DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

The DCRC team are variously taking holiday and engaging in research activities away from desks and so we are offering an overview of some of our summertime activities in this post. Normal service for weekly blogging will return in September.

The DCRC are pleased to announce the recently released special issue of the influential Open Humanities Press journal, Culture Machine entitled ‘Paying Attention’. Patrick Crogan (Senior Lecturer) and Sam Kinsley (Research Fellow) of the DCRC co-edited the issue. It was developed from a 2010 conference, 'Paying Attention', convened by the Digital Cultures Research Centre (UWE) with funds from the European Science Foundation, please see the conference website.

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.

As the summer term begins, week 138 was a period of travel and several projects progressing. DCRC Director Jonathan Dovey was invited to present research concerning value networks in pervasive media in Lüneburg and PhD researchers Dan Dixon and Sy Taffel have been involved in conferences and workshops. 138 is the sum of four consecutive prime numbers (29+31+37+41) and on page 138 of New Media: a critical introduction, written by DCRC researchers, the concept of 'hyperrealism' is discussed as 'a distinct and dominant aesthetic in popular animation', developed by Disney, in relation to the notion of 'hyperreality', offered by Baudrillard and Eco.

The weeks leading up to Easter bring the end of term at UWE, the announcement of the first cohort of REACT projects, under the heritage sandbox scheme, and the introduction of our teaching pages on the DCRC website. The 30th of March marks the end of the 134th week and the 6th of April the end of the 135th week of the DCRC.  This fortnight note, a double week note, provides an overview of the DCRC's activites between 26th March and Easter (8th April).

Patrick Crogan has been convening a reading group concerning the writings of the philosopher Bernard Stiegler, which has been attended by a range of people associated with the DCRC.  We have a blog at: technophilia.wordpress.com (please do visit it), but I thought it was time to post some broad reflections on how Stiegler's work relates to some of the research projects currently underway here at the DCRC.