Centre for Digital Cultures

Contemporary culture is characterised by the ubiquity of digital media technologies. Techniques of processing, storing, and transmitting data are continuously reconfigured and with them our everyday practices of connecting, relating, sharing, competing, and communicating. In this dynamic context, The Center for Digital Cultures (CDC) directly engages the emergence of new and complex qualities of socio-technical (in-)formed life. This includes the development of advanced theory and innovative study programmes, as well as the creation of software, media formats, and digital platforms that unleash new forms of collective expression and experiences. The question we pose is: How can we understand and shape digital cultures today?

The digital shift re-shapes the cultural sectors, and, indeed, everyday life, politics, law, and economics. The Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC), affiliated to Leuphana University of Lüneburg, examines this shift through a range of inter-disciplinary methodologies, including media, cultural and social studies, through knowledge creation and transfer, as well as by developing experimental and interventionist media practices. Emerging from the Lüneburg Innovation Incubator in 2012, the CDC currently includes 23 university teachers and 86 research affiliates. Additionally, up to 20 international visiting fellows join our research community each year to collaborate on important and shifting topics around digital cultures. Since its inception, the CDC has built an innovative network and research environment, where academic institutions, industry partners, and civil society stakeholders cooperate and develop new concepts, formats, and applications within digital cultures. The Center is committed to public dialogue and impact, organizing over 50 public talks and presentations, as well as 50 publications each year.