Postdigital Age Research Articles

Teaching and AI in the postdigital age: Learning from teachers’ perspectives

This interview-based study aimed to understand how teachers make sense of their work and themselves in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies, and was conceived as a means of learning with and from teachers. Navigating recent AI developments raised questions about thinking, creativity, production, and the meaning and value of humanity, along with more practical concerns regarding instruction and assessment. Creating policy and ongoing teacher education opportunities that recognize teachers’ capacities for professional judgement while also providing support would encourage thoughtful and creative uses of AI, and avoid pressuring teachers to thoughtlessly rush forward with AI implementation.

Sustainable Memory Ecology, Entangled Environments, and Multimateriality in a Post-Digital Age: A Case Study of MemoryBytes

Abstract This article examines the interdisciplinary and epistemological possibilities in memory studies amidst the complex systems of sustainable memory ecology, entangled environments, and multimateriality prevalent in our post-digital age. This study situates the ontology and experience of memory through post-digital and posthumanist frameworks whereby the human/non-human and embedded/extended emerge as environmental entanglements that are part of everyday experiential and ecological realities which are often already augmented in quality. Likewise, we unpack the idea of materiality in the contemporary world and posit that a theory of multimateriality – asymmetric compounds of constructs, components, and affects – illustrates the modality of post-digital memory networks. Subsequently, the article attempts to offer a conceptual framework that draws on cognitive theory’s 4E model of cognition – embedded, embodied, extended, enactive – and a memory-ecology which is emergent as well as connective in quality. The key themes of this study are as follows: How can the concept of sustainable memory ecology correspond to interdisciplinary interpretative possibilities of preservation and reconstruction in a post-digital world? How can memory studies connect with cognitive theory to offer an original collaborative and epistemic apparatus using embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive engagements with environment and materiality in post-digital conditions? How do such collaborations anticipate the future of memory through a new order of post-digital memory ecology? Through its theoretical and conceptual convergences, and with a case study of the 2022 Augmented-Reality (ar) App and phygital exhibition MemoryBytes, our article offers an original framework for memory studies’ interdisciplinary engagements with the changing notions of ecology, sustainability, and materiality in today’s post-digital world.

Post-Digital Angst – The Direct Experience

In his contribution "Post-Digital Angst – The Direct Experience", Mong-Sum Joseph Leung (Center Research Focus, PhD candidate PhD in Art) explores anxiety in the post-digital age, examining it as a basic anthropological condition in relation to concepts such as hollowness, nullity, and the unknown. Leung intertwines personal experiences from daily life with his artistic practice and ontological reflections on the human condition, working with Heidegger’s notions of Sorge and Angst, to reflect on affective experiences in a digitalized world.

The Education Leadership Challenges for Universities in a Postdigital Age

AbstractThe executive leadership of universities internationally faces significant uncertainty in how to respond to ongoing technological innovation in a postdigital age. The current rapid progress in generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is exacerbating their plight. This study uses emergent research on GAI in learning and teaching to problematise the challenges of university education leadership in the face of such disturbances to core academic work. Considering the benefits and risks associated with the design of GAI, its inclusion in learning and teaching, and how it is reconfiguring the design of degree programmes and the strategies of local leaders providing support services through university organisational structures, this paper offers a principled ecosystemic approach to leadership that considers key elements for effective strategy implementation. The interrelatedness of strategy, governance, policy, management, and investment are discussed and a way forward for effective education leadership in a context of uncertainty is offered.

An archaeology of media artivism: attempting to draft the history of digital culture for social change

The emergence of media artivism over the last decades constitutes a new and relevant field of study for researchers of digital culture and social change, digital art historians and media archaeologists. Since the inception of the new millennium and the spread of electronic culture, media artivism has grown into a field of its own with distinctive organizations, artists, curators and critics devoted to engaged practices that are close to political antagonism and far from the concerns of the elitist art world. Considering the worsening environmental and political crisis around the globe, the spread and conscious use of new technologies becomes essential to update the concept of artivism, intended as a kind of action-taking art devoted to social issues. By establishing an epistemological framework along the lines of media archaeology and digital art history, the research highlights the role of media artivism in the context of recent historical and societal developments, as well as its potentially leading role for behavioral and social change. From pioneering experiences to current practices, the paper explores how a growing number of practitioners are tackling societal concerns through digital strategies and thus drawing attention to several critical topics, such as: gender issues, environmental delinquency, racial discrimination, social injustices, political corruption, abuse of power, invasive technologies and surveillance abuse. In the course of the analysis, a relevant role is given to practices based on hacktivism, public engagement and intercreative procedures that aim at highlighting, disclosing, or spreading the state of affairs which are still uncovered in traditional media and thus expanding the role of investigative art/journalism in the Postdigital Age. The case studies presented show how media artivism emerges as an autonomous field shaped by practitioners acting on the premise of a vocation on the fringe between society and the art world.

Resisting the (re-)medicalisation of dying and grief in the post-digital age: Natural language processing and qualitative analysis of data from internet support forums

In the mid-twentieth century, the social movement of death revivalism sought to resist the medicalisation of dying and grief through promotion of the dying person retaining autonomy, and societal openness toward death and bereavement. Despite this advocacy, present-day dying in high income countries is largely institutionalised, with value placed on control over the body and emotions. These phenomena are at odds with the ambitions of death revivalism, and demonstrate the re-medicalisation of dying and grief. Furthermore, contemporary society is continually advancing into the post-digital age, reflected in digital technologies being a tacit part of human existence. Within this framework, this study aims to investigate how people living with life-limiting illness and their loved ones experience, negotiate, and resist medicalisation of dying and grief through online internet forums. We collected posts through web-scraping and utilised Natural Language Processing techniques to select 7048 forum posts from 2003 to 2020, and initially categorise data, before utilising Inductive Thematic Analysis, which generated two major themes. The theme of ‘Comfort’ describes online forums facilitating psychosocial support which was often used to compensate for systemic deficiencies, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Common sources of comfort included animal companions and spirituality, in stark contrast with the medicalised model. The theme of ‘Capability’ describes online forums acting as solutions for people facing disempowering care systems, including providing information on legal rights and benefits which may not be otherwise easily available, and facilitating collective advocacy. Our findings indicate that community-led online forums can play an effective and sustainable role in democratising care and retaining agency when facing life-limiting illness and grief. Future palliative and bereavement care research must focus on how online forums can be integrated into existing systems, made transparent and accessible, be adequately funded and structured, and beoptimised, including compensating for service disruption encountered during future pandemics.

School Leadership Development for Sustainability in the Post-Digital Era

The role of school leaders must be balanced in attaining educational sustainability in the changing world. Millions of school students worldwide were affected by the COVID-19 shutdown, which accelerated the need for rapid digitalisation. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are embedded in 21st-century education. The ability to reorient students to the SDGs is key to achieving sustainable education in the post-digital era. This study examines school leadership development in a post-digital era from the sustainability perspective. To ensure sustainable education, school leaders must have relevant skills and competencies to lead schools in the post-digital age. In striving for a sustainable era, a school leader needs skills and knowledge to be an inspiring role model and motivator. School leaders must reorient students, teachers and all relevant stakeholders according to SDG goals to achieve sustainable education. Hence, continuous school leadership development is essential to accelerating digital transformation using factors such as leadership style, strategic planning, and knowledge management.
 
 

Post-Photojournalism: Post-Truth Challenges and Threats for Visual Reporting in the Russo-Ukrainian War Coverage

The visual framing of war has always been the most challenging area of photojournalism, and even more so in the post-digital age, when the transition from analog to digital becomes almost indistinguishable. We examine the photographic coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict during the first half of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by analyzing the major Russian and Ukrainian newspapers: Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Ukrayinska Pravda. These media are the most representative open-access newspapers from countries at war in terms of the number of users and articles dedicated to war coverage. Based on a sample of 17,546 news articles published during the first six months of the war (10,376 Ukrainian and 7,170 Russian) and focusing on a precise selection of key events of the conflict, we combine and integrate quantitative methods and in-depth analysis. Both newspapers share structural features to classify and access the reported issues by tagging them with a significant range of keywords that contribute to shaping readers’ and viewers’ perceptions of the conflict. In our mixed methods research, we examine the sample to establish a categorization of the main characteristics of post-photojournalism, where old practices collide with the new dynamics of the post-truth era of photojournalism.

Developing the DALI Data Literacy Framework for critical citizenry

In the current postdigital age, where data has become increasingly ubiquitous, the management of data has emerged as a vital aspect of digital literacies, particularly for active citizenry. This article introduces a Data Literacy framework that emphasizes the importance of an ideological emancipatory vision of data literacy for critical citizenry. The framework provides a comprehensive perspective on the key elements of data literacy and their interrelationships. Grounded Theory served as the foundation for conducting a three-and-a-half round Delphi study involving experts from diverse fields such as data, education, and literacy, across four countries. The outcome of this study is the DALI Data Literacy framework, which encompasses four primary elements. Three of these elements are interconnected and sometimes overlapping: (1) Understanding Data, (2) Acting on Data, and (3) Engaging Through Data. Additionally, there is a cross-cutting element, (4) Ethics & Privacy, which permeates the other three. The DALI framework is flexible and scalable, making it suitable for adaptation across various international, organizational, and educational contexts. Furthermore, the article's conclusions reflect on how the DALI framework can support pedagogical initiatives aimed at promoting data literacy among adults. Its adaptability and scalability make it well-suited for addressing the diverse needs and contexts found within different educational settings and organizations internationally. By incorporating the DALI framework, digital education can evolve to foster critical data literacy skills and empower individuals to navigate and participate meaningfully in the postdigital age.

Visual analysis of 3D characters and animations used in the presentation of cultural heritage at museums

Digital characters are imaginary or realistic-looking entities created with computer programs. It can be used in cartoons and animations, as well as in many different areas such as games, advertisements, and the cinema sector. Avatars that represent real identities on digital platforms such as the metaverse today also consist of digital characters. Modeling digital characters that can replace real identities in the digital world is relatively easy. However, there are many paradigms in modeling a historical character in which the cultural heritage is reflected and therefore requires a difficult and laborious process. Information about the period in which a historical character lived is very limited, it is not possible to know exactly the culture, lifestyle, eating habits, speech, tone of voice, behaviour, and body movements of the period. Moreover, this character’s breaking away from history and interacting with today’s human is equivalent to interacting with an alien. Therefore, when it comes to cultural heritage, the characters either do not speak and have very limited movements, or if they interact, there are examples modelled from recent history. Today we live in a digital age, our tendency to communicate with visuals and watch events with moving images is dominant. In this case, the date and the information about the date are interesting if they are visualized. For this reason, it is necessary to speak the language of the digital age in order to reflect the cultural heritage and present history to the youth. Interaction and reflection of experience-oriented history with augmented reality, virtual reality or augmented reality has become the determinant of the post-digital age, not digital any more. They have become a necessity for history, culture, and archaeology. Virtual reality applications, storytelling with digital characters, have become a tool that encourages participation and motivation for today’s user. In this research, the scale in the table of Spyros Vosinakis “Dimensions, definitions and possible values related to the cultural heritage application use of digital characters” was developed and used. A historical character modelled in 3D according to this scale is “design: which era, clothing accessories and body covering preferences”, “reality: virtual, augmented mixed reality”, “credibility: movement, facial expressions, gaze, personality, emotion transfer” “environment: Criteria such as the credibility of the environment in which the character is presented, “interaction: interaction with the user, the use of artificial intelligence, decision-making, responding”, “function: showing, telling a story”, “reflecting history: what information is given” are examined. The characters of Mona Lisa, John Calvin, Uruk City, Hagia Sophia, Lady Ada Byron and Salvador Dali, which were taken into the scope of the research with the purposeful sampling method, are analysed by content analysis method. According to the findings, it was concluded that the details, clothing, accessory colours, and coatings in the models play an important role in increasing the believability, the ability of the characters to move, the voice acting, and the interaction increase the reality. When augmented reality and virtual reality experiences are compared, it can be said that the reality perception of the user who is teleported to the historical place increases more with the complete isolation of virtual reality from the external environment. Finally, it is thought that the inclusion of human characteristics such as movement, verbal skills, mimics, and personality in the design, as well as realistic character design, plays an important role in increasing the number and interaction of participants, due to their reality.

Pilgrimage to Fátima and Santiago after COVID: Dis/connection in the post-digital age

This paper reports on a practice-centered study focusing on pilgrimage to explore mobile and digital media dis/connectivity in the context of a particular configuration of personal mobility. Pilgrimage is a practice bringing together people motivated by religion, tourism, leisure, or self-development, in what have been termed “post-secular” forms of pilgrimage and tourism. In 2020 and 2021, restrictions on individual mobility were imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This exploratory study consisted of interviews with 13 pilgrims in Portugal, who went on pilgrimage to Fátima or Santiago de Compostela in 2021. We argue that dis/connection by pilgrims is evidence of a post-digital moment. Our analysis shows how pilgrims maintain an ambivalent relationship with mobile media in light of this experience which limits their access to habitual devices, people, and digital services, while opening up for the use of others that facilitate the mobility and the spiritual, affective, and sensorial experience as a pilgrim. However, digital and mobile media are deeply entangled in pilgrims’ relationships with space, time, and others—and thus disconnection is partial and transitional. Moreover, dis/connection is embodied in pilgriming—for example, in how they choose the mobile media considering the weight and energy, and place it on the body, at the same time that mobile media can also afford disembodiment to the experience of pilgrimage—by alleviating the physical pain of walking, for example. Pilgrims also use the media in ways that blur the distinctions between digital and non-digital in the ways they invest meanings in their practices.

Parental Perceptions of Child's Play in the Post-Digital Era: Parents' Dilemma with Digital Formats Informing the Kindergarten Curriculum.

Digital technology affordance has been recognized as a social and learning tool, and the requirements for digitalizing the kindergarten curriculum have been present for decades. Digitalization in a child's early years can present conflict with parents, as the societal and economic demands of digitalized society for a child's digital technology use are in dissonance with guidelines and recommendations of health organizations that caution against preschool children's technology use. Kindergarten curricular reform in Slovenia was conducted in the 1990s. In this period, the use of digital learning technology and digital play for the development of children learning predispositions and early literacy was already recognized. At the time of curriculum design, it integrated some elements of digital learning technology. Now, 30 years after the design of the new curriculum, we are facing the post-digital era. Learning technology in the early years is a matter of partnership with parents; accordingly, this descriptive survey study includes a non-randomized sample of 306 parents. We are considering how child's play is structured in the primary environment and how parents perceive digital technology in the current post-digital age of seamless, digitally saturated social practices. Parents are aware of the risks of technology and of its benefits for learning. The findings show correlations between a child's digital screen technology use and parents' attitudes and perceptions of digital play. Parents that offer digital screen technology to a child have less agreeable attitudes regarding its possible risks to a child.

The death of data interpretation and throwing sheep in a postdigital age

This paper argues that in the postdigital age there is an increasing shift away from understanding or undertaking in-depth data interpretation in qualitative research. It begins by outlining what is meant by the postdigital and exploring the idea of throwing sheep. The postdigital is defined here as a stance towards the digital which seeks to challenge the impact of digital technology on humanity and the environment. The idea of ‘throwing a sheep meme’ originates from a Facebook application that used to allow people to ‘throw a sheep’ at friends to poke fun at them. It is used here as a metaphor to poke fun at the way in which qualitative data overmanaged in the digital age. The second section of the paper argues that the art of data interpretation is dead due to the use of short data, poor methodology, a lack of conceptual frameworks, discounted positionality and the overlooking of the importance of representation and portrayal. The final section of the paper delineates ways in which the death of data interpretation might be avoided.

The death of data interpretation and throwing sheep in a postdigital age

This paper argues that in the postdigital age there is an increasing shift away from understanding or undertaking in-depth data interpretation in qualitative research. It begins by outlining what is meant by the postdigital and exploring the idea of throwing sheep. The postdigital is defined here as a stance towards the digital which seeks to challenge the impact of digital technology on humanity and the environment. The idea of ‘throwing a sheep meme’ originates from a Facebook application that used to allow people to ‘throw a sheep’ at friends to poke fun at them. It is used here as a metaphor to poke fun at the way in which qualitative data overmanaged in the digital age. The second section of the paper argues that the art of data interpretation is dead due to the use of short data, poor methodology, a lack of conceptual frameworks, discounted positionality and the overlooking of the importance of representation and portrayal. The final section of the paper delineates ways in which the death of data interpretation might be avoided.

Irish Popular Music and Noise as an Intangible Signifier of Cultural Heritage: The Noisy Island

In this article, I consider the use of acoustic noise by Irish popular musicians during the digital and post-digital age as an intangible signifier of Irish cultural heritage. In the history of sound recording noise was always there, permeating, masking, even ruining, the enjoyment of a particular recording. The history of popular music is thus haunted by noise, with it inadvertently becoming a significant intangible artifact of popular cultural heritage. With the advent of the digital age, noise’s presence became no longer assured, as new recording technology afforded an opportunity to limit noise’s presence. Despite this, noise persists as recordists recognise its ability to generate sonic sensations. I consider this recognition by assessing specific recordings by Damien Dempsey, Sinéad O’Connor, and other Irish popular musicians. To undertake this assessment, I use the multi-interpretive modes of enquiries afforded in Irish studies to incorporate critical theories from popular music studies; phonomusicology; and sound studies. Ultimately, in line with UNESCO’s aim that intangible cultural heritage should “not be subject to external judgements of value or worth”, I consider noise not along established value judgments, but assess it anew as an intangible signifier of Irish cultural heritage.

Diasporas in the post-digital age – capitalism + digitalization = dystopia: Sibylle Berg’s novel GRM

Sibylle Berg’s novel GRM: Brainfuck () deals with profound structural changes that are directly linked to the growing digitalization and datafication of our world. Together with a strong neo-liberalism, this has provoked severe grievances, which have in turn led to important migratory movements. Berg lays this situation out thanks to the characters of the novel – most of them are migrants or have a migrant background. They have experienced different kinds of discrimination and social exclusion that hinder their integration into the host society. The frustrated yearning of many migrants for recognition interestingly becomes apparent in the lack of opportunities for self-representation through digital media, which are described as powerful tools that reinforce and (re-)produce stigmatizing discourses. In addition, the novel shows how mass datafication allows the almost complete surveillance of all citizens. Nevertheless, the main characters in the novel try to resist this total control by choosing a different kind of digital diaspora, which means a retreat to an exclusively analogue life – an impossible endeavour.

MUSEUMS IN THE POST-DIGITAL AGE: CREATIVE EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

While technological developments and innovations in museums are reflected in the forms of exhibition and presentation, the post-digital age evolved into a more human-oriented design experience in the periods. The purpose of this article; The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of technology towards experience designs in the Post-Digital Age, the methods of use of technologies, the contributions they provide, and the problems that arise in the methods of use of these technologies. As a research method, a literature review was made, the use of technology and design in museums was researched, the data obtained were reinterpreted with the descriptive method and findings were reached. According to the findings obtained, It has been seen that experience designs have increased in museums, and this has been effective in entertainment, curiosity and learning. It has been observed that the audience, which uses VR technologies and witnesses history, becomes free in the process of subjectivation. While virtual reality technologies enable us to witness history with an interesting and exciting experience, it has been seen that there may be problems in its editing. These; The dominance of today’s value judgments, the transformation of virtual reality into hyperreality or anachronism, the new reality of homotopic spaces in the re-editing of heterotopic spaces, the uncertainty about which story should be written and how from whose perspective, and virtual heritage inflation.

Witness statements and the technologies of memory: A conversation between Heba Y. Amin, Anthony Downey, Helene Kazan, Naeem Mohaiemen, and Susan Schuppli

Abstract Bringing together artistic and scientific modes of inquiry, Witness statements and the technologies of memory examines the impact that digital technologies have on the substance of truth and historical facts. Hosted as part of Heba Y. Amin and Anthony Downey's online symposium, which was held in conjunction with Amin's exhibition When I see the future, I close my eyes, Chapter I (curated by Downey for the Mosaic Rooms in 2020), the panel discussed the legacies of colonial power and command, regimes of memory, and the ex post facto constitution of evidence from online archives. Drawing upon the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the panellists, which included Helene Kazan (Oxford Brookes University), Naeem Mohaiemen (Columbia University), and Susan Schuppli (Goldsmiths, University of London), Heba Y. Amin (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart), and Anthony Downey (Birmingham City University), Witness statements and the technologies of memory sought to more fully understand the impact of digital archives on historical records and evidence-gathering. Against the backdrop of indiscriminate expurgations of online material, we observe how the evidentiary potential of digital archives is compromised by the commercial imperatives of social media networks, censorship, and state surveillance. Among the many questions that arise here, the extent to which personal recollections are often presented as virtual artefacts of memory – a technology of recall or a mnemo-technics in its own right – remains central to the debate about the future of memory in our post-digital age.

Innovative Pedagogical Methodologies: Self Learning Experience – SeLE

Regarding contemporary formal education, several students question themselves about specific information treated in the classroom. In Brazil, courses focusing on building knowledge for undergraduate purposes are like undergraduate degrees. The various existing Brazilian undergraduate degrees undergo in their curriculum notes various changes for the most different motivations. Especially in a world where knowledge is rapidly reconstructed and shaped with the emergence of new technologies in the new post-digital age. These circumstances create difficulties due to the need for constant legislative updating.In this context, the teacher finds an extremely unstable situation, the point of view of its implementation, where, on the one hand, has the need for constant changes and technological adaptations, and other guiding legislation of their work with updating needs.The indiscriminate use of technology makes mostly people without initiatives to build creative thinking. In addition, there are daily cases of depression and various diseases arising from the occurrence of this fast-paced, connected and globalized world. From this point of view, it is up to the teacher to broker an orientation for to the use of such innovations to be beneficial, not the other way around. In this paper, we present one of the possible uses of technology, inserting or learning as a protagonist of its own educational process and presenting very interesting results of engagement.

Eco-ontological Systems of Human Interaction: Rethinking Ecology through Aesthetics

The object of this paper is to connect ecology with ontology as a complex field of architectural system-based design, and more specifically, as a field worthy of aesthetic consideration. In the post-digital age, globalization seems to be one of the most important consequences for the loss of experience and meaning of space. The modern field of progress ishampered by various ideological stakes relating to the environmental and ecological awareness of place. These preclude the consideration of both the eco-systemic environmental approach, and the potential for cultural and technological evolution that is independent of new material conditions and new design tools that may be perceived as new forms of humanperception. The purpose of this paper is to connect ecology and aesthetics, with ontology as an intermediary. The human metabolic mechanism, as well as the perceptual and musculoskeletal systems, is related to a broad network of ecosystemic references. These references comprise the totality of the ecological approach, both of the environment and of the human individual and collective organization. Thus an ecological approach to aesthetics carries new methods of contemplating territories as background of human interaction. Territory is perceived as an energy threshold which corresponds to human interactions forming the principles of the Eco-ontological concept. To this end, comprehension of the territory as an Ecoontological system refers to the potential positive effect of this research based on systemic concepts with the purpose of improving living experience, especially in densely populated urban centers.