Office: Phelps Hall 6327
Email: offert@gss.ucsb.edu
Website: http://zentralwerkstatt.org
Teaching and Academic Specialization
My research and teaching focuses on the epistemology, aesthetics, and politics of artificial intelligence: I study how machine learning models represent culture and what is at stake when they do. My current book project, Vector Media, writes a new historical epistemology of artificial intelligence. I co-direct the new UCSB Center for the Humanities and Machine Learning, and I am principal investigator of the international research project AI Forensics (2022-25), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. I teach courses on artificial intelligence and digital humanities, as well as German theater and performance art.
Recent Publications
- Offert, F. & Dhaliwal, R.S. “The Method of Critical AI Studies, A Propaedeutic.” [preprint]
- Offert, F. & Phan, T. “A Sign That Spells: DALL-E 2, Invisual Images and The Racial Politics of Feature Space.” Journal of Digital Social Research, 2025
- Offert, F. & Impett, L. “There Is a Digital Art History.” Visual Resources 38(2), 2024
- Offert, F. “On the Concept of History in Foundation Models.” IMAGE 37, 2023
- Offert, F. “Can We Read Neural Networks? Epistemic Implications of two Historical Computer Science Papers”. American Literature 95(2), 2023