The Centre for Critical Data Practices and the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University were delighted to host artist and researcher Vladan Joler for a series of teaching sessions and a public talk exploring the politics and poetics of mapping contemporary digital systems.

During his visit, Joler led workshops with students on critical cartographic methods, drawing from his internationally acclaimed projects Anatomy of an AI System and Calculating Empires (with Kate Crawford) as well as his earlier projects in Share lab. Through these sessions, students engaged directly with his approach to mapping as a form of critical inquiry, using visual and spatial methods to interrogate the infrastructures, labour, and power relations embedded within data-driven technologies.

As part of the Centre for Critical Data Practices' seminar series “What Do Critical Data Practices Look Like, and How Do We Care?”, Joler gave an informal presentation and discussion titled “Critical Cartography - Reflections on Methods, Uses, and Limitations.” In this talk, he reflected on the potential of maps as critical tools for understanding complex systems, from planetary-scale networks of extraction and computation to historical configurations of technology, capital, and governance.

Vladan Joler’s visit offered students and researchers an exceptional opportunity to engage with one of the leading figures in critical data visualization and to explore how cartographic practice can make visible the otherwise hidden architectures of the digital world.

Vladan Joler is a researcher and artist whose work spans critical design, counter-cartography, investigative journalism, writing, data visualisation, and related disciplines. His projects explore and visualise various technical and social aspects of algorithmic transparency, digital labour exploitation, invisible infrastructures and other contemporary phenomena in the intersection of technology and society.

With a background rooted in media activism and game hacking, he has curated and organised numerous events and gatherings of internet activists, artists, and investigators, including SHARE events in Belgrade and Beirut.

Joler’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Design Museum, London; and in the permanent exhibition of the Ars Electronica Center, Linz. His work has been presented in over one hundred international exhibitions, including institutions and events such as: ZKM, Karlsruhe; XXII Triennale di Milano; HKW, Berlin; Vienna Biennale; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Transmediale, Berlin; Ars Electronica, Linz; Biennale WRO, Wroclaw; Design Society Shenzhen; Hyundai Motorstudio, Beijing; La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris; the Council of Europe in Strasbourg; and the European Parliament in Brussels.

In 2024, he received the S+T+ARTS 2024 Grand Prize of the European Commission for Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society stimulated by the Arts, together with his collaborator Kate Crawford, for their work Calculating Empires (2024). Joler lives and works in Novi Sad.

In 2025 Joler was awarded a Silver Lion of Venice Architecture Biennale for the work Calculating Empires, created with his collaborator Kate Crawford.