From narrative machines to practice-based research: making the case for a digital Renaissance

Abstract

Contemporary communication sciences are embedded with theoretical traditions supportive of an occupational boundary work: the social and the cultural world as a strict sociological and anthropological object of study and the material world as the domain of scientists and engineers. This epistemic divide places communication sciences before a future shock, by failing to respond explicitly to emerging mediations made possible by radical technologies. Practice-based research (PbR) is still under-represented in communication studies and has yet to be further articulated in order to provide a clear epistemological foundation. This paper objective is to fill in that knowledge gap: it positions digital media as a transdisciplinary scientific domain with a triple helix structure (hardware, interface, and software studies), placing PbR as a critical native methodological approach and presenting a holistic research framework.

Immersive media and social change: The ‘empathy machine’ is dead, long live ‘emotional geography’!

“…The methodological foundation for this study was the recognition of today's so-called "digital renaissance" (Vicente, 2018):…”

“…To this process towards transdisciplinarity we call a digital Renaissance. (Vicente, 2018) It is within this "digital renaissance" that we might contextualize immersive media as an emerging multidisciplinary phenomenon. Moreover, our curiosity for "diving in", as proposed by Haseman ("Researchers construct experiential starting points from which practice follows.…”