Katherine Butcher is a PhD candidate at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT), Faculty of Architecture and Design, and an Honorary Visiting Researcher at the Creativity and Cognition Studios, University of Technology Sydney.
When faces can be copied, faked and circulated without consent, what happens to trust, privacy and the ability to appear in public? What is being enjoyed in the enclosure? Her PhD artistic research examines the human face as a site of extraction under algorithmic systems, including deepfakes and AI-generated image abuse. The project is titled EPIS(T)EMIC EROTIC: The Terror of the Other, Undead Faces, Epistemic Harm and Relational Knowledge Practices. Drawing on Tania Bruguera's concept of political timing specificity, she makes work for the window in which political and institutional responses to new technologies are still being decided.
Across media, performance and dialogue-based works, the research does not begin with predetermined outcomes; it asks what becomes possible when knowledge is made with others. Facing Deepfakes: A Dialogue about Digital Violence and Privacy in Norway, convened at NTNU's Kavli Institute in 2026 with the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue, brought together NTNU researchers and administrators with cryptographers, legal scholars, digital policy authorities, child protection advocates and police. The dialogue was not recorded, protecting each participant's right to self-revelation: the agency to decide how, when and to whom they appear. Friction, opacity and preserved ambiguity are treated as ethical counter-practices to perpetual capture. Ongoing work explores how face-to-face, relational research methods can build nuanced public knowledge and support empowered change on difficult issues such as digital violence.
Research networks
Socially Engaged Art Research (SEAR), NTNU
EU COST Action CA23158 ARTinRARE: Artistic Intelligence – Responsiveness, Accessibility, Responsibility, Equity
MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity, working groups:
Work Package 2: AI for artistic processes
Work Package 5: AI in the creative and cultural industries
Work Package 7: Human-centric AI for creative problem-solving
