Yaran Cui is an international student at the University of Washington in the School of Art + Art History + Design with a Photo/Media concentration. Growing up in China with parents who both work in the finance industry, Yaran pursued a second major in Economics as another interest. She started to learn piano in her early childhood and had opportunities to extend to other instruments. Music is the first artsy inspiration for Yaran’s creativity. While growing up with music, she is also interested in photos, paintings, and design. In the first year of university, she took an intro to photography class and was fascinated by the beauty of digital control of an instant world. Yaran has experience as a volunteer; she spent two months volunteering in an orphanage in Sri Lanka. Most relevant is her volunteer position at Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, where she assists students in the darkroom and assists the staff with gallery exhibition installations. Besides doing art, Yaran self-learned music production, songwriting, and EDM. She would love to combine art and music in her work. As adventurous as she is, Yaran is very outgoing, enthusiastic, personable and well-traveled.