About

DWRC was established in 1998 as a multi-disciplinary research centre at the University of Surrey. It’s now part of the School of Arts, Humanities & the Creative Industries (SAHCI), although DWRC members come from across the university. Early DWRC work concentrated on understanding the social impact of new technologies such as mobile phones, e-books and the internet. Current work is focused on understanding new forms of digital media production and consumption and developing ways of supporting these with novel media genres, formats, devices and services.

Current research theme

We are currently focusing on two research themes, with several projects emerging in the fruitful convergence between both.

Narrative media for creativity and collaboration. These can be described as media that facilitate both established and experimental forms of storytelling (in the broadest sense) to extend access to, deepen experience of and enhance agency over individual and collective narratives. Examples include creating an on-demand and AI-enhanced storytelling tool for people with dementia, creating a new, immersive and multisensory way to experience fictional stories and poetry and co-creating an augmented storytelling game to combat loneliness in older adults.

Assistive media for health and wellbeing. These can be defined as media systems having therapeutic benefits of some sort. Examples, include time-based media for social isolation, immersive media for emotion regulation or understanding blindness, and augmented paper for health communication. Former DWRC Director and Emeritus Professor David Frohlich works closely with the University’s Health Psychology research group in ground-breaking approaches to this theme.

Interdisciplinary approach and impact

DWRC members come from across the University (see our People page for details) and contribute to the Centre’s deeply interdisciplinary ethos and practice.

We specialise in two types of research:

• Research for design: Humanities and Social Science research to understand and inform new media practices and innovations
• Research through design: experimental design of new media technologies and applications.

By combining these approaches, we are able to understand the dynamics of new media experiences in greater depth and innovate (at both platform and content levels) to improve, extend or transform them.

Our outputs are research prototypes, scientific papers, media exhibits, patents and products achieved by bringing together interdisciplinary teams on each project.

These projects have been funded by a variety of government (e.g. UKRI, Innovate UK, Nominet Trust and the National Cyber Security Centre) and industrial sponsors (e.g. Vodafone, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Kodak). We have also partnered with smaller creative industry and third sector organizations, such as Whiteley Trust, Age UK, 3 Nations Dementia Working Group, and Voices.

Where appropriate, we commercialize our research outputs to meet market demand.