Katrien Jacobs: Deepfakes and the Revival of Cyber-Feminist Synthetic Bodies

Katrien Jacobs is Associate Professor of Digital Media and Communication at Monash University Malaysia, focusing on sexuality, gender, digital media, and online activism.

This talk traces the history and global rise of deepfakes as a new form of hate media, examining their impact on private lives and public careers. It explores bodily ethics, aesthetics, creativity, and consent in the AI era through examples of toxic and benign deepfakes.

The discussion also features the speaker’s AI artwork The Wet Ones, a sci‑fi narrative about an ageing professor who creates a younger AI clone of himself, inspired by Frankenstein and ancient myths of human–marine hybrids.

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