معرفی
El Putnam is an Associate Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She teaches digital media practice and theory courses, including BA Media Studies and BA Media and Cultural Studies. Prior roles include Programme Director of the MA in Digital Media at the University of Galway and work at TU Dublin. She holds a PhD from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in Visual Arts: Aesthetics, Art Theory, and Philosophy. As a practicing artist, she exhibits nationally and internationally, focusing on digital media, performance, and wearable technology.
Research interests include digital studies, philosophy of technology, aesthetics, maternal philosophy, gender studies, and critical race theory. She explores creative coding, generative media, and digital performance through an interdisciplinary lens. Notable projects include the 'Under the Feet of Shadows' multimedia collaboration with Mike McCormack, addressing data centre impacts in Ireland through speculative art.
Publications span books like Livestreaming: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Technical Encounter (2024) and The Maternal, Digital Subjectivity, and the Aesthetics of Interruption (2022), along with peer-reviewed articles in Gender, Work and Organization and Frontiers in Communication. Her work critiques technology's societal role, maternal labor, and embodied experience.
Advising PhD students focuses on practice-based digital art and media research. She co-leads the Motherhood Project and collaborates with institutions like Harvard University and the National University of Ireland. Exhibitions include solo shows at Emerson Contemporary (2023) and group displays worldwide, highlighting her exploration of technology’s intersections with human experience.
