Our Events

Our Summer School opens its online doors for the first year running! This year, we are focusing on theorising and challenging digital harms. The School will consist of a roundtable discussion and two interactive workshops. Attendance is free but registration is required: please check the links below and register separately for each session you wish […]

Artificial witness: Generative AI and the visual politics of war representationOne application of generative AI is the production of highly realistic war images, often indistinguishable from photographs taken by human witnesses. These images do not merely document events but actively shape public opinion, legitimizing certain perspectives while obfuscating others. This raises broader cultural implications about […]

Please join us to celebrate the newest publications by our members (and get publisher discounts, too!) Theorising Drones in Visual Culture: Views from the Blue authored by Elisa Serafinelli significantly contributes to the fields of Digital Media and Visual Studies by synthesising diverse studies on drone-generated visuals. It offers readers a comprehensive exploration and specific examples […]

Can generative AI be creative, or is it merely a copy machine that recycles stolen data it has been trained on? Adopting a usage-oriented perspective, this workshop invites a critical reflection on the disruptive impact of visual generative media on creative industries and professional practices. It does so by foregrounding the question of human-AI agency […]

Over the past couple years several deep time data archival projects have emerged, and with them the politics of data loss in deep time archival processes reveal how platform centralization and control reshape the future of data preservation. The Arctic World Archive is a facility located in an abandoned coal mine Svalbard, Norway. It stores […]

Have you ever wondered what happens to your data when a platform dies? Have you ever tried to find an old account? Have you ever deleted your website and regretted it?  In this workshop, participants will go on an archive promenade to search for their own forgotten or abandoned websites from the past 30 years in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, […]

Kenzie Burchell and Adi Kuntsman in conversation about dis/connection, dis/engagement, and digital life. Kenzie Burchell, the author of Constant Disconnection: The Weight of Everyday Digital Life (Stanford UP) and Adi Kuntsman, the co-author of Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement : In Search of the Opt Out Button (with Esperanza Miyake, Westminster UP) will discuss compulsory connectivity, disengagement and digital rights. […]

Location: online Join us for Let's Talk Visual AI, where we'll discuss all things related to AI-driven misinformation and visual AI literacy. Recent advances in visual generative AI have made it increasingly easy to produce convincing synthetic images and videos, raising urgent questions about truth, trust, and perception in the digital age. To better deal […]

Location: Brooks Building, Room BR 2.18 and BR 2.19, M156GX Understanding the impact of AI on social, cultural and political life has been at the heart of our new initiative – the AI Literacy working group. “AI literacy” (or even “literacies”), as developed by DISC members, extends far beyond the technical understanding of how artificial […]

Location: online In recent discussions surrounding AI imaging, the prevailing discourse often highlights the technology's inherent risks. However, notable examples, such as the use of so-called deepfake technology in the documentary "Welcome to Chechnya" and the controversial yet well-intentioned AI-generated images from Amnesty International commemorating the victims of police brutality in Colombia, reveal the potential […]

We’re excited to launch our new web-based resource designed to help learners stay ahead of the AI misinformation curve. The Visual AI Literacy Toolkit introduces the fundamentals of visual generative AI and explores how AI-generated images are shaping public understanding — from fake protest scenes and deep-faked politicians to AI beauty filters and images spreading misinformation around […]