DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

The week ending the 22nd June, the 146th week of the DCRC, brought more discussion of innovations in documentary praxis, inter-continental travel, projects being short-listed for awards and vertiginous debate. The output from Charlotte Crofts' DCRC-supported project has been shortlisted for the Appcircus showcase, while plenty of discussion about the future of publishing and the reconfiguration of documentary practice has proven productive. 146 years ago, in 1866, the author H.G. Wells was born and the Atlantic cable was successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraphic communications for the first time.

Following on from the Sheffield DocFest in week 145, Jonanthan Dovey and Mandy Rose continue to share outcomes from their research collaboration concerning interactive and collaborative documentary making. Between Monday the 18th and Tuesday the 19th Mandy Rose contributed to the "Making Meaning, Making Publics; Collaborative Documentary as DIY Citizenship" two-day workshop, part of 'Creating Publics, Creating Democracies' at the University of Westminster.

On Wednesday the 20th of June, Mandy Rose and Jonathan Dovey presented a paper at the Documentary Now conference entitled "Documentary, Montage, and the Sea of Data". Documentary Now is a conference on the contemporary contexts and possibilities of the documentary. Jon and Mandy's paper concerned the social praxis of documentary in the sea of ‘ubiquitous data’ conjured by the marketeers of Web 2.0, analysing work such as '18 days in Egypt' and building on recent practice-based research such as the 'Are You Happy?' project.

Patrick Crogan travelled to Australia during week 146. He will be presenting papers and giving seminars at a variety of conferences and university departments in the following two weeks. During the coming week, Patrick is giving a paper at the Society of Animation Studies conference 'The Lanimation Machine', in Melbourne, entitled 'The "perceive and act vector: animating military robotics'.

Invisible Airs, a documentary commissioned by the DCRC which examines the database, expenditure and power is on exhibition as part of 'Invisible Forces' at the Furtherfield Gallery, McKenzie Pavillion, Finsbury Park from 16 June – 11 Aug 2012. The documentary concerns the project by artists YoHa of the same name also commissioned by the DCRC in partnership with Bristol City Council's 'b-open' Open Data programme, also exhibited as part of the 'Invisible Forces' programme.

Amongst the six projects shown at the REACT inspire heritage event, on the 18th of June, was the City Strata project. Charlotte Crofts and Creative Economy partner Jo Reid (Calvium) also feature in the new ‘Being REACTive’ video, created by our own Sy Taffel.

The Curzon Memories App, produced as a part of the Context Aware Heritage project, has been shortlisted for the AppCircus showcase and Charlotte Crofts has been invited to present the project to industry professionals on the 4th July in London. The winners of the showcase will be entered into the 'Mobile Premier Awards' in Barcelona, in 2013.

On Friday the 22nd June, Tom Abba facilitated a Bristol Festival of Ideas event concerning Andrew Keen's recent book 'Digital Vertigo', interviewing Keen himself on some of the key themes of the book, not least he central proposition that 'the social media transformation is weakening, disorienting and dividing us rather than establishing the dawn of a new egalitarian and communal age'. This led into some interesting audience engagement.