Digital North Workshop

Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield

19 September 2013

Professor Andrew Linn opening the Digital North workshop

Dynamic Collaboration through the Digital


Digital North - the second in the series of New Thinking from the North workshops organised through the N8 Research Partnership - was hosted by colleagues at the University of Sheffield and took place within the University's Humanities Research Institute.

Digital was selected as a key theme within the New Thinking from the North project in order to consider the role digital and creative industries have played as a focus for economic development across the North in recent years. The digital has increasingly become a means by which ideas of culture, identity, past, presents, futures and politics are being developed and shared. The aim of this workshop was therefore to explore the rich and varied contexts through which research in the arts and humanities can meaningfully engage with the digital.

Key Questions Addressed at the Workshop


  • What do we know about the role of the digital in economic and cultural development?
  • How is the digital being used to craft ideas of culture, identity and community?
  • How might the economic and cultural uses of digital relate in developing a sustainable vision for the North?

Present to explore these questions were academics with research expertise and interests that relate to the digital from across the N8 partnering universities, professionals from digital and design industries, and experts from private and public sector organisations who have employed digital technologies in innovative ways. A keynote provocation was presented by Gregory Sporton Professor of Digital Culture and Creativity at the University of Greenwich.