Digital Culture Research Centre

The Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC) aims to enable, support and promote world-leading research into the reconfigurations of contemporary techno-cultures. We study the application, practices and politics of emerging technologies; we critically reflect on their ethics, values and aesthetics; we engage our research with a range of partners to further inform development strategies.

DCRC is the hub for a network of researchers from across the University of the West of England. We are actively working across Art & Design, Computer Sciences, Cultural & Media Studies and Geography to investigate the ways in which people make culture through their use of digital communications. While founded in a Cultural Studies tradition we pursue a dynamic interdisciplinary agenda. Critical reflexivity is key to our analysis, our creative arts practices allow for experimentation and innovation with digital media, and a significant part of how we conduct these forms of research is making it useful for the world. The unique character of the DCRC is our mix of criticality, creativity and application.

The DCRC is a partner in the West of England’s leading media innovation lab, the Pervasive Media Studio. The Studio is a unique environment where designers, artists, and engineers share expertise to produce new experiences for media audiences. The Studio develops location based applications, new forms of performance and narrative, games and new forms of projection. DCRC researchers work in the open innovation Studio space, sharing projects and ideas well as supporting the work of the Studio through Knowledge Transfer projects. From 2012, the DCRC & Pervasive Media Studio will host REACT (Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technologies), one of the AHRC’s four national Knowledge Exchange hubs.