DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

As the seasonal parties begin in earnest the DCRC team would like to wish everyone compliments of the season as we look forward to a productive 2012.

This will be our final weeknote of 2012 and it seems worthwhile reflecting on an Autumn term that saw a lot of activity:

We are very pleased to announce a partnership with the BBC to conduct a Fusion Lab for UWE students. The BBC will invite the students, in person or online, to the "Second Sight" conference in London in February. Participants will attend 2 intensive development events and receive direct mentoring and technical support by BBC and UWE staff. It promises to be a great opportunity for the participants.

DCRC Director Jonathan Dovey recently returned from New Zealand where he presented a keynote at the Expanding Documentary conference, which happened at Aukland University of Technology. Jon's paper, building from his work with Mandy Rose, addressed some of the potentials and pitfalls of the current new wave of collaborative and interactive documentaries online. Jon has just posted some reflections on his visit here on the blog.

The beginning of December brought the long-awaited arrival of Patrick Crogan's book "Gameplay Mode", available from University of Minnesota Press. To understand the place of computer games in contemporary culture, Patrick argues in his book, we must first understand the military logics that created and continue to inform them. Patrick draws on critical theoretical perspectives on computer-based technoculture to reveal how today’s computer games—and their wider cultural milieu—are informed by the technoscientific program they inherited from the military-industrial complex.

Mandy Rose presented some work from her CollabDocs research, in particular The Are You Happy? project, at the Jean Roche Film Festival in Paris. Mandy is also doing some really interesting work with the Popcorn Maker for interactive media, you can read more about this on her project blog. There are some exciting prospects for the i-Docs conference in this work.

Patrick Crogan took part in the prestigious Impact of technology on the historiography and theory of film conference, held by University of Monteral and Concordia University, which took place in Montreal. Patrick brought to bear his considerable expertise in the work of Bernard Stiegler in his paper 'Experience of the edit', which concerned Stiegler's film theory as a thinking of film as experience generator.

In November, Constance Fleuriot and Carolyn Hassan (Knowle West Media Centre) led the concluding event for our Connected Communities project 'Keeping in Touch'. This event included the presentation of a report of the scoping review conducted by Clodagh Miskelly (available here), which concerned projects across the UK that use everyday technologies such as mobiles with the avowed aim of strengthening community.

In September the DCRC made significant contributions to two international conferences: the ISEA and DiGRA international conferences. The DCRC participated in the Watershed programme of events to mark the centenery of Marshall McLuhan's birth. Dan Dixon has been awarded AHRC/NESTA funding to work with Punchdrunk theatre company and the MIT MediaLab. Constance Fleuriot spoke on a panel at the StoryWorld conference in San Francisco. Tomas Rawlings and the Red Wasp team, based in the Pervasive Media Studio, are creating a new game: 'Call of Cthulhu: The wasted land'.

We have had new DCRC researchers: Jess Linington, has been developing the online resources for the Pervasive Media Cookbook, and Jeanette Monaco, conducted fieldwork for our Connected Communities project 'Measuring Value Networks In The Cultural Industries', which will be presenting findings in 2012.

Tom Abba's ongoing research concerning the evolution of storytelling and its implications for publishing has recently been spotlighted by Media Futures in their report concerning the 'Future of Publishing' and in their recent event at Watershed, "Publish!".

The REACT knowledge exchange hub, led by Jonathan Dovey, conducted the first ideas labs in Exeter and Bristol for the 'Heritage' themed sandbox. This is the first of the knowledge exchange sandbox programmes that will be run through REACT between 2011 and 2014.

In 2012 we look forward to the second i-Docs conference, the REACT hub winding up to full speed, and a range of exciting research projects that we look forward to sharing with you here on our website as they progress.