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

Paulo Nuno Vicente (1) , Paulo Vicente

1 NOVA - Universidade Nova de Lisboa = NOVA University Lisbon

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.

Keywords: digital media; embodied mind paradigm; narrative machines; practice-based research; transdisciplinarity

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences

Paulo Nuno Vicente, Paulo Vicente. From narrative machines to practice-based research: making the case for a digital Renaissance. Ação Midiática – Estudos em Comunicação, Sociedade e Cultura., 2018, 2, pp.67 - 78. ⟨10.20287/ec.n27.v2.a05⟩. ⟨hprints-03201117⟩