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 
  1. Published

    Value struggles in the creative city: A 'People's Republic of Stokes Croft'?

    Frenzel, F. & Beverungen, A., 18.05.2015, In: Urban Studies. 52, 6, p. 1020-1036 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  2. Published

    Digitale Operativität und Performance: Geschichte der Mensch-Computer-Schnittstelle im Moment ihrer Hinterfragung, noch bevor sie anfing

    Leeker, M., 2005, In: Paragrana. 14, 2, p. 25-52 28 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  3. Published

    Die Bühne als Display: Prekäre Trennschärfen zwischen kontinuierlichem Messen und diskretem Zählen

    Leeker, M., 2007, In: Navigationen. 7, 2, p. 49-70 22 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  4. Published

    Einleitung - McLuhan neu lesen: Zur Aktualität des kanadischen Medientheoretikers

    Leeker, M. & Schmidt, K., 2008, McLuhan neu Lesen: Kritische Analysen zu Medien und Kultur im 21. Jahrhundert. De Kerckhove, D., Leeker, M. & Schmidt, K. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 19-50 32 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  5. Published

    Camouflagen des Computers: McLuhan und die Neo-Avantgarden der 1960er Jahre

    Leeker, M., 2008, McLuhan neu Lesen: Kritische Analysen zu Medien und Kultur im 21. Jahrhundert. De Kerckhove, D., Leeker, M. & Schmidt, K. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 345-375 31 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  6. Published

    Schwinde(l)ndes Theater: Zur Installation "camera orfeo" von Penelope Wehrli

    Leeker, M., 05.2010, Penelope Wehrli : Ich wohne in der Möglichkeit ; raum partituren. Bern: Benteli, p. 214 - 219 5 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  7. Published

    Das Seufzen der Olimpia

    Warnke, M., 2014, Interventionen: Festschrift für Georg Christoph Tholen. Haase, F. & Heilmann, T. A. (eds.). Marbug: Schüren Verlag, p. 323-331 8 p. (Marburger Schriften zur Medienforschung; vol. 45).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  8. Published

    Pragmatism versus Artificial Art: Computer Stories

    Leeker, M., 2009, Americanisms: Discourses of Exception, Exclusion, Exchange ; [conference on "Americanisms" at the University of Bayreuth between January 30 and February 1, 2008]. Steppat, M. (ed.). Heidelberg: Winter Universitätsverlag, p. 67-84 18 p. (American Studies; vol. 173).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  9. Published

    Daten tanzen: Zum Projekt Choreography and Cognition von Wayne McGregor

    Leeker, M., 2009, In: Ästhetik & Kommunikation. 40, 146, p. 31-38 8 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  10. Published

    Musik Computer Tanz: Auf den Spuren des Resonanzparadigmas, 1900/2000

    Leeker, M., 2009, Tanz im Musiktheater – Tanz als Musiktheater: Bericht eines internationalen Symposiums über Beziehungen von Tanz und Musik im Theater. Betzwieser, T., Mungen, A., Münzmay, A. & Schroedter, S. (eds.). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, p. 449-464 15 p. (Thurnauer Schriften zum Musiktheater; vol. 22).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch