Hello World. My Name Is:
Aysha O'Brien.
Some kind of digital humanities researcher, speculative designer, and recovering brand strategist. I’m currently pursuing a Master’s in Digital Humanities and Gender/Social Justice at the University of Alberta, where my research explores the emotional and political implications of algorithmic systems, surveillance infrastructures, and digital interfaces.
I’m currently based on Treaty 6 Territory (Edmonton, Canada), collaborating with plants, ghosts, and algorithms.
My work lives at the intersection of technology, culture, and power — and often, at the threshold between signal and noise, where algorithms falter, interfaces fracture, and something more human seeps through. I use a hybrid practice grounded in feminist technoscience and design justice, building tools, narratives, and interventions that challenge computational neutrality and invite reflection, disruption, and refusal. Through Auralia, a speculative design lab and glitch-tracer persona, I develop interactive installations, browser rituals, biosensor experiments, and poetic systems that explore how bias, memory, and resistance travel through code.
Before grad school, I spent over a decade in the design space helping offbeat, thoughtful brands find their voice. Now, I’m more interested in breaking design rules and exploring what happens when we build for care, not control.
If you're here, maybe you're curious too.
Skills
Critical Research — Digital humanities, feminist technoscience, algorithmic bias
Creative Tech — Glitch design, speculative interfaces, hybrid analog-digital systems
Interactive Media — JavaScript, Twine, Ren’Py, biosensor integration
Strategic Communication — Brand storytelling, design strategy, public engagement
