David is based in the Centre for Critical Theory, a research centre located in the department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham. Broadly working at the intersection of politics and aesthetics, his PhD ‘Anonymity and the Art of Surface: The Politics of Opacity’ focuses on the concept of anonymity and its critical relation to the production of subjectivity. Drawing on Critical Theory, Continental Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Sociology, Art Theory, Literary Theory and case studies distilled from political and cultural practice, his PhD thesis brings together disparate scholarship concerning the concept of anonymity and its cognates, advancing an in-depth account of particular forms of resistance that cultivate an aesthetic of anonymity. Conceived to further develop new and recent discussions of contemporary subjectivity, and expand upon new theoretical and practical developments regarding resistance to late capitalism, his research seeks to conceptually develop novel expressions of the political and cultural imaginary in the digital age.

Beyond academia, David has a variety of interests. He is co-founder of the experimental education project, The Sitting Room University, publishes an occasional journal called Lump, has been commissioned to create installations for festivals (including a giant camera obscura), and sometimes exhibits his photography. He is currently working on both an exhibition project and a first collection of poetry.