A working studio
that also teaches.
The Portfolio Office is not a test-prep company with an art department. It is a practice first. Students work in the same room, on the same terms, and against the same standard as the studio's own projects.
What I believe about portfolios.
Who you will actually work with.
One instructor, and a small group of collaborators brought in for defined pieces of work.
Moira Zhang
I work in AI cinematic and generative interaction, out of a studio in New York making film-grade AI imagery. The work is closer to engineering than to fine art — depth capture, generative sound, real-time systems, production pipelines. That is not a side interest I picked up to teach it — it is the work I do commercially, and it is why the AI module here teaches a real production pipeline rather than a tour of tools.
Foundation at RMIT, BA in Graphic and Media at UAL, MRes in Communication Design at the RCA, and an MS in Integrated Design & Media at NYU Tandon — an engineering school, not an art one. Four institutions across Australia, the UK, and the United States. I have sat in the studios and crit rooms of all three systems as a student, which is a different kind of knowledge from having read about them. The RCA degree was research-led; a paper from that period was published at NIME.
I lead every engagement myself, from the first session to submission, and there is no shared cohort. I write the statements with you rather than handing that off — from the first brainstorm through the final draft — because the essay and the portfolio have to be making the same argument. Two parts of the work are run by other people, and both are set out below: neither is a junior tutor, and you are told which is which before you sign.
- Education
- MS Integrated Design & Media, NYU Tandon · MRes Communication Design, RCA · BA Graphic and Media, UAL · Foundation, RMIT
- Practice
- AI cinematic and generative interaction, New York
- Teaches
- Interaction and computational media (HCI, creative technology, interdisciplinary) · graphic and visual communication · the STEM-designated end of art and design
- Published
- NIME — New Interfaces for Musical Expression
- Student offers
- Royal College of Art ×2 · Columbia · NYU Tisch · King’s College London
Who else is involved, and where.
Four defined pieces of work, each done by someone who does it full time. None of them is a junior tutor.
How an engagement actually runs.
Agreement first
Scope, session count, deliverables, and instalment schedule are set out in a signed agreement before the first session.
Instalment payment
Fees are split across the engagement rather than paid up front, so both sides stay accountable to the schedule.
Your work stays yours
You hold copyright in everything you make. I ask separately, in writing, before showing any student work publicly.