Narrative Futures - Art, Data, Society

Overview

You will learn how narratives are being transformed in a variety of artistic domains, from creative writing to game design; in different spheres of social life, from digital markets to religious or environmental discourses; and at the frontier of computational developments in artificial intelligence. And for your final project, you will apply your conceptual understanding of storytelling dynamics to produce a new narrative artefact of your own or to critically analyse an existing narrative medium or practice.

This bold new programme in Narrative Futures will combine hands-on creative and data skills development with research-led theoretical inquiry to help you master the narratives through which human beings perceive and (re)create the world.

Postgraduate Study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This Narrative Futures - Art, Data, Society  programme at The University of Edinburgh  is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). EFI supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focussed on complex global and social challenges. Our programmes are all taught by academic experts from many different subject areas, and as an EFI student you will develop creative, critical and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals, and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at EFI will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident and critical citizen in a fast-changing world. These will include core data skills, data ethics, the ability to interrogate issues of global scope, and the creative and analytic approaches to knowledge that are vital for building better futures. You can join us regardless of whether you already have skills in the use and application of digital data.

Career opportunities

Narrative skills are in greater demand than ever before, and not just in the traditional ‘cultural industries’ such as creative writing, the performance arts and visual entertainment. Advertisers and fundraisers rely on storytelling to reach their target markets; those working in the tourism and heritage sectors need to know how to tell the story of local places to global audiences; communications, branding and design consultancies must build narratives for new products and companies; community groups, social enterprises, charities and arts organisations wishing to influence policy or raise funds must tell convincing stories in different ways to different demographics. Political activists, journalists, public advocates and science popularisers, medical clinicians, video game designers and computer scientists exploring new frontiers in artificial intelligence: all require insights into the processes and structures of narrative, its politics and ethics.

This programme will provide recent graduates and mid-career professionals with a good intellectual basis for professional development in a wide range of sectors, as well as for further academic study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

The core elements of the programme address the data and higher-order skills we know are important for the future of work, confident and critical citizenship, and a thriving, just society.