Douglas Goodwin

Douglas Goodwin is Special Faculty in Experimental Animation and Critical Studies at CalArts, where he has pioneered innovative interdisciplinary courses for over 14 years. With an MFA from CalArts and a decade of industry experience as Lead Developer at LA Metro, he bridges art, technology, and critical inquiry through hands-on exploration. His courses range from AI for Experimental Animation and Computational Photography to Unconventional Computing with slime molds and Fuzzbox Physics exploring sound distortion circuits. He has taught Machine Learning for Artists at Scripps College and Tangible Media at UCLA, guiding students to create everything from neural style transfers and GANs to Arduino-based interactive installations. Students build everything from 1975-era digital cameras to spectrometers while learning to synthesize Egyptian blue pigments and train neural networks. As an artist and researcher, Douglas explores technology's intersection with perception and human desire, with work exhibited internationally at venues including the Toronto International Film Festival and BFI. His teaching philosophy emphasizes direct experimentation—from pinhole to pixel—helping students understand how technological systems shape our ways of seeing and representing the world.