as Co-Director, Administrative Committee Member, and Curator for Digital Futures International, facilitating its yearly worldwide online programming. He simultaneously serves as Co-Director, preparing to launch a new International US and UK educational initiative with Panarchic Codex: Design for Living with Wildfire. His research appointments have included roles as Graduate Student Researcher, Postdoctoral Fellow, Staff, and Advising Member with the AlloSphere Research Group and the MAT Program at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCSB. He now serves as Senior Advising Design Research Director for New Media Architecture(s) & Engineering, and Curator for Media Arts/Design & Science at the AlloSphere, MAT Program. Rincon has also served as a peer reviewer for SIGGRAPH (USA and Asia) Arts Papers Track & Art Gallery, ACADIA, SiGraDi, ArtNodes | RACO, and Expanded (Ars Electronica). He is an Editorial Board Member of the Design International Series at Franco Angeli (Milan) and a reviewer for Leonardo | MIT Press Journal. Additionally, he continues to serve as a juror for the Excellence in Science Communications Awards for the National Academies of Sciences (NAS), Engineering (NAE), and Medicine (NAM), as well as the Schmidt Foundation.