DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

The 136th and 137th weeks of the DCRC brought talks both in the studio and further afield and our own small contribution to the 'entente cordiale', with a visit from Christian Fauré, of Ars Industrialis.

As we have highlighted on Twitter, UWE Bristol are offering 20 PhD studentships across the university to undertake postgraduate study. The DCRC welcome expressions of interest for studying with our researchers, please visit our Doctoral research/teaching page for more information.

On Friday the 13th of April, DCRC PhD researcher Dan Dixon gave a lunchtime talk at the Pervasive Media Studio. Dan talked about the similarities and differences between pre-industrial rituals and pervasive games. Through observations from fieldwork, Dan contends that designers unconsciously use ritual symbolism and processes in their games. He highlighted what this means for the design of pervasive games and discussed what possibilities this raises for them to critically engage in social issues.

Senior Research Fellow Mandy Rose has crossed the Atlantic again recently to deliver a class at Harvard's metalab, on Friday 13th April. metaLAB at Harvard is based at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Graduate School of Design. At the UnionDocs Collaborative, one-year programme for emerging media producers, in Brooklyn, on Sunday 15th of April, Mandy gave a seminar and moderated an event that she has curated on Data / Documentary. 

The DCRC were delighted to host technologist and philosopher Christian Fauré on the 18th April. Christian Fauré is a founding member of the Ars Industrialis association, which he describes as an 'international association to promote political interventions in the development of contemporary digital technoculture', or in French an 'association internationale pour une politique industrielle des technologies de l'esprit'. Christian gave a fascinating insight into how Ars Industrialis are attempting to live up to their mission, and focused on a project they are conducting with the city of Nantes. The DCRC, through Patrick Crogan in particular, are currently exploring opportunities for collaboration with Ars Industrialis.

DCRC Research Fellow Sam Kinsley gave a talk as part of the Passenger Films event on 'virtual space' on Thursday the 19th of April. Sam gave a talk on 'Technicity and the Virtual', in which he explored geographical understandings of 'the virtual'. He gave a brief overview of the various ways in which human geographers have addressed computer-mediated communications and the conceptualisation of 'the virtual' and 'cyberspace'. Sam offered a working definition of the concept of 'technicity' as a means of critically engaging with ongoing studies of our relations with and through technology and signalled how research concerning code/space might be extended. The other speakers at the event were: Prof. Rob Kitchin, one of the authors of the excellent 'Code/Space: software and everyday life', and Paul Nicholls, director of Factory Fifteen. Passenger Films is supported by the UCL UrbanLab and facilitated by Amy Cutler, at Royal Holloway.

As the REACT Heritage Sandbox continues apace, you can follow the 'City Strata' project, which includes DCRC research Charlotte Crofts, on the project blog.