Laura is a DPhil student on the Information, Communication, & the Social Sciences course, funded by a UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Programme studentship. Laura previously completed an MSc in the Social Science of the Internet. Her MSc thesis research, supervised by Professor Gina Neff, took a mixed-methods approach to produce a viewer-defined conceptualization of online digital creativity. Laura’s DPhil research, supervised by Professor Kathryn Eccles, examines the role of algorithms in artistic curation, perception, and creation. She takes an inclusive and international approach with a particular focus on the Global South and people with disabilities. To this end, she is a Fellow at Professor Payal Arora’s FemLab based out of Erasmus University Rotterdam, which examines new labour models in the Global South.
Laura is also a Senior Research Lead at Adobe, where she leads a team that researches emerging creative technologies & platforms. Previous creative applications that she’s worked on have been acknowledged as Apple’s “App of the Day” and as a Webby People’s Choice Award winner.
In previous research positions at Intel and Harvard, she has studied multisensory user experiences in ubiquitous computing, computer vision, and VR/AR environments. Previously, she’s published papers on immersive drawing experiences, afrofeminist virtual environments, and multimodal spatial computing interactions. Her undergraduate research at Princeton University, from which she graduated with honors in Neuroscience & Psychology, investigated the perceptual expertise of artists and was awarded the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Science.
A common thread runs through Laura’s research: an investigation of how emerging technology influences human creativity. Her understanding of the creation process has been deepened by her own artistic practice, and she has exhibited projects at the Tate and Ars Electronica. Laura also sits on the Boards of Trustees for two UK-based arts organizations: Eastside, which provides creative education for historically marginalized youths, and the Old Fire Station, which serves as an artistic hub for people experiencing homelessness.
Creativity; design research; digital art; algorithms; Global South; accessibility; inclusive research
This programme supports research in the sphere of AI & Work.
An exhibit-based research project showcasing images curated by artist Fabienne Hess and Instagram’s algorithm.
This project interrogates the impact of AI on cultural heritages and the presentation of these futures through public-facing exhibition spaces. It will interrogate the agency of AI within exhibit contexts, exploring its role in creativity.
With Professor Andrew Przybylski, Candice Odgers, and Professor John Horton
Professor Przybylski speaks one-on-one with Professor Candice Odgers (UC Irvine) in a virtual fireside chat moderated by Professor John Horton (MIT), discussing parenting, social media and mental health.
8 December 2022
As algorithms infiltrate our visual culture, what impact do they have on how audiences perceive creative content? University of Oxford researchers question the role of algorithmic curation in a forthcoming London exhibit.
Newsweek, 10 March 2023
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can read your mind…if you are hooked up to an fMRI machine and it is trained on how you process visual information.
BBC Radio 4, 27 February 2023
Algorithms are not just changing how we create art, they’ve been curating everything we see and hear online for years.
New Scientist, 07 February 2023
Watch the New Scientist interview with OII doctoral researcher Laura Herman talking about her goals and motivations behind The Algorithmic Pedestal exhibition and research project.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Kathryn Eccles has research interests in the impact of new technologies on Humanities scholarship, and the re-organisation of cultural heritage and higher education in the digital world.
Former Professor of Technology & Society
Professor Neff is the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge. She is a sociologist who studies innovation, the digital transformation of industries, and how new technologies impact work.
