DRHA16 - Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts

Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference

University of Brighton, September 4th – 7th 2016.

DRHA 2016 will take place in Brighton for the 20th anniversary of the network and conference. The annual conference has become one of the foremost in the world in facilitating dialogue between academics and practitioners from:

• Digital Arts and Humanities,
• Creative Industries,
• Digital Libraries and Archives

CENTRAL THEME

Place, Ecology and the Digital

The ‘digital’ can imply a sense of everywhere and at the same time nowhere in particular. The combination with place and ecology invites reflection on what it is to be: situated; embedded in complex nested systems; to be in relationship to place and, further, how the digital may challenge or facilitate this. Place could refer to ideas of localism; to community and to geographical base, or equally it may refer to more abstract, distributed or virtual realms or networks.

DRHA 2016 continues where the conference in 2015 (Dublin) left off in asking how we can engage with some of the ‘wicked problems’ and grand challenges of our time. The conference will offer a platform to ‘labs’ that offer insights into approaches and methods for facilitating interdisciplinarity.

Complex contemporary issues resist single-disciplinary enquiry and require hybrid or emergent methods. The conference will also bring together lab curators and facilitators so that the network can collaboratively reflect upon, evaluate and refine methods for resolving grand challenges. You are invited to submit a proposal - as a paper, workshop, roundtable or panel - that showcases work that offers insights into pedagogical and methodological approaches to facilitating interdisciplinary labs, or the resulting research outputs and case studies.

The University of Brighton is proud to be hosting the conference and invites new and challenging papers, panels, installations, performances, workshop sessions and other events from the arts and humanities. We are particularly interested in research that crosses, or works between disciplines, and in work that specifically responds to the conference theme.

The conference and wider programme is likely to be of particular interest to those involved with:

• Big data
• Interdisciplinary labs
• The Digital economy
• Open access and open source
• Playable cities
• Climate change mitigation
• Smart cities
• Digital museums, archives and engagement programmes
• Community-led planning processes
• Social media and active citizenship
• Sustainable cities, communities and urban agriculture
• Placemaking
• Performance and embodied experience of place
• Rapid urbanisation and mass migration
• Conflict and climate change
• Leadership in the arts and cultural sector
• The intersection between the arts, business and the digital economy
• Museums and exhibitions, digital curation and heritage
• Digital humanities, textual practices and communities

COMMISSIONS and CURATED PROGRAMME

DRHA comprises an academic conference and a curated programme. Along with the call for papers proposals for creative work that responds to the theme are particularly welcomed and may also be eligible for inclusion in the co-curated Brighton Digital Festival that will take place at the same time as DRHA2016. The curatorial panel will be comprised of representatives of DRHA and cultural partners in the city of Brighton. There will be opportunities to create/install work thought the city in partnership with Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica Gallery, ONCA Gallery and the University of Brighton Gallery.

CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

There will be opportunities to have work published in conference proceedings.

CONFERENCE PARTNERS

DRHA2016 has established partnerships with:

• Brighton Digital Festival (BDF)

• Fabrica Gallery

• ONCA Gallery

• Brighton Photo Biennial

• Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF)
  

THE CITY

Brighton is one of the UK’s most exciting cities with a remarkable number of creative individuals and enterprises. The city was selected to be the focus of internationally significant research looking at creative clusters because of the concentration of creatives engaged with the digital economy: a growing and important part of the local economy comprising more than 15% of employment. Brighton's Arts and Humanities are highly ranked for its world-leading research and impact. The city boasts a great social scene, a historic palace, the North Laine and The Lanes  for great independent stores, cafes, bars and restaurants.  It is a dynamic and creative city which hosts the largest arts festival in England each May with the Brighton Festival, its Fringe and associated festivals such as HOUSE / Artist Open Houses (visual arts), The Great Escape (music) and B:Fest (young people). Each autumn it also hosts an internationally renowned film festival, Cine City and every two years, the Brighton Photo Biennial;  Both these last two are hosted at the College of Arts. It is also a place of beautiful natural landscapes, with a vibrant seafront along one edge and surrounded on the others by the South Downs National Park. This unique mix of coastal, downs and urban areas has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere. Brighton is 45 minutes by train from London and 20 minutes from Gatwick airport.