TECHNO-IMAGINATIONS: INTERNET LORE IN ASIA
Paolo Casani
With a background in art, humanities and computer science, Paolo Casani presents a multi-layered account on the subjective impact of digital technologies, where traditional interview practices are enmeshed with current social media analytics that use computational linguistic techniques.
His piece, entitled ‘From personal experience to digital expression: an eclectic account’, describes his approach to the investigation about how academics use, experience and express their subjectivity over digital media platforms. Using a mixed methods research design, his research explores in on one hand the qualitative subjective experience of digital technologies in the personal testimonies gathered using semi-structured interviews; on the other, the quantitative manifestations and expression of traits of their self and identity on Twitter studied using natural language processing and machine learning techniques.

Paolo Casani is currently a part-time PhD research student at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. His research is an exploration into ways in which computer, information and communication technologies (ICTs) impact how we see, understand, and conceive ourselves and the world at large. It aims is to collect testimonies and insights about the ways and extent in which these new technologies influence how we experience our sense of self and express and create identity.
Paolo’s academic background includes studies in art and graphic design, the humanities and computer science. He holds a BA in Philosophy and an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London, where he also studied Computer Science. Paolo also has an MSc with Distinction in Business Systems Integration form Brunel University, West London.