A Talk about some projects and key themes of the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol for the MA program in Communications at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, on Feb 8, 2016

1. The Digital Cultures
Research Centre
Projects andThemes
Feb 2016
Patrick Crogan
Associate Professor of Digital Cultures
University of theWest of England, Bristol
www.dcrc.org.uk

2. • Image of dcrc space

3. 2 DCRC projects:
1.
A ‘Future Documentary’
sandbox project
to make a ‘Playable
documentary’

4. REACT Hub: AHRC project led by
DCRC founder Jonathan Dovey

5. Sandbox = rapid prototyping lab
meets research ideas
• Jtr blog site
• Auroch logo

6. Research/development process
Historical archives
Experts
Ethical questions
Theoretical questions
Ripper tour, London

7. Game design research
Ripper boardgame
Other games as
inspiration

8. Demos and prototype work
• http://gamethenews.net/index.php/gamifying-jack-the-ripper-a-new-gamethenews-title/

9. 2.
• CT website
• BGH building.

10. Rise of ‘Indie games’
Lucas Pope, Papers Please
(2013)
Auroch Digital, Endgame Syria
(2013)Minecraft, Mojang
(2009)
Angry Birds, Rovio
(2009)

11. Collaboration and creativity

12. www.creativeterritories.dcrc.org.uk

13. Key idea:
creation
always
happens
somewhere

14. Major ResearchTheme:
The Automation of Everyday Life
Unfriendly robots

15. Friendly robots
• s
‘Matilda’, Univ of Latrobe (2010)
‘K5’ Security guard robot,
Knightscope (2014)

16. TomotakaTakahashi’s Kirobo
went into space with a Japanese astronaut

17. Siri

18. Automation and employment
• d
UWE Bristol’s ‘Venturer’ project –
Bristol Robotics Lab
Tom Davenport’s list of jobs
replaceable by big data-based
machine learning and analytics

19. • d
‘3,000’ stories per month on AAP
automatically written

20. http://www.slideshare.net/MassTLC/tom-davenport-slides-automation-augmentation

21. Unemployment Predictions
• Belgium 50%
• England 43%
• Italy and Poland 56%
• Spain ?

22. GAFA etc.
• D

23. Social media:
• Duck or rabbit ?
• Social life or Database?

25. FB Open Graph
• Like button and login button

26. Working 24/7
• TizianaTerranova: ‘Immaterial labour’
• Maurizio Lazzarato: ‘Affective labour’
• JonathanCrary: 24/7

27. Notifications and alerts
• Automation of your ‘time’
• Commerce hates ‘downtime’

28. Social media
• Social life becoming media business.
• Questions: how? – automation is crucial
• Why? – commercial corporate model
• What effect on social life? On individuals and
collectives?
• What effect on the host?That is, our planet?

30. And….
How can we organise digital social mediation
better?
(and, for fun…. some robot fails)
https://www.facebook.com/VirginRadioTurkiye/
videos/10152989330580380/