TP6006 - Digital Futures

This module is taught via seminars and workshops that scaffold your learning clearly, building on staff expertise and responding to your areas of interest as the module develops. Typically, one week will introduce a key critical or creative concept during a seminar that will include engagement with structured reading, tutor-facilitated debate and discussion, and small-group or individual tasks. In the following week you will explore related ideas in a tutor-facilitated task-oriented workshop that will afford you an opportunity to put theory into practice, share your work with peers and tutors, and receive feedback on that work through group discussion and debate. The workshops are an opportunity to test our ideas as well as get hands-on experiences with methodologies, techniques, and approaches to making digitally-orientated performance practices.

You will receive informal feedback via the tutor and peers during the task-orientated workshops and seminar discussions. The workshops are designed to allow you to explore theoretical ideas in practice.

Information and resources will be available to you on Blackboard and the 'Reading List' contains links to websites and online video material which can help you develop appropriate knowledge and understanding.

Written assessment feedback will be provided within 20 working days of summative assignment submission. Access to library facilities is available 24-7 all year round.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
? Interrogate creative and critical responses to the provocation of the ‘digital century’ and its impact on theatre and performance cultures

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
? Propose future-orientated problems, opportunities and practices that confront the uncertainties of theatre and performance in the digital century

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
? Critically examine the ethical impacts of the digital century and articulate an awareness of managing uncertainty

Formative
Students will share their argument in response to the set provocation as an oral presentation. Staff and peers will offer feedback in class.

Summative
Practice Research project (100%) comprising:
• A demonstration of practice (c. 5 – 10 minutes, as appropriate to form of practice and in discussion with tutor);
• A 1000-words (or equivalent) statement contextualising the practice research demonstration.

In response to a staff provocation or live brief, you will work in small groups to develop, rehearse and realise a practical response (such as performance, workshop, installation or another agreed other format) that investigates the intersection of practice and theory.

The format of the practical demonstration will be agreed in discussion with the module convenor. The 1000 word (or equivalent) research statement will outline the critical and creative references that have informed the project, and how they have done so

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What will the future look like and how will theatre and performance makers operate in it? In this module you will engage in a research driven exploration of future artistic, social and political opportunities and uncertainties presented by the ‘digital century’. Led through staff research expertise, you will consider the ways theatre and performance cultures might shift in the next 10-20 years and propose creative ideas in preparation for a leading role in the cultural sector. You might look at the importance of live encounters in digital futures, or at processes of performance for digital recordings, or the ethics of digital representations that last ‘forever’ such as ‘digital death’ and digital footprints. In response to a provocation provided by staff, the overall focus will be on speculating future contexts, opportunities and interdisciplinary practices that will confront practitioners in the digital century.