My British Academy Postdoctoral project combined my interest in ‘negativity’ - as a philosophical and political impulse - with concerns around past and contemporary technological saturation. The central output of this project will be a monograph (under contract with University of Minnesota Press) that traces a radical rejection of technology throughout history. Empirical case-studies include Archimedes - the world’s first machine-breaker - Christian abbeys refusing statues and architectural feats in medieval times, anti-colonial refusal of Western technological missionaries, lantern smashing in revolutionary France, and ultra left bombings of computer servers in the late 20th century. Digging into the latter, the project includes a video essay titled ‘Machines in Flames’ co-produced with the media theorist Andrew Culp.

My doctoral project worked through the refusal of advertising technologies by conducting the first in-depth study of subvertising - illegal interventions into outdoor advertising. Spending over two years with subvertisers, the thesis examined the subjects, politics and practices of subvertising. Refusing to simply celebrate the potential of an antagonistic practice, it brought into view the intricate relations between advertising and subvertising, shedding unforeseen light on the peculiar ways lifewords at odds with capitalism end up serving its market interests, and the role of the advertising industry therein. To do so, the study offered a conceptualisation of 'recuperative capitalism', and reflects on paths of escape from its overwhelming reach.

Building on my work with subvertisers, I have written on the politics of graffiti, street art and urban arts. This has allowed me to develop a keen interest in the complex research ethics involved in preparing for and undertaking illegal ethnographies. I’ve have written about the stages preceding, during and after fieldwork where our speculative embrace of situated ethics runs up against the law, or where an ethical evaluation calls for us to break the law to remain ethical. The purpose of this writing is to help fellow researchers and students protect themselves, their research-participants and their institutions in the best possible manner.