I am currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Digital X Data Research Centre, London South Bank University, UK. I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA)/Brown University, Piet Zwart Institute/ Plymouth University (MA) and Copenhagen Business School (Management, Philosophy and Politics department) (PhD)/Leuphana University's former Digital Cultures Lab (DCRL). In September 2022 I became a Post-Doc at Aarhus University’s SHAPE centre, at the department of Digital Design and Information Studies/BTECH, Aarhus University, DK. Situated at the interstices of feminist STS, environmental media & aesthetics, critical data/AI/infrastructures and (post)digital cultures, my interdisciplinary research focuses on the knowledge infrastructures of searching. As PI of this stream, I explored the ethics and politics of search infrastructures, through articles on Google's 'deleterious consequences,' public workshops on 'screenshotting partial perspectives', alternatives such as a European public index for search, innovative open-source search applications, reverse search warrants (geofencing), reverse image search (with Nicolas Malevé) and the so-called future of search (generative AI/chatbots). In July 2025 I received a Danish Carlsberg Mindelegat grant for ‘Why is Open Source important for democracy: the ethics and values of European alternatives to Big Tech’ that consists of public workshops/ lectures and a series of podcasts/blogposts, produced together with journalist Pernille Tranberg, with results published at Dataethics.eu. The last iteration included a workshop using the re-search.site designed with artist/programmer Anders Visti and interactions with a ‘chatbot rodeo’ that compares prompt responses from a range of models in real time.
I am co-editor (with Dr Astrid Mager and Dr Katja Mayer) of The Politics of Open Infrastructures, an open access publication with Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK). Encompassing chapters ranging from open source software and internet standards, to citizen science platforms, public sector data systems, alternative computing practices and how to keep digital knowledge infrastructures open as communities of practice, the book shows that infrastructures are never neutral technical backbones. My chapter, ‘From Free Software to Open Source: traversing the terminologies, values and ethics of an open knowledge infrastructure’ critically addresses the ethics and values and FOSS (Free Open Source Software) as an open knowledge infrastructure. Further academic publications, projects and activities can be found: here
In addition to my research, I have been course responsible for the Bachelor course 'Datafication of Society'(2023) in the Critical Data Studies programme at Digital Design and Information Studies, 'Science Fiction, Technology and Society'(2025) and 'Art, Images, Vision in Digital Cultures' in the department of Art History, Aesthetics & Culture and Museology. Guest teaching includes ‘Data and Digital Culture’(2022) in the Master Digital Design, ‘Aesthetic Programming' part of the Digital Design Programme (2024,2025), ‘Digital Communication and Culture’ (2024) and 'Software Studies' (2025).
Besides my roles as a researcher and educator, as a (media) artist I have searched physical archives and online databases in order to explore and visualise the hidden infrastructures in society that encompass various forms of secrecy (corporate algorithms, patents, colonial documents, FOIA, oral histories, wampum, anonymity browsers). Applying the methodology of artistic research, I produce publications, video installations, data visualisations, essays, prints, drawings, photographs, mixed media installations and digital transmedia projects. My new artistic website is under construction.
Contact: reneeridgway@protonmail.com