Dr Peter Ainsworth is the Course Leader of MA Photography and Digital Practice at London College of Communication. He is an educator, visual practitioner, and researcher whose current work explores the languages and concepts related to emerging photographic processes, including 3D forms of computer-generated imaging, photogrammetry, generative AI processes, augmented reality (AR) and Extended Reality (XR) experiences.
After graduating with a Master’s degree in Photography from London College of Communication in 2007, Peter began teaching at undergraduate level in 2008. He received his PhD in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His practice-based thesis, The Museum and the Computational Imaging Technology of Mobile Phones (2024), explores the relationship between the visitor and the governance of new forms of imaging technology in this space.
Peter’s wider research focuses on the precarious relationship between image data input through machines as a transformative act, and the physical, aesthetic, ethical, and philosophical differences embedded in new technologies. Employing practice-based research and collaborative dialogue to develop his ideas, his work examines systems of control where distortion, translation, and possible mutation are prevalent, while also highlighting issues of prejudice, surveillance, and the power dynamics that shape our understanding of new forms of imaging technology that rely on photographic inputs to operate.
His recent work investigates how speculative fictions and imaginaries are prevalent in the rhetoric of Big Tech, particularly where science fiction is used as a touchstone for CEOs to communicate visions of the future to the public.