Associate Professor, Department of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
During his Artist-in-Residence Tandem Fellowship, Pablo Velasco will collaborate with artist Amy Boulton the project 'Data Intimacies: Love and labour in an age of AI'
Data Intimacies examines how AI chatbots stage intimacy through affective, human-like interaction, producing attachments for extractive data economies. Framed within Critical Data Studies, speculative fiction, and artistic research, the project interrogates automated emotional labour and the commodification of care in commercial chat-based AI. Through an embodied VR artwork featuring an AI avatar, public workshops, an exhibition, and a publication, the project explores, critiques, and reframes emotional labour and intimate interactions within emerging forms of digital subjectivity.
Pablo Velasco (he/him) is Associate Professor of Digital Methods and Critical Data Studies at the department of Digital Design & Information Studies (University of Aarhus), and director of the C4CDP research centre. He holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies (University of Warwick). His research critically explores digital culture and practices through the prism of technical infrastructures and digital devices. More information about his work can be found at: pablov.me
Project title: Data Intimacies: Love and labour in an age of AI
Area of research: Digital design
Fellowship period: 1 Sep 2026 - 30 Jun 2027
Fellowship type: Artist-in-Residence Tandem Fellow
Contact: TBA
This fellowship has received funding from The Aarhus University Research Foundation (AUFF)
