Talks

2024

Algorithmic creativity. “Humans and Machines – AI and the Humanities” workshop, University of Oslo, October 24.

Algorithmic folklore: What is it, and how to study it. Brown Bag Seminar, Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Helsinki, October 2.

Just add more layers: Metaphors of depth in machine learning. “Dungeon: Iconography of an Archetype From the Antiquity to the Digital Age” conference, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, September 24-25.

Philosophical zombies, stochastic parrots, masked shoggoths: New ethnographic interlocutors?. EASA 2024 “Doing and Undoing Anthropology” conference, Universitat de Barcelona, July 23-26.

Global automated futures: Promissory narratives in the Chinese AI industry. EASA 2024 “Doing and Undoing Anthropology” conference, Universitat de Barcelona, July 23-26.

Imagining machine vision: Four visual registers from the Chinese AI industry. EASST-4S “Making and Doing Transformations” conference, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, July 16-19.

When is a field?. “In the Field 2” CRiSAP conference, University of the Arts London, July 4.

An algorithmic folklore: The mutual shaping of vernacular creativity and everyday automation. “Digital Folklore” conference, King’s College London, June 28.

Philosophical zombies, stochastic parrots, masked shoggoths: Making sense of LLM folklore. “mur.at 2014 Worklab”, Graz, Austria, June 19.

‘Shaking the black box’: Creative research approaches to generative models. “Humaniora møter kunstig intelligens” conference, University of Bergen, May 31.

An algorithmic folklore: Vernacular creativity in the age of everyday automation. “AI and Digital Media Aesthetics” seminar, University of Bergen, April 24.

Beyond hallucinations & dreams: Experimental approaches to generative AI models. “1, 2, 3 Playtime” Lecture Series, Inter Arts Center, Lund University, March 21.

Popular culture in the digital age: Qualitative methods for the study of digital folklore. The Southern Center for Digital Transformation Permanent Seminar Series, Federico II University of Naples, March 7.

Thousand-mile eyes & ten thousand images: Machine vision in Chinese everyday life. Perspective Asia Lecture Series, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, March 5.

From ASCII greetings to synthetic livestreams: Three decades of Chinese digital folklore. “Thirty Years of the Internet in China: A Retrospective” symposium, University of Pennsylvania, March 2-3.

2023

Synthetic ethnography: Field devices for the qualitative study of generative models. “Generative Methods – AI as Collaborator and Companion in the Social Sciences and Humanities” conference, Aalborg University, December 6-8.

Latent China: An experiment in synthetic ethnography. “Generative Methods – AI as Collaborator and Companion in the Social Sciences and Humanities” conference, Aalborg University, December 6-8.

Replicator report: Generative AI and physical production. “The Only Lasting Truth Is Change” expanded symposium, Bergen Senter for Elektronisk Kunst, November 16-19.

Only variety can destroy variety / Only variety can absorb variety. KHIO Agenda: AIAIAI, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, September 29.

China after the digital: An ethnographic reflection. “Being Digital in China” ADI Symposium, University of Copenhagen, September 25-26.

Memes are new. “Groundhog Day 2023” Influencer Ethnography Research Lab workshop, Curtin University, Australia, September 11.

Automating conspiracy: Opaque intersections of artificial intelligence and China. “Post-Pandemic Futures: Re-Mapping Inter-Asian Routes” 14th Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACS) conference, Ahmedabad University, India, July 27-29.

Doing digital ethnography in China. “Methods Training Workshop – Remote XUAR”, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Germany, June 19-22.

From thousand-mile lenses to super VR invincible infrared X-ray glasses: A century of machine vision in Chinese science fiction. “Dreams and Landscapes: Chinese Complexities” 16th Biannual Nordic Association for China Studies (NACS) conference, University of Gothenburg, June 8-9.

Spiritual pollution: A decade of Chinese digital folklore. “Planetary Memecry” ASCA Masterclass, University of Amsterdam, March 14.

Lies of digital ethnography. Digital Ethnography Working Group, Rutgers University, March 10.

QR code: The global making of an infrastructural gateway. “(Dis)entangled: Reflections on infrastructural concepts” workshop, Universität Bonn, January 13-14.

2022

Digital depth: A volumetric speculation. “Megadungeon: New Digital Volumetries in Art and Media” symposium, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, October 4.

Sociotechnical imaginaries of artifice & intelligence. UiB AI #3: “Narratives and imaginaries of AI”, University of Bergen, September 23.

Ethnography after the digital: An invitation. “Delineating the Digital” workshop series, Caucasus Through Time Network, July 13.

A ‘next-generation internet’: How Chinese tech companies imagine the metaverse. RAI2022: “Anthropology, AI and the Future of Human Society” conference, June 6-10.

“Since I can’t go to China”: A digital ethnography primer. “Global Conflicts, Global Collaboration: China in a Changing World Order” conference, University of Göttingen, June 2-4.

China’s machine vision vernaculars. “Virtual Otherwise” 2022 joint Society for Cultural Anthropology – Society for Visual Anthropology biennial conference, University of Pennsylvania, June 2-4.

Imagining machine vision: Aesthetics of computational sensing from the Chinese AI industry. Surveillance Studies Network 2022 conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam, June 1-3.

From ‘thousand-mile lenses’ to ‘super VR invincible infrared X-ray glasses’: Machine vision in Chinese science fiction. “Asian Futurisms – Linking Asia’s Digital Imagination to the World” conference, United International College, Zhuhai, China, May 21.

Deepfaking myself as a digital ethnographic method. Brown Bag Seminar, Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, May 17.

Imaginaries of artificial intelligence and machine vision in China. “Critical Bestiaries of AI” workshop, University of Oxford, May 6.

Imagi(ni)ng machine vision: An industry walkthrough. The Photographers’ Gallery & Fotomuseum Winterthur, London & Winterthur, February 23.

On infrastructural abstraction: Models, parameters, algorithms. Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, University of Bergen & Entrée, Bergen, February 13.

2021

Machine vision in Chinese everyday life. Etnología Digital talk series, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Mexico City, December 3.

The circulation and governance of deepfakes in China. Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium (NORA) 2021, Bergen. November 17-18.

Situating sinofuturism: Techno-orientalist fantasies, digital arms races, and chronopolitical othering. 4S2021: Good Relations – Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds, Toronto. October 6-9.

Ethnographic approaches to digital folklore. Methods Workshop: Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Africa and Asia (CEDITRAA), Goethe University Frankfurt & Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, October 5.

Ethnography, postdigital: Platforms, algorithms, and automation. Manchester Anthropology Postgraduate Seminar, The University of Manchester. May 19.

Vernacular obfuscation. 3rd Obfuscation Workshop, TU Delft. May 7.

Ethnographic approaches to digital folklore. Meme Studies Research Network, University of Edinburgh. April 19.

Wisdom + ability: on Chinese discourses around artificial intelligence, algorithms, and “smart” technologies. SPA Biennial 2021: Interrogating Inequalities, April 6-10.

Matrix barcodes, swapped faces and thousand-mile eyes: Machine vision in Chinese everyday life. University of Oxford China Centre, Oxford, March 4.

Listening/Accidents. “ANTART FieldWorks #3” artist talk, Lisbon/Berlin, February 11.

2020

Situating computational infrastructure: An expanded topology of the stack. “Situating data cultures and infrastructures: André Brock, Gabriele de Seta and Jill Walker Rettberg” online symposium, Bergen, September 9.

Gateways, sieves, and domes: On the infrastructural topology of the Chinese stack. “Borders, bordering and sovereignty in digital space” online symposium, London/Belfast, September 2-3.

2019

The liveness of the everyday: Livestreaming Taiwan across platforms. “ASIA.LIVE Virtual Workshop: Locating Livestreaming in East Asia”, Leiden, September 13.

From academia to the art gallery (and back?): Doing experimental ethnography in East Asia. Joint East Asian Studies Conference (JEASC) 2019, Edinburgh, September 4-6.

Curating sociality: Connective practices and selective visibility on WeChat. “Below the Radar: Private Groups, Locked Platforms and Ephemeral Contents” AoIR Flashpoint Symposium, Urbino, June 24.

Years of the internet: Vernacular creativity before, on and after the Chinese Web. “The Web That Was: Archives, Traces, Reflections” third biennial RESAW (Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials), Amsterdam, June 18-21.

Into the Red Stack: Chinese digital media between platform protectionism and infrastructural sovereignty. Unconference: Free/Libre Technologies, Arts and the Commons, Nicosia, May 30-June 1.

A ‘Chinese achievement’: Huawei, 5G securitization and infrastructural protectionism. International Studies Association (ISA) 2019 Annual Convention, Toronto, March 27-30.

Folklore digitale e culture di Internet [Digital folklore and Internet cultures], MACRO Asilo, Rome, January 31.

2018

The politics of muhei: Ethnic humor and islamophobia on Chinese social media. “Global Perspectives on Extreme Speech Online” workshop, The House of Artists, Munich, December 10-11.

Sounding wet island: Experimental music in Taiwan. “Shifting undergrounds in East and Southeast Asia: Transformations and declinations of cultural self-expressions and communities in cityscape” conference, Asia Research Institute, Singapore, October 25-26.

Being outside, finding oneself. “Displacements” 2018 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, virtual conference, April 19-21.

The infrastructuralization of Chinese digital platforms: A case study of WeChat. “The platformization of Chinese society” workshop, Baptist University, Hong Kong, April 12-13.

Wtf is sinofuturism? Independencia BioLab, Mexico City, March 19.

Spiritual pollution: The social circulation of digital folkore on Chinese online platforms. Asia Research Institute, Singapore, March 16.

Uncivil sociality: Practicing contention on Chinese social media. “Global digital media cultures and extreme speech” workshop, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, February 22-24.

2017

Everyday life in the Red Stack: Digital media use in China between platform protectionism and infrastructural sovereignty. “Digital media and borders: Infrastructures, mobilities, and practices across Asia and beyond” workshop, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, December 7-9.

Co-curating the internet: An ethnographic approach to visual content on digital media. “Anthropology Matters!” 116th AAA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 29 – December 3.

Postnaturalism, antinaturalism, unnaturalism: Pushing phonography beyond its field. Tuning Speculation V: Vibratory (Ex)changes, Array Space, Toronto, November 17-19.

Network bridging: Doing art and anthropology in the rural-urban interzone. Yulan Bookshop, Taipei, June 25.

Internet Nation 2020: Speculative performance and China’s digital media futures. OCAT Shanghai, May 13.

打醬油：在后數位中國的日常創造力媒體實踐. “Monday Lecture” series, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, February 13.

2016

The no-venue underground: Making experimental music scenes in Hong Kong. “Places and Spaces of Cultural Production in East Asia” Cultural Typhoon in Europe 2016, University of Vienna, September 22-25.

Old people’s emoticons and generational distinction: Chinese families on social media. EASA2016: Anthropological legacies and human futures, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, July 20-23.

2015

† Anglic. (Scott.) Scotland † Dog Cat 1479 DOG+CAT Kitten+Puppy PASnake 1479: Vernacular history and schizophrenic writing on Nathan Road’s urban surfaces. “Undercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference 2015, Airlangga University, Surabaya, August 7-9.

Communities of access? Crowdsourced translation groups on Chinese participatory platforms (with Yu Chuan). “Culture, Communication, and Hybridity in an Age of Globalization” 21^st International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) Conference, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, July 15-18.

Chinese Internet culture? Media practices & vernacular creativity. WUN Understanding Global Digital Cultures Conference 2015, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, April 25-26.

Dajiangyou: Vernacular media practices in postdigital China. The Hong Kong Anthropological Society, Hong Kong Museum of History, February 4.

After Internet culture: Chinese digital folklore as vernacular creativity. “Impacting the World: Emerging Voices of Asian Anthropology” 7^th Annual CUHK Anthropology Postgraduate Student Forum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, January 23-24.

2014

What is zaoyin?: Noise epistemologies and the construction of a national underground music scene in contemporary China. “Sound, Noise and the Everyday: Soundscapes in China” CHIME Conference, Aarhus University, August 21-24.

The Great Firewall of China: From the discursive making of a national Internet to the wall-leaping practices of digital media users. 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, June 18-21.

Memes as methods: A dialogue between ethnographic and data mining approaches to user-generated content on the Chinese Internet (with Clément Renaud). 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, June 18-21.

City of borders: Reading Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project in Hong Kong. BI-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen, February 22.

2013

Chinese Internet framed: Is China 2.0 the new frontier of techno-orientalism?. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACS 2013), National University of Singapore, July 3-5.

CCTV for censorship, control, television and vendetta? How the state-run television shocked Chinese spectators (with Zhang Ge). IACS 2013 Graduate conference, National University of Singapore, July 1-2.

Chinese Internet research: An expanding research field?. International Conference of Asian Scholars (ICAS8), Macau, June 26.

2012

Chinese trolls: An enquiry in critical internet culture. 2nd APSS Graduate students conference, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, October 12.