Dr Armelle Skatulski

Profile

Armelle Skatulski is an academic, artist and researcher working across lens-based and computational arts. She is a Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Leeds. She completed a practice-led PhD in Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Art in London funded by an AHRC Scholarship (2023) and was recently awarded a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England for her project Geomapping Generative AI (2026). Armelle has showcased her practice and research at the Slade School of Fine Art UCL, Falmouth University and the Nottingham School of Art & Design as a Visiting Artist. She has worked as a Visiting Lecturer in the UK and abroad for arts institutions such as the Royal College of Art, the Whitechapel Gallery, PhotoMuseum Ireland, and The National College of Art & Design Ireland.

As a researcher, she has worked for various charities and research labs internationally (Reset.tech Australia; The UWA Tech & Policy Lab, University of Western Australia; and the Autonomy Institute, UK) to support public interest research campaigns centred the datafication of work, the personal data economy, and digital rights advocacy.

As an artist, Armelle has exhibited her work in the UK and abroad - including at: the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Dublin, Ireland; the Royal College of Art Research Biennale; PhotoFrome; NAFAE; Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK; and PhotoIreland. Her writing was recently commissioned and published by Arts Cabinet.

Research interests

My current research focuses on the intersections of networked technologies, the data economy, Artificial Intelligence infrastructures, algorithmic governance, labour and resources extraction, and environmental issues. My work has consistently engaged with the relationship between the production of archives, logistics of information, extractivism, and capital gain, in pre-digital economies, as well as in the context of the vast repositories of digital data collected by private companies today via networked technologies.

I currently lead a practice-led research project entitled Geomapping Generative AI which is funded by a National Lottery Project Grant by Arts Council England. During this year-long R&D project, I follow an interdisciplinary path to map the environmental and societal impacts of generative AI infrastructures, developing research methodologies at the intersection of art practice and qualitative research. Through a practice-led research process combining fieldwork, open-source investigations, spatial mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I will develop a 3D geomap prototype for virtual platforms and expanded screen practice. The prototype will integrate environmental data curated in collaboration with computer scientists and test new ways to represent the environmental footprint of AI infrastructures for diverse publics in inclusive ways.

I have previously been funded by Arts Council England via a DYCP grant for the project Virtual Anatomy (2023), which focused on the socio-technical anatomy of virtual avatars and the mining of personal data during Virtual Reality (VR) interactions. Outcomes of the research were showcased at the Slade Art Research Forum, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (Nov. 2024). During a funded residency at Leeds Creative Labs (2023) I undertook research into the mining of gaze data in VR in collaboration with University of Leeds academics. Outcomes focused on the implication of gaze data mining in terms of personal data, protected characteristics and privacy, when the latter become locked in the digital economy via data rent. Other projects include practice-led research into gestural motion data collection techniques in VR, using collaborative speculative coding (Convention House Residency, East Street Arts, 2022).

As an independent researcher, I have worked for independent research labs internationally (Reset.tech Australia, The UWA Tech & Policy Lab, The Autonomy Institute, UK) to support public interest research campaigns focused on, the datafication of work, automated decision-making and targeted advertising for example, which were aimed at policy reform and digital rights advocacy.

My research interests include:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Infrastructures, extraction and the environment

• Algorithmic governance and the personal data economy

• Networked technologies and digital extractivisim

• The networked image, generative AI and digital extractivism

• The political economy of AI and invisible forms of labour

• Virtual cinematics, attention computing, and expanded screen practice

• Photography, archives and power

• Photography, networked images and power

Qualifications

• PhD Arts & Humanities (Practice-led), AHRC/Techne DTP (Royal College of Art, London, UK).
• MA Cultural Studies (Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK).
• BA (Hons) Photography, School of Media (TU Dublin, Eire).

Student education

I teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level, supervising digital media projects at BA and MA level, and co-leading workshops in digital media practice on the MA Digital Media. I also deliver lectures and seminars in photography and visual culture on a module delivered accross several MA programmes. My teaching role includes resources development, delivery, projects supervision and assessment.