The growing trend of using audio-visual and digital media in the global marketplace and the growing influence of these types of media on culture, economy and on the everyday life of people, present both new opportunities and new challenges for Europe. Even though Estonia can be generally considered as an advanced ‘e-country’, due to the availability of a multitude of public online services, the mediation of culture and creative industries on contemporary digital platforms has not achieved due prominence. At the same time the media and creative sectors, as well as the cultural policy of Estonia, being a small country, are facing difficult choices due to the rapid development of digitally enhanced global markets. It is precisely these preconditions and needs that were the catalyst for creating the Tallinn University Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (Estonian abbreviation MEDIT) in spring 2015.
The purpose of the Centre is to initiate and implement interdisciplinary creative works and research projects. On the one hand, these projects involve studies of cultural change and innovation processes that accompany digital media, mainly from the combined perspectives of the humanities and media or innovation economics. On the other hand, the target is to apply the acquired knowledge in experimenting with creating new and innovative forms of digital media. Most work in the Centre will be interdisciplinary and based on the presumption that interpreting the contemporary cultural change and creatively participating in it requires cultural, economic and technological dynamics to be viewed as a uniform system, full of complex interdependencies and therefore involving also corresponding research disciplines, together with creative practices.
The activities of the Centre will be divided into four areas, three of which are research oriented and one is focused on experimental creative and development work. All four areas are closely related and the creative work will link all others.
1. The Creative Lab of digital audio-visual culture - LoomeLab
2. The research and development unit incorporating:
(a) The research group of digital humanities
(b) The research group of audio-visual culture
(c) The research group of digital creative industries