Duller, Niki

Fellow at IAS-STS: 2017/2018

Niki Duller is a doctoral candidate and University Lecturer at the department of Media and Communication Studies at the Alpen-Adria University (Klagenfurt, Austria). She is writing her PhD thesis in Media and Communication Studies on the topic of sex machines. Niki Duller was previously working as a Research and Teaching Associate at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the Alpen-Adria University and held a post of a researcher on the research project ‘Subject Formations and Digital Culture’.

Project at IAS-STS: The Cultures & Powers of Sex Machines - On the Transformations of Sex with New Media and Technologies

These are times of deep mediatization. Structures and practices within all areas of culture and society, from politics to economy reaching to our most personal spots are changing in relation to media. New Media and technologies increasingly frame and transform all aspects of life, even our most personal ones, our bodies and fantasies, and reach to the most intimate corners of sexuality. Sex machines are embedded in these transformations. Research on the topic is just starting and lacks empirical studies. Up to now there is no frame of orientation for discussions in the regulatory field of values, norms and legislations, the realm of personal morals and corporate ethics, and the politics of sex machines; the tensions, the struggles and the opportunities of empowerment that emerge within deeply mediatized sexualities. A triangulation of theories, data and methods and a research design that combines Cultural Studies, Grounded Theory, Situational Analysis and Actor-Network Theory correspond with the heterogeneity of the field. This PhD strives to provide a systematic and thorough analysis of sex machines for further research and discussions on the intimate transformations within technically mediated sexualities that are only about to start.

Selected Publications

Duller, N., Rodriguez-Amat, J.R. (in press). Sex Machines as Mediatized Sexualities: Ethical and Social Implications. In: Eberwein, T., Karmasin, M., Krotz, F., Rath M. (eds.) Responsibility and Resistance. Ethics in Mediatized Worlds, Springer VS Verlag.

Duller, N., & Rodriguez-Amat, J.R. (2012). Deconstructing Sex machines. Nyx, a nocturnal 7, 100-109.

Duller, N. (2017). What about Sex with Robots? Sex Machines, Eroticism & Porn, 11.11.2017, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Cinerotic: Eroticism in Films and Video Games, Klagenfurt.