“Paradise” features an intellectual Muslim student to illuminate stories that are often ignored in theater, said actor Jeff Marlow. The play makes its West Coast debut at the Odyssey Theatre on Saturday and will run through Feb. Read more...

Photo: Alumna Medalion Rahimi and actor Jeff Marlow star in “Paradise,” a play following their two characters – an optimistic student and her bitter science teacher – as they band together to get Rahimi’s character a scholarship. Rahimi said her character diverges from the stereotypical portrayal of many Muslim characters in media. (Courtesy of Earl Gibson III)

A flyer encrypted with a Snapchat code can unlock dancing bears on your phone’s screen. Using augmented reality, the project is one of the works that will be on display at the design media arts exhibition opening Thursday. Read more...

Photo: Second-year Amy Fang and fourth-year Chris Kim, both design media arts students, co-lead curated the “Breaking the Rules” exhibition, which will show in the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center beginning Thursday. (Niveda Tennety/Daily Bruin)

A manually driven car may be as antiquated as a landline telephone in the future, Erkki Huhtamo said. Huhtamo is a professor at UCLA’s department of design media arts and a founder of the field of media archaeology, the discipline that seeks to understand new and emerging media through examination of the past. Read more...

Photo: Erkki Huhtamo, a professor at UCLA’s department of design media arts, gave a series of lectures throughout Japan entitled “Media, Transportations, and the Challenges of Posthuman Culture.” (Courtesy of University of Tsukuba)