Centre for Digital Cultures
Organisational unit: Institute
Organisation profile
Contemporary culture is characterized by the ubiquity of digital media technologies and infrastructures, which are constantly configuring our techniques for processing, storing, and transmitting data. As a result, our everyday practices of connecting, relating, reading, writing, perceiving, sharing, competing, and communicating are undergoing significant changes. At the same time, these technologies are closely tied to major societal challenges such as climate change, global conflicts, digital divides and social unjustness. In this dynamic context, the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC) directly addresses the emergence of new and complex qualities of vernacular socio-technical life. This involves the development of advanced theory and innovative study programmes. We are concerned with the question of how we can understand and shape digital cultures today.
Main research areas
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 interdisciplinary methodologies, including media, cultural and social studies, through knowledge creation and transfer, as well as by developing experimental and interventionist media practices. Established in 2012, as one of the first research centres in Europe to research the emergence of digital cultures, the CDC continues to produce cutting-edge research on socio-technical regimes of inclusion and exclusion. Since its inception, the CDC has built an innovative network and research environment, where academic institutions, practitioners, and civil society stakeholders engage with new concepts, formats, and applications within digital cultures.
Current Research Areas
- Climate Futures
- (B)Orders, Identities and Belonging in the Digital Age
- Cities, Infrastructures, Logistics, Platforms
Automating the Logistical City: Space, Algorithm, Speculation
Beverungen, A. (Project manager, academic), Antenucci, I. (Project staff), Voigt, M.-L. (Project staff), Hille, L. (Project staff), Rossiter, N. (Partner), Mattern, S. (Partner) & Halpern, O. (Partner)
Ministry of Science and Culture of the state of Lower Saxony
01.09.21 → 30.09.25
Project: Research
Cities on Demand? Unboxing Urban Un_Certainties from Amazon’s Algorithmic Architectures and Forecasted Futures
Voigt, M.-L. (Project staff)
01.04.22 → …
Project: Dissertation project
CLICK Festival - First Viewer Television
Ruffino, P. (Project manager, academic)
07.05.13 → 12.05.13
Project: Practical Project
Cultures of Critique: Forms, Media, Effects
Söntgen, B. (Project manager, academic), Hörl, E. (Project manager, academic) & Beyes, T. (Project manager, academic)
01.10.16 → 31.07.21
Project: Research
«Curtius Academy» im Rahmen des European Haniel Program on Entrepreneurship and the Humanities (2023-2026)
Beyes, T. (Project manager, academic), Steyaert, C. (Partner) & Holt, R. (Partner)
01.10.23 → 30.09.26
Project: Research
MECS: DFG-Kolleg-Forschergruppe MECS (Medienkulturen der Computersimulation)
Pias, C. (Project manager, academic), Warnke, M. (Project manager, academic), Vehlken, S. (Project staff), Schrape, N. (Project staff), Schrickel, I. (Project staff), Stöcklmayr, N. (Project staff), Engemann, C. (Project staff), Winter, F. (Project staff) & Wellmann, J. (Project staff)
01.01.13 → 31.07.22
Project: Research
DCRL: Digital Cultures Research Lab (2013 - 2016)
Bachmann, G. (Project manager, academic), Pias, C. (Project manager, academic), Beyes, T. (Project manager, academic), Leeker, M. (Project manager, academic), Beverungen, A. (Project staff), Bialski, P. (Project manager, academic), Kaldrack, I. (Project manager, academic), Simons, S. (Project manager, academic), Sprenger, F. (Project manager, academic), Sander, N. (Partner), Gupta, S. (Coordination) & Feigelfeld, P. (Project manager, academic)
Ministry of Science and Culture of the state of Lower Saxony
21.02.13 → 30.06.19
Project: Research
DCRL (2017 - 2022): Digital Cultures Research Lab (2017 - 2022)
Bachmann, G. (Project manager, academic), Bernard, A. (Project manager, academic), Hörl, E. (Project manager, academic), Pias, C. (Project manager, academic), Beverungen, A. (Project manager, academic), Beyes, T. (Project manager, academic) & Leeker, M. (Project staff)
Ministry of Science and Culture of the state of Lower Saxony
01.10.16 → 31.07.22
Project: Research
DigID: Doing Digital Identities
Scheel, S. (Project manager, academic), El-Kahil, S. (Project staff), O'Brien, O. (Project staff), Lambert, L. (Project staff) & Hargyono, S. (Project staff)
01.02.23 → 31.01.28
Project: Research
Epistemic Games. The Construction of the Validity of Computer Simulations through Simulation Games
Schrape, N. (Project manager, academic)
01.05.13 → 30.04.17
Project: Research