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Digital Cultures: Narrative, Creativity, Industry

Module description

Digital technology has transformed almost every area of human life over the last sixty-five years, and the written word remains at the core of this ongoing transformation. This module will introduce you to some of these developments across literary cultures, and you will gain an understanding of how technologies such as ‘big data’, artificial intelligence and the Internet have come to influence the way literature is written, its subject matter and modes of publishing and production. This understanding will be cemented by both critical and creative explorations of digital cultures, with workshops providing you with an opportunity to learn how to use some these creative technologies and assessments emphasising both critical and creative approaches.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims:

• To consider how digital technology makes itself apparent in modern literary, visual and creative cultures.
• To introduce you to a diverse range of authors, poets, artists, technologists, theorists and critics both commenting upon and using digital technologies to explore new possibilities in literature.
• To explore the historical relationship between literary cultures, visual cultures and emerging technologies, grounding students' understanding of current debates in this field.
• To enable you to create a diverse portfolio of creative and critical responses to the topics explored in class, including both traditional written outputs and digital prototypes.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of how digital technology has influenced and transformed literary and visual cultures of production and dissemination across recent history.
• 2. Demonstrate a basic ability to discuss critically how these transformations have introduced ethical, social, philosophical and creative challenges to such cultures.
• 3. Demonstrate a basic ability to use digital technologies, understand their formal conventions and their theoretical frameworks in order to produce critical and creative work.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate a basic ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary and non-literary texts and artefacts.
• 5. Demonstrate a basic ability to analyse contemporary debates about the computer and digital technology in light of the history of English and Creative Writing as disciplines.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Through seminar work and other forms of module engagement, demonstrate basic communication skills, and an ability to work individually and/or in groups.
• 7. Through research for creative and critical work, demonstrate basic proficiency in information retrieval, analysis and synthesis.
• 8. Through written work, demonstrate appropriate skills in delivering clear, well-structured, and persuasive writing and communication in response to assignments.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year (particularly through the co-design component described below), it is envisioned that the module will cover some or all topics organised under three headings:

• Collaborating With The Machine: How authors and artists use the principles of computing to explore new methods of storytelling, including videogames, virtual reality, transmedia, audiobooks, podcasts and other forms.
• The Internet: Creators & Consumers: How digital mass communication networks have transformed cultures of production and dissemination, with a focus on virality, social media, accessibility, ethics and fan cultures.
• AI, Data & The Future Of Culture: Consideration of how a data-focussed approach to culture introduces opportunities and challenges for literary and visual cultures, in the age of AI, bots and generative content.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Please note that these are indicative resources and as technologies evolve, and in consultation with outgoing cohorts, these lists will evolve as well.

• Jake Elliot et. al, Kentucky Route Zero (West Hollywood, Ca.: Annapurna Interactive, 2020) 
• Ed Finn, What Algorithms Want: Imagination In The Age Of Computing (Cambridge: MIT P, 2017).
• E.M. Forster, “The Machine Stops,” The Oxford and Cambridge Review (Nov. 1909).
• Patricia Lockwood, Nobody Is Talking About This (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).
• Lev Manovich, Cultural Analytics (Cambridge: MIT P, 2020)
• Sherry Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and The Human Spirit (Cambridge: MIT P, 1984).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Twine (http://twinery.org)
• Wattpad (http://wattpad.com)
• Exhibit (http://exhibit.so)
• ChatGPT (http://openai.com)
• Echoes (http://echoes.xyz)
• Podcastle (http://podcastle.com)

Key words search

Digital culture; creativity; publishing; narrative; interactive storytelling