This past week, renowned new media scholar and colleague Jay Bolter and I staged a debate on theory in the study of digital media. Here’s how we described it:
The Digital Media program in LCC is described on its website as follows: â??The Georgia Tech Digital Media Ph.D. provides both the theoretical and the practical foundation for careers as digital media researchers in academia and industry. The advent of a new medium of human communication … introduces the possibility of new genres of artistic expression as well as new forms of information and knowledge transmission. The study of these new forms â?? from the point of view of the creators and the analysts â?? is an emerging field, one that requires a convergence of the methodologies of several traditional disciplines, and one that is also defining its own methodologies of research and practice.â?
As this description suggests, the relationship between theory and practice is fundamental to the program. But how should that relationship be defined? Ian Bogost and Jay David Bolter will discuss the role of theory in the program and in digital media studies in general. Their presentation will take the form of a debate; they will each answer four questions about the value of theory in the humanities-based research in digital media. Their answers will be followed by cross-questioning and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and express opinions.
Jay and I decided to pursue the debate in the form of four questions, as follows:
- What is theory for digital media?
- What is the name for what we do?
- Is theory practical?
- What should be the object of study, the human or the machine?
Our answers, and discussion, can now be viewed as a video stream thanks to our hosts, the Georgia Tech GVU Center.