DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

The week ending the 25th of May is also the 142nd week of the operation of the DCRC and featured a feast of fusion, sandbox and tricksters in the glorious sunshine. 142 years ago, in 1870, the General Post Office took over the functions of telegraphy that had until that time rested in private hands. 1870 also marked the death of the author Charles Dickens, on the 9th of June, whose complete works rank 4th in the best-selling anthologies on the Kindle store.

On Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd of May, UWE researcher Bambo Soyinka convened two events as a part of her AHRC-funded project Translating Tales of the Trickster. During the evening of the 21st, an evening of storytelling 'Tales of the Trickster and the Tricked' was held at the Brewery Theatre in Southville, Bristol. The evening event featured renowned storytellers TUUP and Ben Haggerty. Following the 'Tales of the Trickster and the Tricked' event, on Tuesday 22nd, a well attended open space workshop was convened in the Pervasive Media Studio, featuring Stuart Nolan's 'Bag of Tricks' taster session in magic.

On Wednesday 23rd of May the six REACT Heritage Sandbox projects gathered to here presentations about the progress of some of the projects, including an update on the City Strata project. You can read more about the City Strata project on their project journal on the REACT website and follow the ins and outs of their progress. Recently, Richard Hull of Calvium has written some very informative posts about location tracking and facilitating lots of 'hot spots' of geo-located content.

During the week, members of the DCRC team, colleagues from the Department of Arts and from the BBC gathered to reflect on this year's successful pilot of a Fusion lab on second screens. This continues the conversation between UWE and the BBC concerning promoting and stimulating learning and innovation. Earlier this year, the DCRC collaborated in a pilot three month rapid innovation project involving a cohort of current UWE undergraduate and Masters students and recent alumni to develop Second Screen experiences for broadcast.

Progress continues apace with a special issue of the journal Culture Machine, co-edited by DCRC members Patrick Crogan and Sam Kinsley. The 'Paying Attention' issue will offer an introduction and range of arguments that contribute to a critique of the 'attention economy'. We hope to bring you more news in the near future.