During your studies in the program M.A. Visual and Media Anthropology you focused on Artificial Intelligence and VR. Now you were offered a PhD position at a university in the U.S. one semester before graduation, where you will be doing research on AI.
Congratulations, that sounds amazing! Please tell us more about your new position and your research projects dealing with AI.
I will be starting as a PhD Candidate at the University of Buffalo in upstate New York (near Canada!) in their Media Study department. I will be starting in a few months, and am excited to move and to continue my studies. PhD’s in the US work a bit different than those in Europe, where I will begin as more of a graduate student while I begin my research project. The program at Buffalo is unique for the US where it incorporates media practice with research, so I will continue making media art during my studies. For my specific research, I am looking at how things like Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality can create ‘spiritual’ experiences in the space of video games and virtual worlds. I am particularly interested in how the ‘New Age’ movement in America has affected much of the technology we engage with now, and how ‘New Age’ ideals are being implemented in contemporary work with AI and VR.