Ashley Scarlett

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Critical and Creative Studies at the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly ACAD) in Calgary, where I contribute expertise across the fields of media studies, media art and moving image histories, critical theory, and research methods.

My research interests lie at the intersection of art, technology and theory. Grounded in theoretical and practice-based analyses of contemporary media art and its histories, my work explores how artists have aestheticized, conceptualized and critiqued technical and cultural dimensions of ‘the digital.’ My research has appeared in a number of venues, including: Digital Culture & Society, Parallax, Media Theory, Schloss Post, and The Routledge Companion to Photography Theory

Building on my existing research practice, I am currently working on two new projects. My first project, Contingent Systems: Art and/as Algorithmic Critique, explores critical intersections between creative practice and algorithmic culture. More specifically, it considers the ways in which artists and designers have worked, in both historical and contemporary contexts, to render the algorithmic intelligible, opening space for reflexive critique, meaningful resistance, and innovative repurposing. This project is multi-pronged. First, it defines the thematic orientation of a symposium and international group exhibition (Contingent Systems) at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary in the fall of 2021. Second, my own research on this topic focuses more narrowly on the specific intersection between creative practice, machine vision and learning. In addition to my own corresponding writing projects, I am co-editing a special issue of the journal photographies (2023) on this topic.

Through an ‘archaeological’ examination of six exemplary case studies, the second project – Genealogies of the Techno-Industrial Artist Residency – explores the genealogical histories and contemporary realities of artist residency programming associated with techno-industrial contexts. The case studies that I am focusing on include: From the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo to the Bell Labs: Industrialization, Computation, and the Arts (1951 – 1972); Computer Graphics Research in Canada (1965-80); Video on TV in East Asia: The Jumbotron (1980 – 1995); On Affordance and Innovation in the Contemporary Media Arts – Bosch, Autodesk & Samsung (2012 – 2020). I have one recent and another forthcoming publication that consider the early histories of computer graphics research in Canada.

I am interested in mentoring and working with graduate students whose research navigates the intersection between art and technology, whether in practical, theoretical, or historical terms.

Contact: ashley.scarlett [at] auarts.ca |@variousmatters