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ONGOING

2026
03.26

2025
09.25

08.25

12. 25
12. 25

12.25
03.25
03.25



WS25/26





SS25/26


Information

FAiR 2026

Law, Technology and Humans Journal


HUMAN OVERS[A]IGHT:
THE OPS ROOM

Aarhus 25 / Paper

VINCI 25 / Paper
VINCI 25 / Art Track

OIC Masterclass
re:publica / Panel
STS Hub / Panel


Teaching
Fundamentals of Innovation

Interdisciplinary Projects I

Evolution of Disruptive Technologies


   © Metaverse Lab 2026 / website: Kristina Tica
Metaverse Lab


Linz Institute for Transformative Change [LIFT_C]
Johannes Kepler University Linz

LIT Open Innovation Center
Altenberger Straße 69
4040 Linz

Metaverse Lab is a research group at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. This is an online portfolio and an archive of research projects, conferences, papers and teaching that is developed at the Metaverse Lab up-to-date.

The digital space, along with its interfaces to the analog world, can be understood as the "Metaverse"—a space beyond ("meta") the (physical) universe ("universe"). Social media, AI-driven chatbots, and cryptocurrencies are current manifestations of the Metaverse. In this space, there are no (state) borders, meaning that state sovereignty, with its power to enact laws, can only be exercised in a very limited way. In practice, sovereignty primarily lies with the tech giants of Silicon Valley, which has significant consequences for the rule of law and its liberal democratic order. Led by Professor Meinhard Lukas, the goal of the Metaverse Lab is to explore the transformation within and through the Metaverse using a radical, root-focused, interdisciplinary approach.
 

TEAM


 Univ.- Prof. Dr. Meinhard Lukas / head of the lab
Dr. Joaquín Santuber / research group lead
Kristina Tica MA MA / university assistant
Mariana Costa Morais MSc BSc / university assistant

Further Links:
metaverselab [at] jku.at
jku.at 


NEWS



19 July 2026CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
Kristina Tica presenting Art Paper "From Computer Vision to the Vision of Law: Human Overs[a]ight" at SIGGRAPH 2026, Los Angeles, CA. Tica, K., Santuber, J. 2026.
https://s2026.conference-schedule.org/presentation/?id=artpl_233&sess=sess232

29 June 2026
ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN ACM DIGITAL LIBRARY
From Computer Vision to the Vision of Law: Human Overs[a]ight. Tica, K., Santuber, J. 2026. Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Vol. 9, No. 3, Article 37, pp. 1–10.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3816088

25 June 2026 BOOK PUBLISHED
The Socio-Politics of Legal Design and its Epistemic Consequences. Edited by Siddharth Peter de Souza and Joaquín Santuber. Oñati International Series in Law and Society, Bloomsbury.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sociopolitics-of-legal-design-and-its-epistemic-consequences-9781509990085/  

26 March 2026  AI Cafe #3: Your Machines, Their Rules? – Legality, Rights, and Accountability in Algorithmic Society // with Kristina Tica, Raphael Albert & Joaquín Santuberservus x theater phoenix / stadtwerkstatt | 18:00-19:30

15 March 2026
Article published in Law, Technology and Humans Journal
Dis/ordering AI–Human Oversight: Materialities, Aesthetics and Contestability. 2026. J. Santuber, M. Morais, K. Tica.
https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.4170 

4 March 2026 BOOK LAUNCH
Mariana Morais had launched as co-writer and co-editor the book “Legal Design > Visual Law: a prática do Design Jurídico” in Brazil.

March 2026 VISITING PROFESSORSHIP
Joaquin Santuber has been appointed Visiting Professor at the School of Design of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
14 February 2026 CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
Reading the EU AI Act as a Cultural Artefact
Joaquín Santuber, 2026, presented at  the 9th International Conference “Legal Perspectives on the Internet” (COPEJI 9.0), hosted by the  Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania.
13 February 2026 GUEST LECTURE
Law, Design, and Transformative Change
Joaquín Santuber, 2026, at the Go Digital with Law Winter School, hosted by the  Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania.
https://www.jku.at/ec2u/news-events/news/detail/news/gemeinsam-eine-digitale-zukunft-gestalten-highlights-der-ec2u-winter-school-in-iasi/ 


_

ARCHIVE



19 December 2025 RESEARCH ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN ACM DIGITAL LIBRARY
Visualizing AI Operations for Human Oversight: The Ops Room.
Joaquin Santuber and Kristina Tica. 2025.
In Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI '25).
Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 39, 1–5.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3769534.3769580

HUMAN OVERS[A]IGHT: THE OPS ROOM. [Art Track]
Joaquin Santuber and Kristina Tica. 2025.
In Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI '25).
Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 75, 1–3.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3769534.3769583

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15 December 2025 OIC MASTERCLASS #2: CREATIVE PRACTICES AS KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
JOAQUÍN SANTUBER AND KRISTINA TICA / BLOG POST

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01-03 December 2025VINCI 2025 Conference, Linz
Visualizing AI operations for Human Oversight: The Ops Room (short paper) /
Human Overs[a]ight: the Ops Room (art track)
Joaquín Santuber and Kristina Tica

–27 November 2025 OIC MASTERCLASS #2: CREATIVE PRACTICES AS KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
JOAQUÍN SANTUBER AND KRISTINA TICALIT OPEN INOVATION CENTER  JKU
 LIT Open Innovation Center 
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14-16 October 2025X Coimbra International Conference on Human Rights (CIDHCoimbra 2025)
Paper presentation: How user-centered design drives neoliberal logic in public institutions.
Mariana Costa Morais

September 2025  PANEL Legal Design Summit 2026, Helsinki
Opening Up Possibilities for Legal Design,
Joaquín Santuber

–03-07 September 2025 EXHIBITION
HUMAN OVERS[A]IGHT: THE OPS ROOM at the Ars Electronica Festival Kristina Tica & Joaquín Santuber, 2025

18 August 2025
RESEARCH ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN ACM DIGITAL LIBRARY:
COMPUTING HUMAN OVERS[A]IGHT:LAW/APPARATUS\VISION/AGENCY / 
Proceedings of the sixth decennial Aarhus Conference: Computing (X) Crisis

19-22 August 2025COMPUTING HUMAN OVERS[A]IGHT:LAW/APPARATUS\VISION/AGENCY
research paper 
presented at The sixth decennial Aarhus Conference: Computing (X) Crisis




DR. JOAQUÍN SANTUBER


Joaquín Santuber is a lawyer and obtained his PhD in Design and IT-Systems from the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Potsdam, Germany on the topic of designing for digital justice. As research-group lead of the Metaverse Lab, Johannes Kepler University Linz, he works with art-based and design approaches to address the questions of legality in digital environments.

He has been an Assistant Professor at Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, research fellow at the Humboldt’s Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, and the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. Currently, Joaquín serves as editor of the LD Journal and as a visiting professor of the School of Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
LINKS





CV


EMPLOYMENT

Aug 2024- present: Research Group Lead (Assistant Professor), Metaverse Lab, Linz Institute for Transformative Change, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria 

Mar 2025 – Mar 2027: Visiting Professor, The School of Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 



EDUCATION 

2018-2023: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D., magna cum laude) in Design in IT-Systems at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany 
   - Visiting Researcher Center for Social Studies, (CES), University of Coimbra, Portugal (2022)
   - Fellow of the Humboldt’s Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, Germany (2020)
   - Summer School Exp. —Questions of Perception in Art and Science, University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany.(2019)
   -Researcher HPI-Stanford University Design Thinking Research Program, Potsdam, Germany-Palo Alto, USA (2018-2022)

2017-2018: Advanced and Basic Track at HPI School of Design Thinking, Potsdam, Germany  

2016: Global Entrepreneurship Summer School in Social Innovation - Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, Munich, Germany 2016  

2013-2014: Fully qualified lawyer, Supreme Court of Justice, Chile  

2008-2013: Law degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (two votes of distinction), Chile 



FORMER ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS

Apr 2024- Dec 2024: Fellow at GovTech Latam by BID LAB and IE University (global, remote) 

Jan 2024- Jul 2024: Coordinator Design for Justice Lab, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 

Jan 2024- July 2024: Assistant Professor of Law and Technology, Faculty of Law, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 

Jan 2023 – Dec 2023: Postdoctoral Researcher at The Center for Advanced Design Studies, Palo Alto, USA  


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

Monographs: 

De Souza, S., Santuber, J. (Eds.) (forthcoming, 2026) The Socio-Politics of Legal Design and its Epistemic Consequences. Hart-Bloomsbury as part of the Oñati International Series, prepared for the Oñati Institute for the Sociology of Law, 2024 Workshop Series, July 4-5. 

Santuber, J. (2023). Designing for Digital Justice: An Entanglement of People, Law, and Technologies [Doctoral Thesis, University of Potsdam]. https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-60417  

Selected Journal Articles 
Santuber, J., Nousiainen, K., Toohey, L., Rossi, A., & Ducato, R. (2024). Editorial. Legal Design Journal, 1(1), 1–3. https://legaldesign-journal.scholasticahq.com/article/122660-editorial-issue-1-1' target  

Hakkarainen, J., Santuber, J. (2024) Come in and See: Translating a Design Pattern from the Courtroom into an Online Environment. DISO 3, 27.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-024-00112-3  

Abou Refaie, R., & Santuber, J. (2023). Risks and Challenges to e-Justice Principles: Governing Remote Work, Online Hearings and the Use of Social Media in Chilean Courts. JeDEM - EJournal of EDemocracy and Open Government, 15(2), 118–147. Retrieved from https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/804

Santuber, J., Krawietz, L. (2021) The Sociomateriality of Justice: A Relational Ontology for Legal Design in RChD: creación y pensamiento, 6(11), Universidad de Chile 2021, 6(11)  http://rchd.uchile.cl  

Santuber J., Krawietz, L., Owoyele B., Edelman J.A. (2019). A Framework Theory of Legal Design for the Emergence of Change in the Digital Legal Society in Rechtstheorie (RT), Band 50, Heft 1 2019. 

Selected Conference Papers: 

Tica, K. & Santuber, J. (2025) Computing Human Overs[a]ight: Law/Apparatus\Vision/Agency. AAR 2025: The sixth decennial Aarhus conference: Computing X Crisis, Aarhus N, Denmark, August 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3744169.3744187

Santuber, J. & Macloud, E. (2024). The Five Es: Propositions to Designing for Access to Justice in the Court of Tomorrow. International Access to Justice Forum 2024, Toronto, Canada. 

Santuber, J., and Hermansen, P. (2023) Shifting identities: new materialities of power and control, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.501  

Santuber, J., Abou Refaie, R., Meinel, Ch. (2022). Interrogating e-Justice: Lessons from Digitalizing Courts in Chile at EGOV2022 – IFIP EGOV-CeDEM-EPART 2022 conference proceedings, Linköping, Sweden. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3399/paper5.pdf  

Santuber, J., Edelman, J.A. (2022). Designing with theories: producing Legal Design diffractively in courts of justice in the Proceedings of Design Research Society Conference 2022, Bilbao 

Abou Refaie, R., Santuber, J., Meinel, Ch. (2022). Digitalized Practices in Public Organizations: Opportunities for Open Innovation in ISPIM Conference Proceedings; Manchester, 2022. 

Santuber, J., Abou Refaie, R and Meinel, Ch. (2021). Delivering Digital Justice: Liminal Innovation & Permanence in Courts in the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) 2021 Proceedings. 34. https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2021/34  


Selected Book Chapters: 
Santuber, J., De Souza, S. (forthcoming, 2026) From Legal Design to legal designing: opening up the field of possibilities in The Socio-Politics of Legal Design and its Epistemic Consequences, De Souza and Santuber (Eds.), Hart-Bloomsbury. 

Hermansen, P., Santuber, J. (forthcoming, 2026) Beyond the user experience: designing for the sublime in courts of justice, in The Socio-Politics of Legal Design and its Epistemic Consequences, De Souza and Santuber (Eds.), Hart-Bloomsbury. 

Santuber, J., Hermansen, P. (2024) Designing for Posthuman Legalities: Legal Design and the Ontological Turn, in Design(s) for Law, Ducato, R., and Strowell, A (eds.). Ledizoni.  

Edelman, J.A., Santuber, J., Owoyele, B. (2023). A Genealogy of Designing as Performance. In: Meinel, C., Leifer, L. (eds) Design Thinking Research. Understanding Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36103-6_18  

Santuber, J. and Krawietz, Lina (2021). User Research Methodologies In Legal Design Projects: Lessons From Practice in Ducato, R, Strowell, A (eds.) Legal Design Perspectives: Theoretical and Practical Insights from the Field. Ledizioni.