I am currently working on three associated research projects including: (1) Evidentiary Aesthetics after the Operational Image investigates how emerging perceptions and discursive configurations of generative realisms are challenging and reconfiguring traditional conceptualizations of photography, photorealism, and evidentiary visuals; (2) The Artist Incorporated: Artist Residencies and the Contingent Histories of Art and Computation charts the role that artists-in-residence have played in spurring innovation and critique across the histories of computation; and (3) The Warped Histories of Computerization: Charting Genealogical Intersections of Weaving, Computing, and Discourses of Automation adopts a media archaeological approach to investigate, map, and critically analyse the shared histories and contemporary entanglements of weaving, computation, and discourses of automation.
PUBLICATIONS
Manuscript
Scarlett, A. (Under Contract) 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.
Forthcoming (Accepted/Contracted)
Scarlett, A. (Forthcoming - July 2027) “Material Aesthetics: Grace C. Hertlein and the Varied Computer Arts,” Feminist Media Histories.
Scarlett, A. (Forthcoming - Fall 2026) “Grace C. Hertlein, Second Generation Computer Artist,” Grace C Hertlein - Solo Exhibition Catalogue, Janet Turner Print Museum, Chico, California.
Scarlett, A. (Forthcoming - accepted) “New Media Arts,” Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture. Eds. Barry Sandywell & Martin Hand. London: Bloomsbury.
Scarlett, A. (Forthcoming - accepted) “Algorithmic Art,” Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture. Eds. Barry Sandywell & Martin Hand. London: Bloomsbury.
Scarlett, A. (In-Progress) “Photographic Communication After Generative Realism,” Research Handbook on Visual Communication. Eds. Martin Hand and Katharina Lobinger. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
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.
An introduction to the research projects (completed and ongoing) that have resulted in these and other forthcoming publications can be found below:
Machine Vision in Context: Politics and Practices of Computational Seeing (2019 - )
Genealogies of the Techno-Industrial Residency (2017 - )
Contingent Systems: On Art and/as Algorithmic Critique (2019 - 2023)