Doctoral Research Collaborations
Serpentine Arts Technologies supports doctoral research in collaboration with leading research centres and universities. These partnerships form part of Serpentine’s wider research activity at the intersection of art, technology and society, where creative R&D is developed through exhibitions, commissions, publications, public programmes and cross-sector collaborations. Embedded within a public cultural institution, doctoral projects contribute to ongoing research into artistic practice, advanced technologies, organisational development and the future of cultural infrastructure, while creating opportunities for knowledge exchange between academia, the cultural sector, industry and policy.
Serpentine is currently hosting three doctoral research projects:
2026-30: Maria Cynkier
Where Does Creative R&D Happen? Mapping Processes, Value and Knowledge in Art-Technology Institutions
In partnership with the University of Westminster. AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award and Collaborative Doctoral Award.
Maria Cynkier is a curator and writer. Her research investigates how creative R&D emerges through organisational and infrastructural practices, and how these processes are understood and evaluated.
2026-33: Eva Jäger
Sim2Real: On the Cultural and Political Dimensions of AI in the Real World
In partnership with King’s College London. AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award and Collaborative Doctoral Award.
Eva Jäger is Arts Technologies Curator and Creative AI Lead, Serpentine. This practice-based PhD is grounded in and realised through an upcoming exhibition on this topic.
2026-30: Alice Scope
Curatorial R&D: The Relational Logic of AI Innovation inside Art Institutions
In partnership with King’s College London. AHRC ADAPT-AI Collaborative Doctoral Award.
Alice Scope is a media art curator examining how AI reshapes cultural institutions and the public sphere. This practice-based PhD develops a framework for understanding the value art institutions produce beyond commercial metrics, treating AI innovation as a relational process between artists, curators, institutions and audiences.
Completed doctoral research projects
From Institution to Platform: Organisational Structures and Arts Practices in Network Cultures
In partnership with the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI), London South Bank University.
Victoria Ivanova is a strategist and founder of Vivanova Inc, a studio working across culture, technology and innovation. Over the past 15 years, she has worked at the intersection of cultural institutions, technology companies, research, policy and finance. Most recently, she was Head of Innovation and Future Art Ecosystems at Serpentine, where she developed the Future Art Ecosystems briefing series and incubation platform, alongside initiatives exploring new models of artistic stewardship and AI data governance.
Engineering a Concept of Collaboration for Machine Learning Art Practice
A London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities, Serpentine Arts Technologies and the Creative AI Lab.
Alasdair Milne is a researcher in the philosophy of technology focused on machine learning R&D and its cultural implications. He is a researcher at the Creative AI Lab and Antikythera, an affiliate of the NYU Digital Theory Lab, and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Glasgow. From November 2026, he will hold a fellowship at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, where he will complete his monograph Collaborating Around Machines (2027).
