ResearchResearch

Natalie Dixon is the co-founder of Affect Lab, an Amsterdam-based research studio that examines our relationship with technology. Her key focus is on the emotional aspects of communication technologies within marginalized and vulnerable communities. Most recently Natalie has researched the role of mobile communication in resisting instances of shaming and Othering during the European refugee crisis. Her published work investigates how feelings of alienation and belonging are created through a neighbourhood WhatsApp group in South Africa. Natalie is a doctoral candidate in media and communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

"In western cultural history, burn-out tends to be presented as a condition reserved for a particular few, often insinuating issues of class and gender. However, this tendency runs contrary to the reality of burn-out which is a more universal condition that especially impacts working-class women. Addressing this omission in the story of burn-out is significant as routine experiences of exhaustion amongst women tend to be forgotten or relegated in our collective consciousness. Considering this perspective, my research project utilizes a family photo archive as a starting point for awakening a critical train of thought about burn-out in the female body. Contributing to feminist scholarship, this research aims to elevate individual experiences of burn-out to more collective questions of women's work in the family. The central method is a form of narrative unearthing, a way of noticing affective moments in family history by using the female body as a source of information. Most significantly, this story is in conversation with emerging research techniques within the field of machine learning that read and assign meaning to body language. This research will benefit from access to a number of collaborators and archives, notably those of Het Nieuwe Instituut and those concerned with women's work, the body and artificial intelligence."