Digital Arts and Literature in Screen Culture
The transition of a culture from one that focuses on books to one that focuses on screens exposes us to a paradigm shift in terms of how we produce and transmit culture. It also alters the culture’s artistic and literary manifestations. This transition asks that we cast a critical eye on the contemporary imagination and rethink the research methodologies and dissemination strategies we use the arts and literature.
Dr. Bertrand Gervais, Canada Research Chair in Digital Arts and Literature, is documenting this transition to a screen/image culture. He and his research team are observing the consequences of the transition on our relationship to the world (increasingly mediated by fictions whose structures and borders have blurred), on our capacity to interpret writings and images, and on the resulting new identity- and community-based forms.
Their research has three main objectives: to study artistic and literary practices deployed in a digital context; to document the manifestations of a screen culture and its impact on the contemporary imagination; and to develop methodologies and strategies for artistic and literary research based on contemporary technologies.
The work by Gervais and his team will advance our understanding of digital culture and enhance artistic and literary research in digital culture.