Congratulations to Dr. Brett Gaylor, PhD Thesis Defense!
Congratulations Dr. Gaylor! With Dr. Ron Wakkary (Committee member), Dr. Kate Hennessy (Supervisor), Dr. Gabriela Aceves-Sepulveda (Defense Chair), Dr. Gillian Russell (SFU Internal Examiner) Tylar Campbell (Guest), Shelley Baart-Gaylor (Guest), and Dr. Sandra Gaudenzi (UCL, External Examiner)
Congratulations to Brett Gaylor, who successfully defended his PhD Dissertation “BrainRot Revolution: Cultivating Internet publics through Speculation, Culture Jamming and Play” at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU. The dissertation will be available in Fall 2026!
BrainRot Revolution: Cultivating Internet publics through Speculation, Culture Jamming and Play
Examining Committee:
Supervisor: Kate Hennessy, SIAT
Committee Member: Ron Wakkay, SIAT
Committee Member: Wendy Chun, CMNS
Examiner: Gillian Russell, SIAT
External Examiner: Sandra Gaudenzi, UCL
Abstract:
This dissertation explores how interactive documentary can be used to cultivate critically literate digital publics. Drawing from over two decades of practice-based media production, I use research-creation to investigate how approaches rooted in speculation, culture jamming and play can help audiences understand and reimagine the social, ethical, and political implications of the networked technologies such as The Internet and Artificial Intelligence. At the centre of my dissertation is a case study of three interactive documentaries: Welcome to the Metaverse, The Education of Ursula, and BrainRot Revolution. These varied experiences invite reflection on how power circulates through data, platforms, and design, while embracing the joy of imagining preferable futures. My approach is informed by traditions of documentary, futures studies, and critical digital literacy. I take inspiration from artists and scholars who make reflexive work that uses digital systems to explore and critique them. From remixing popular game genres to context-jamming platforms like Instagram, my work inserts critical messages directly into the media ecosystems they critique. I build playful, participatory experiences that ask: How can we build the capacities for publics to imagine the Internet otherwise?
These questions are grounded in a broad theoretical foundation that includes interactive documentary, science and technology studies, futures literacy, and persuasive games. Methodologically, I use production as a mode of inquiry: prototyping playable systems and documenting the knowledge generated through artistic practice. This creative research sits alongside a reflective analysis of that process through writing, interviews, and multimedia dissemination. Ultimately, I am interested in how media makers can shape the digital environments in which contemporary publics form, and how hybrid forms like games and interactive documentaries might make space for both critique and imagination.