e C r e a t i v i t y

Digital media theorist Dene Grigar has rightly questioned the role of the electronic writing lab within the traditional English department. Hand in glove with this lies the issue of the changing nature of writing itself in a digital world. As creative 'writing' expands to include digital and mixed media -- image, sound, animation, video, performance, installation, blogs, wikis, and various modes of interactivity -- how does the English Department Digital Research Studio remain true to the text-based concerns of literary scholars at the same time as it expands the roles and definitions of literary texts themselves? The Studio can grow to incorporate interdisciplinarity not just within texts, but within the media of scholarly studies themselves. As writing more and more becomes an event that is performed in time and space, it is important that we continue to find new ways to both navigate and critique it.

As a magnet at the studio of these happenings, the newly reorganized and restructured English Department Digital Research Studio at the University of Texas at Arlington is fostering various media collisions, blendings and collaborations that incorporate students and faculty across campuses and disciplines, establish an artists, writers, performers and programmers in residence program, enable multimedia publishing, performance and distribution experiments, and apply these creative vectors and trajectories to the existing and future frameworks of literary and cultural studies.

Equipment Available for Check-Out

The Classroom (PH 310) is available for use as a conference, presentation, or lecture room when not scheduled for classroom use. To reserve the Classroom when it is available, contact Tammy Dryer in the English Department.

Digital Research Studio personnel are available during posted hours to provide support for both the Classroom and Lab and the UTA English Department.