Eirini Nikopoulou

I am a cinema, philosophy of film, AI personalisation, critical data and spectatorship Doctoral researcher with a professional background in film criticism, curation and programming for exhibition concepts ranging from international film festivals and special seasons, to horizontally-structured, community-led, volunteer-run cinemas.

In 2018, I completed my Masters’ Degree at the Digital Humanities Department, King’s College London, achieving a distinction for my dissertation on audience formations and spectators’ engagement in object-based media ecosystems.

In my doctoral research I explore critically the figuration of the spectator, her agency, and conceptualisations of the cinematic image within the context of a data-intensive, aesthetico-political milieu of personalisation. Interdisciplinary in nature, my study draws on film theory and philosophy of film, aesthetics, post-humanities, critical AI and data studies in order to consider the effects of personalised algorithmic curation and exhibition processes on emerging notions of the cinematic image and spectatorship.

In 2014, I co-founded and became editor-in-chief of Frame !ndependent, a film criticism initiative that explores quality independent and arthouse film, through reviews, longform analytical pieces, interviews with filmmakers, as well as special screenings. "Made truly independently, honestly", Frame !ndependent was created for the love of cinema, and a need to reimagine the ways in which film exhibition, curation and criticism connects meaningfully with filmmakers, audiences, spaces and professionals in a post-digital, post-extraction context.