The School of Visual Arts in New York is marking four decades of its MFA Computer Arts programme with an exhibition that traces how digital art-making has changed since the degree began in 1986. Titled Cybernetic Gems, the show brings together close to two dozen graduates whose time at the school spans from 1994 to 2026, and it is on view at the SVA Flatiron Gallery through Monday, November 23.

The exhibition was organised to reflect the range of media the programme now covers, from animation and motion design to interactive and experimental work. Acting chair Jose H. Vargas, himself a 2013 graduate of the programme, selected the artists through the school's alumni network, aiming to show how differently graduates have applied the same training. Two works he singled out were Pandemic Portrait by Antoinette LaFarge, from the class of 1995, which looks at private rooms turned public by video calls, and Facts About Fiction by Rebecca Adorno Davila, from 2010, an audiovisual journey through Antarctic landscapes alongside researchers studying a marine creature with possible cancer-fighting properties.

Vargas said the programme has shifted focus several times over its history. Three-dimensional animation dominated for a while, then motion design, and now students are returning to hand-drawn two-dimensional work and stop-motion animation, even as software makes polished digital imagery easier to produce than ever. He reads that turn as artists pushing back against the tools available to them, choosing slower, handmade methods precisely because the technology invites the opposite.

The anniversary celebrations continue with a screening of student films from across the programme's 40-year history, scheduled for Thursday, November 19 at 6pm in the school's Teaching and Learning Center. The Flatiron Gallery, at 133-141 West 21st Street, is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm.