Ben Grosser

Professor, School of Art and Design
Professor, School of Music
Professor, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
Faculty Affiliate, NCSA
Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Faculty Associate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University

Software culture, social media, AI platforms, computational surveillance, computer vision, data obfuscation.

Ben Grosser investigates how the designs of platform interfaces—from social media to AI chatbots—shape human behavior, desire, and culture. Through tactics such as software recomposition, interface reduction, and radical reimagination, his artworks expose software’s hidden politics and propose alternatives that restore user agency. Recent exhibitions include Centre Pompidou in Paris, Somerset House in London, ZKM in Karlsruhe, SXSW in Austin, and the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo. Grosser’s projects have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel. His artworks are regularly cited in books investigating the cultural effects of technology, including The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, The Metainterface, and Investigative Aesthetics. Grosser is Professor of New Media at the University of Illinois, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.