Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Bérénice Serra
2026-2027
Discipline(s)
Arts and arts studies
Theme(s)
Identity; Other; Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Berenice Serra (born 1990 in France) is a media artist based in Zurich. Her work explores how visual cultures function within networked environments, examining how images circulate and become operative across technical, social, and political contexts.
Her research draws on the politics of user-generated content, open-source intelligence methods (OSINT), and post-digital writing systems. Her projects have examined how offline selfies can be repurposed in facial recognition datasets, how gestural text input constitutes a form of writing on touchscreens, and how openly available images are analyzed to document conflicts from a distance. Working in the tradition of tactical media, she is especially interested in everyday uses of technology that challenge existing systems.
From 2023 to 2026, Berenice was guest professor at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW (CH). Following her fellowship at the Collegium Helveticum, she will join the Solitude Fellowship at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE). Her work has been shown internationally at Biennale Némo (Paris, FR), Ars Electronica (Linz, AT), Athens Digital Art Festival (GR), CCA (Kitakyushu, JP), and Regionale 26 (Basel, CH), among others.
Research Project
Watch Your Kids! On the Politicization of Adult-Child Relationships Through Media Technologies
From tracking devices to facial recognition age checks, digital technology quietly shapes what childhood means today. This project investigates the design and visual cultures of these systems, and how they guide political imaginaries between adults and children.
For the past year or two, a wave of new regulations has aimed to keep children out of digital spaces, including social media bans for those under sixteen. These measures picture children as vulnerable users who need protection from harmful online interactions, data collection, and other technological risks. However, children’s digital lives are not reduced to online social activity. From smartwatches designed for kids to facial recognition algorithms used for age verification, or the digital archives of thousands of images parents share, digital technology shapes not only what children do online, but also how their relationships with adults take form.
At the Collegium, Bérénice will develop Watch Your Kids!, a video essay on how digital systems contribute to defining what childhood means today, and how their design choices reflect broader political views, uncovering power dynamics underlying adult-child relationships. By looking closely at the infrastructures that organize children’s digital lives, the project questions current protectionist approaches and explores other ways of thinking about children's autonomy and agency in networked societies.
Research Interests:
tracking devices; facial recognition; digital technology; childhood; visual cultures