CSNI is a research centre based in the School of Art and Creative Industries at London South Bank University. It brings together researchers from cultural studies, contemporary art, media and performance practice, software studies and computer science, who seek knowledge and understanding of how network culture transforms the production and circulation of images. We recognise that what constitutes an image has been radically transformed, and with it the theories that allow us to study it. Our aim is to broaden the discussion of the networked image to address planetary scale computation and wider ecologies including the non-human.
CSNI aims to be transdisciplinary in its approach to real world problems. It encourages experimental and collaborative approaches to open up new ways of thinking about individual and organisational cultural practices. CSNI is interested in fostering research which can be made accessible and has a wide public reach, and to this end has pioneered collaborative and embedded research with cultural partners.
If you are interested in collaborating with CSNI, please contact us on our email.
More details on our activities can be found on our dedicated website, https://www.centreforthestudyof.net/.
12 hour extract of the Exhibiting ImageNet project by CSNI researcher Nicolas Malevé as it was displayed and live streamed at The Photographers’ Gallery, July to September 2019.
We are an international group of researchers, joined by an extensive list of visiting researchers from our partners institutions. We welcome applications to spend some research time at CSNI, as well as applications for PhDs in relevant areas of research.
Dan Barnard / Adam Brown / Geoff Cox / Annet Dekker / Andrew Dewdney / Tim Fransen / Jon Lee / Joshua Magor / Elena Marchevska / Paula Roush / Simon Terrill
Mateus Domingos / Rachel Falconer / Teodora Fartan / Rosie Hermon / Victoria Ivanova / Theresa Kneppers / Marco De Mutiis / Kristina Nilles / Lynn Adhiambo Obath / Mētra Saberova / Marloes de Valk / Sannie Wu / Qian Xiao / D'bi.young anitafrika
To view the full Centre for the Study of the Networked Image staff list
For a more extensive list of all researchers associated with CSNI, visit our people webpage.
Image generated by dall-e mini, from all our names.
Learning Experiments in Computer Vision and Visual Literacy (June-Nov 2022) is funded by The Turing Institute, with a project team of Geoff Cox (CSNI), Annie Davey (UCL Institute of Education), Yasmine Boudiaf (Justice Matrix), Nicolas Malevé (Constant/Aarhus University). Read more.
Documenting Digital Art: Re-thinking Histories and Practices of Documentation in the Museum and Beyond (2019-22) is a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and led by Professor Gabriella Giannachi, University of Exeter. Read more.
Curating Photography in the Networked Image Economy (2018-2020) is a project funded by Swiss National Science Foundation, led by Dr Wolfgang Brückle, Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences. Read more.
The Contemporary Condition: The Representation and Experience of Contemporaneity in and through Contemporary Arts Practice (2016->) is a project funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research at Aarhus University, and led by Jacob Lund and Geoff Cox. Read more.
Art and the Internet: The Network as a Research Area and Theme in New Visual Artistic Practices is a project funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Government of Spain), led by Juan Martín Prada, Universidad de Cádiz. Read more.
Cultural Value and the Digital: Practice, Policy and Theory (2014) was an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project with Royal College of Art and Tate Modern. Read more.
Tate Encounters: Britishness and Visual Cultures (2007-10) was an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project with Wimbledon College of Arts and Tate Britain. Read more.
More details on these projects, including previous ones and future ideas, can be found at our project webpage.
CSNI works with other research centres and has partnerships with Digital Aesthetics Research Centre at Aarhus University, and Networked Images (CSNI), Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at University of Amsterdam (also Australian National University, Exeter University, Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences, Royal College of Art, University of Zurich and UAL), and welcomes further collaborations.
Our work is distinctive for its close collaboration with the cultural sector (e.g. The Photographers’ Gallery, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Gasworks, Ben Uri Gallery, Lyric Hammersmith, Rhizome, Serpentine Galleries, transmediale festival for art and digital culture, Whitechapel Gallery), particularly in support of our collaborative PhD research.
Some current examples include:
The Photographers' Gallery
CSNI and The Photographers’ Gallery have been in a research partnership since 2013. Currently the partnership centres on collaborative PhDs on computer vision and ICT sustainability, as well as support for the Unthinking Photography platform, edited by Ioanna Zouli. Researchers: Nicolas Malevé and Marloes de Valk.
Whitechapel Gallery
In collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, this research partnership sets out to examine the potential of networks – social and technological – for an expanded curatorial practice. The position complements our collaborative course MA Curating Art and Public Programmes. Researcher: Rachel Falconer.
Serpentine Galleries
CSNI has partnered with the Serpentine Galleries to undertake research on building new collaborative networks between the arts and technology in the context of the stark differences between the cultures of the art sector and technology sector. Researcher: Victoria Ivanova.
Gasworks/RCA
The social agency of residencies in transnational art practices is a collaborative project with the contemporary art organisation Gasworks, in partnership with the Curating Contemporary Art programme at the RCA and CSNI. Researcher: Rosie Hermon.
CSNI researchers publish books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers and talks, and act as series editors, e.g., for The Contemporary Condition books (Sternberg Press), DATA browser books (Open Humanities Press), the open access online journal APRJA (Aarhus University and transmediale festival for art and digital culture), and support the Unthinking Photography platform of The Photographers’ Gallery. More information about our research outputs can be found here.
Dewdney, Andrew, and Katrina Sluis, eds. 2022. The Networked Image in Post-Digital Culture. Routledge.
Dekker, Annet, and Gabriella Giannachi, eds. 2022. Documentation as Art: Expanded Digital Practices. Routledge.
Dewdney, Andrew. 2021. Forget Photography: The Image in Network Culture. London: Goldsmiths Press. Read more.
Dekker, Annet. 2021. Curating Digital Art. From Presenting and Collecting Digital Art to Networked Co-Curating. Amsterdam: Valiz. Read more.
Azar, Mitra, Geoff Cox, and Leonardo Impett, eds. 2021. Special issue: Ways of Machine Seeing. AI & Society, Springer 2021. Read more.
Soon, Winnie, and Geoff Cox. 2020. Aesthetic Programming: A Handbook of Software Studies. London: Open Humanities Press. Read more.
Malevé, Nicolas. 2020. "On the data set’s ruins." AI & Society (Special issue: Ways of Machine Seeing), Springer. Read more.
More information about our research outputs can be found at LSBU Open Research and at our publications page.