UTC — The No. 1 art gallery in San Diego for the latest and most technologically-advanced computer-assisted artwork is the Art Gallery at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information technology (Calit2), located on the first floor of Atkinson Hall on the University of California, San Diego campus. The show, which will be on view until March 11, is called “Synthesis: Processing & Collaboration.” It is a retrospective work by the pioneering team of Dan Sandin and Tom Defanti, who are considered to be the new media art equivalent of the DNA-discovering Watson and Crick. The show features an often humorous and eye-opening documentary video about the work on Sandin and Defanti from the 1970s and 1980s, in addition to early examples of image processing technology and a three-dimensional light sculpture, which are both in the gallery proper. In the Calit2 theater room, there is a new, now-commercially-available state-of-the-art 3-D TV screen (which does not require 3-D glasses), running videos of computer-generated art animation, as well as the monumental StarCAVE virtual reality theatre — a three-sided, walk-in cylindrical cave about of 12 feet by 18 feet high with a metal platform for viewing an incredible three-dimensional rain shower of multicolored lights with musical accompaniment. Sandin, a professor emeritus from the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is a pioneering figure in the field of electronic visualization. He developed the Sandin Image Processor, a synthesizer that alters video images. Defanti, also a professor emeritus from UIC, is a research scientist at Calit2. Among his many accomplishments, he assisted with computer animation for the 1977 “Star Wars” movie. For almost 40 years, Sandin and Defanti have worked closely together, always on the leading edge of their field, with Sandin providing the conceptualization and idea formulation and Defanti providing the environment for idea generation by setting the agenda, writing the papers and getting the grant money to fund their research. Sandin said their success is due to their drive to possess “the most advanced technology we could get our hands on — the newest and best tools” and then to “expand on the power of that technology” to “define new paradigms.” Defanti said that to be at the top of the field, he always has to be prepared to quickly move in new directions on unexpected twists and turns. He cites, for instance, the surprise to all that their current research is now funded by the King of Saudi Arabia through King Abdullah University. The highlight of the show is the StarCAVE, a not-to-be-missed experience of dizzying immersion in a shower of colorful lights which rain down on you, throbbing and dancing to musical accompaniment. Visitors of the StarCAVE wear 3D glasses and may hold a controller, which slices a circle of light through the air and alters the colors and light patterns of the electronic rain. In the StarCAVE, it is near impossible not to shout out “oh” or “wow” in amazement. On a practical note, however, the StarCAVE concept is already seeing use in helping design and test the dynamics, through a virtual reality mock-up, of different environments — everything from hospitals to helicopters. For more information, see http://gallery.calit2.net or e-mail gallery@calit2.