Postdigital Transdisciplinarity: Towards a New Language of Possibility
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Abstract
This article begins with three questions: What is the unique quality of artistic knowledge? In which ways can artistic knowledge communicate with other forms of knowledge? What can we expect from such communication? The first question leads to the concept of (in)commensurability, or the problem of speaking different languages. The second question leads to a discussion of communication and to theoretical attempts at developing a shared language. The third question leads to an inquiry of expectations, or the practical limits of disciplines speaking to each other. This is followed by a practical inquiry into collaboration across disciplines, based on the example of postdigital future studies. While the study also leaves many methodological challenges and unanswered questions, it does clearly indicate that transdisciplinary collaboration between arts and postdigital (future) studies is possible and beneficial for involved disciplines. More generally, the study shows that transdisciplinary research is useful for researching many questions of today; postdigital theory is suitable for transdisciplinary research; and current developments in postdigital transdisciplinary research offer a lot of potential. Transdisciplinarity is an important aspect of postdigital research, and the one in a need of further inquiry.
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