Dr. Ashley Scarlett

Assistant Professor, Liberal Studies

Dr. Ashley Scarlett (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Critical and Creative Studies where she researches intersections between art and contemporary media cultures and teaches courses across the fields of media studies, media theory, media art and moving image histories, and research methods.

Descriptions of her current research projects, corresponding publications and exhibition curation can be found on her personal website: https://ashleyscarlett.com/

My research lies at the intersection of art and computational culture, with a particular focus on computational aesthetics. I am interested in how computational processes that unfold outside the phenomenal field of human experience are aestheticized, conceptualized, and made available for technical and cultural critique. This has regularly involved researching the histories, practices, and politics that comprise contemporary media art, a field defined by its critical preoccupation with emerging media technologies. Engaging with photographic technologies and practices, a longstanding research interest of mine, has provided a further outlet for this line of investigation.

I would welcome an opportunity to support and mentor graduate students working at the intersection of art and technology.

Education

Ph.D. Information, University of Toronto

M.A. Sociology, Queen’s University

B.A. Sociology/Philosophy, University of Alberta

Publications

Manuscripts

Scarlett, A. (Forthcoming) The Artist Incorporated: Artist Residencies and the Contingent Histories of Art and Computation. Bloomsbury, International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics.

Special Issues

Hand, M. & Scarlett, A. (2023) "Machine Vision in Context: Politics and Practices of Computational
Seeing," Photographies. Vol. 16:2
Scarlett, A & Lipton, L. (2023) "Art and/as Algorithmic Critique," Afterimage. Vol. 50: 2
Scarlett, A. & Zeilinger, M. (2019) "Rethinking Affordance," Media Theory. Vol. 3:1

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Scarlett, A. (2025) “Learning from Atrocity: When Machines Regard the Pain of Others,” Philosophy of Photography. Vol. 16.1
Hand, M. & Scarlett, A. (2023) “Machine Vision in Context: Politics and Practices of Computational Seeing,” Special Issue – Photographies. Vol. 16:2
Scarlett, A & Lipton, L. (2023) “Art and/as Algorithmic Critique,” Special Issue – Afterimage. Vol. 50: 2
Scarlett, A. (2023) “Excavating the Origins of Network Art in Canada: Leslie Mezei, Petar Milojević and Computer Art Journalism of the 1960s and 70s,” Variable Conditions: Para-Computational Arts in Canada, 1965 - 1995. Ed. Adam Lauder. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press.
Scarlett, A. (2020) “Artist Residency Programming & the Early Histories of Computer Graphics Research in Canada,” in Computation Arts in Canada 1967 – 1974. Ed. Adam Lauder. London, ON: McIntosh Gallery. Pp. 57 – 78
Scarlett, A. & Hand, M. (2020) “Time and Photography in the 21st Century,” The Routledge Companion to Photography Theory. Ed. Mark Durden and Jane Tormey. 2019
Scarlett, A. & Zeilinger, M. (2019) “Rethinking Affordance,” Media Theory Special Issue: Rethinking Affordance. Eds. Ashley Scarlett & Martin Zeilinger. Vol. 3:1. Pp. 1 – 48.
Scarlett, A. (2017) “On Withdrawal, Abandonment and the Limits of Algorithmic Apprehension,”Parallax, Special Issue: Noötechnics. Ed. Anaïs Nony, Vol. 23, No. 2.
Scarlett, A. (2015) “Interpreting an Improper Materialism: On Aesthesis, Synesthesia and the Digital,” Digital Culture & Society – Special Issue: Digital Material/ism. Vol. 1, No. 1.

Exhibition Curation

Scarlett, A. & Lipton, L. (2021) Contingent Systems. Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, Canada. September 2021 – November 2021.
Zeilinger, M. & Scarlett, A. (2018) Rethinking Affordance. Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany. June – July 2018.

Connect

ashley.scarlett@auarts.ca