ABOUT ME

I am interested in the history and politics of digital technologies and my research is located at the intersection of media studies, social anthropology, and science and technology studies. I explore how culture shapes technology and technology shapes culture, focusing on the power and politics associated with emerging technologies.

Since October 2024, I work as a senior researcher at the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) in Seville where I contribute with scientific expertise to the European Commission’s work on the EU AI Act. Me and my colleagues also support the enforcement of the Digital Services Act.

Currently, I am thinking about the history and politics of AI-evaluations and how machines are increasingly deployed to distinguish between “human” and “AI” produced content. I am also doing research on generative AI and the digital commons, and monitoring developments and debates concerning artificial intelligence within the cultural and creative sectors. My most recent publications were finished before I joined ECAT and include a piece on the meaning of scale in AI-powered image upscaling, and an article on the measurement of realism in AI generated images.

Prior to joining ECAT, I was teaching and conducting research at the Seminar für Medienwissenschaft at Basel University in Switzerland. In Basel, I was involved in the research project Modern Times 1936 (Lund University, Sweden), which explored and critiqued how artificial intelligence interprets historic source materials. I also worked within the EU-funded research project European History Reloaded: Curation and Appropriation of Digital Audiovisual Heritage where my research focused on the politics of audiovisual fingerprinting tools and other automated techniques for online content identification.

On the 22nd of November 2019, I defended my dissertation Online Music Distribution and the Unpredictability of Software Logistics at the Department of Culture and Media Studies at Umeå University, Sweden. In my thesis, I used digital and experimental methods to explore the role of software technologies in online music distribution. My work highlighted the logistical role of software technologies – that is, their role in coordinating and arranging things (music), people (musicians and listeners), and information (musical metadata) in time and space. My doctoral studies were funded by the Swedish Research Council and took place within the interdisciplinary research project Streaming Cultural Heritage: Following Files in Digital Music Distribution.

I am a co-author of the book Spotify Teardown which has been featured in Rolling Stone, Financial Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Salon and other journals/news outlets. I have also published research about disruptive software updates, the cultural dimensions of music recommendation systems, and the infrastructural politics of online streams.