Joel Humphries

This project aims to provide a comprehensive account of Australians’ experiences of online hostility, abuse, trolling and extremist hate speech, which have increased over the past decade. The research expects to analyse the experiences of diverse Australian online users, moderators and stakeholders, to determine their practices, attitudes, and innovations, and their perceptions on how to address this socialp roblem. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced understanding of the support needs and remedies to online hostility among a diverse cross-section of Australians. This will provide significant benefits by providing roadmaps for improved intervention, support, regulation and education on digital communication in Australia.

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This is a commissioned research project for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). This project conducted a mobile ethnography of diverse Australian users in order to capture data and analyse Australians’ close-to-real-time experience with scam communication, providing an evidence base to support ACMA’s priorities.

[Workshop] Abstract:

In March 2023 Stanford University researchers released Alpaca, an AI model derived from Meta’s LLaMA and fine-tuned on a synthetic dataset of 52,000 instruction parameters generated by ChatGPT-3 using 175 human-written instructions. The Stanford team’s raison d’être was to enable researchers to study and address known ‘deficiencies’ in generative AI, particularly the tendency to “generate false information, propagate social stereotypes, and produce toxic language”. However, days later, the model was taken down due to ‘safety issues’, including ‘hallucinating’ falsehoods and the production of ‘offensive text’.

This workshop invites participants to critically reflect on why Alpaca failed and what it means to ‘fine-tune’ an AI model. Participants will devise 175 original seed tasks, keeping race, gender and politics front of mind. Participants will reflect upon the relation between seed, generation, and hallucination. To what degree is political intervention possible in LLMs? Can a model be ‘tuned’ beyond its foundational parameters, and what consequences follow in an age of increasingly normalised access to generative AI?

[Paper] Abstract:

This paper presents key findings from a digital ethnography of Patch Gaming, a mental health support group hosted on Discord. Patch Gaming is 100% volunteer run, aiming to connect individuals with difficult life experiences through multiplayer gaming. However, instead of fostering connection through games, the Discord server has come to function primarily as a forum for discussing mental health and wellbeing. Grounded in the practice of ethnography, utilising methods of participant observation and interviews, this paper seeks to understand the experiences of and challenges for the volunteer moderators and admin in this shifting, and sometimes volatile online environment. The paper finds that as this Discord server has matured beyond its peak activity, there has been a marked decline in engagement by both users and administration, leading to a gradual erosion of intimacy and care for the users who continue to enter the platform for mental health support. To understand this key finding, the paper examines the relationship between community guidelines and user expectations, patterns of engagement, demographic shifts, and how the platform navigates sensitive issues, such as expressions of suicidal ideation.

This digital ethnography was conducted as part of the ARC Discovery Project: Online Hostility in Australian Digital Cultures. The project aims to provide a comprehensive account of Australians’ experiences of online hostility, abuse, trolling and hate speech by analysing the experiences of diverse Australian online users, moderators and stakeholders. The insights gained from the ethnography of Patch Gaming contribute to this larger investigation, highlighting the challenges faced by moderators and admin in maintaining supportive online environments in the face of evolving digital landscapes.

[Paper] Abstract:

This paper outlines the process of developing a Progressive Web App (PWA), designed for a mobile ethnography that enables research participants to upload near-real-time data about the scam communications they received over a two-week period. PWAs are a type of website that can be installed on a person's smartphone, providing a user experience similar to platform-specific native apps. However, unlike platform-specific apps, PWAs can run on multiple platforms and devices, such as iOS and Android, from a single codebase.

In the planning stages of this ethnographic study, the decision to develop a PWA was not always evident. This paper discusses the rationale behind this choice and the cross-platform benefits of this approach compared to using a traditional website or a platform-specific app for the mobile ethnography.

Based on the participant data collected during the study, the paper evaluates the effectiveness of the PWA in facilitating close-to-real-time data collection. It discusses the challenges encountered during the development and implementation of the PWA, including technical design issues and participant feedback on usability, explains how these challenges were addressed, and plans for future improvements to this method of data collection.

[Paper] Abstract:

This paper presents findings from my research into online queer communities who were trading NFT digital artworks during the crypto-craze of 2022. Despite extensive literature on the rise and fall of cryptocurrency over the last ten years, most studies focus on the impact of blockchain for businesses and digital art collectors, leaving a significant gap regarding the technologies' adoption by LGBTQ+ identifying individuals. Drawing from José Esteban Muñoz's concept of queer futurity, the study employed qualitative methods of digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with queer participants who were creating NFT artworks and sharing these with a community of likeminded individuals. The study further interrogates the utopic rhetoric that was deployed within these communities to justify their interest in and holdings of cryptocurrency. Ultimately, the research found that queer leaders in the space leveraged blockchain technology to foster inclusive digital spaces committed to the circulation of wealth amongst LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people. For the participants I interviewed, this brought power back to queer artists and provided a supportive community organised around a mutual appreciation and holdings of queer NFT art. However, a tension emerged between two queer perspectives of web3 technologies: one rejecting its pro-capitalist and libertarian underpinnings, and another embracing web3 as an opportunity for LGBTQ+ economic mobility.

This is a commissioned research project for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). This project conducted a mobile ethnography of diverse Australian users in order to capture data and analyse Australians’ close-to-real-time experience with scam communication, providing an evidence base to support ACMA’s priorities.

The study’s purpose was to strengthen ACMA’s understanding of consumers experiences with scams, working as a complement to extant data collated.

[Internal report]

Queer Computer is a newsletter cruising the intersections of queerness and technology — exploring the world of computers, games and the internet.

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Planet Desire intertwines moments of poetry, domesticity and sexual communication to create a 3D web experience that invites viewers to explore the work and make their own connections between text and images.

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I am Malcolm is a hybrid of memoir, manifesto, and cultural criticism that explores the intersection of queerness and the internet. Tracing a path from biblical allegory to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from the French Minitel to Tumblr, it examines how queer identity has always been entangled with virtual space—performative, anonymous, erotic, and radical. Blending personal history with queer theory, the piece is a call to reclaim the internet from corporate kings and reimagine it as a site of resistance, desire, and utopian possibility.

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Awarded a competitive travel grant by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) to support attendance at their 2025 Annual Meeting. Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the grant recognises academic merit, participation in the STS community, and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Selected for RMIT Culture’s 2023 Graduate Residency Program, a competitive initiative supporting early-career artists through onsite studio access and creative development. Held at RMIT’s City Campus in Melbourne, the residency provided an independent studio for an eight-week period and culminated in a group exhibition at First Site Gallery, showcasing new work produced during the residency.

This research project investigates how online queer communities utilise new internet technologies to engender opportunities for queer identification and community formation. I define “new internet technologies” as the latest generation of internet-based tools, platforms and protocols that have emerged, or have come into prominence, over the last six years, such as the blockchain, the metaverse and artificial intelligence. While these technologies are not necessarily new inventions, they are distinguished from earlier internet applications by their purported potential to disrupt existing modes of internet usage and drastically change what it means to be online. Although a considerable amount of literature has been published on the development of these technologies, little attention has been given to their specific implications for LGBTQ+ communities. Using the qualitative methods of digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with queer individuals, this study will deploy a Blochian lens to explore the utopian potential of these technologies for queer communities. The study aims to understand how the specific affordances of these technologies may facilitate or hinder the formation and maintenance of queer communities online, ultimately offering insights that could inform both technology development and social policy into the future.

Practice-led degree focused on contemporary publishing and professional writing. Completed an extended internship at Bowen Street Press. Minor thesis examined LGBTQ+ community building on Web3 in Australian and global contexts.

Studied contemporary art history, cultural theory, and visual culture. Gained critical and analytical skills for work across curating, arts writing, and the cultural sector.

Introductory program in screen storytelling, combining theory and hands-on practice across story, image, sound, and production. Developed foundational skills in filmmaking through collaborative projects and creative exercises.