Lea Laura Nørregaard Michelsen

Forskning

How does artificial intelligence (AI) affect the ways in which we, humans, see ourselves and others? My current postdoc project investigates how an aesthetics of “fake faces," that is facial images generated with AI, affect cultural understandings of the face and its relation to identity and emotions.

The project explores AI facial filters, deepfakes, and other forms of facial images generated with AI in ordinary social media practices and in artistic practices.

The project proposes that the democratization of AI, and the consequent spread of AI facial images, is occasioning shifts in the perception and cultural understanding of faces, resulting in a kind of technological prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia, or face blindness in popular terms, is a neurological disorder where one has difficulties recognizing faces (Edkins 2015). With the proliferation and popularized use of AI facial images, we experience a different kind of prosopagnosia—not in the sense of a neurological disorder, but instead a sort of cultural disorder where it becomes difficult to read, understand, and navigate facial images, and where one is blinded as to what is actually a representation of a real face and what is a “fake” face.

Rådgivning

I'm an artist mentor/consultant for artists that work somewhere at the intersections of art and the digital. I have a broad knowledge of digital media in general, but I am particularly interested in AI/biometrics/surveillance. Feel free to contact me anytime.

Samarbejder og Formidling

I'm part of the research center Center for Aesthetics of AI Images (AIIM), which can be found here: https://cc.au.dk/en/aiim. 

I'm also part of the research program Arts, Aestethics, and Communities, which can be found here: https://cc.au.dk/en/research/research-programmes/arts-aesthetics-communities.

Outside the university institution, I collaborate with artists who I share interests with. I am always open to collaborations with artists and other academic/nonacademic, cultural/noncultural institutions.

Undervisning

I teach and supervise subjects related to, but not exclusively, contemporary digital art, digital media, surveillance, biopolitics, subjectivity, the genealogy of the face, and the fem/queer. I also teach more fundamental courses like theory of science.

I'm teaching the following courses in 2025:

S2025   Facial Machines, BA Level, Arts Interdisciplinary Course, AU

F2025   Contemporary Art and Culture, MA Level, Aesthetics & Culture, AU

F2025   Art, Images, and Vision in Digital Culture, BA Level, Arts   Internationalization Elective, AU