Since 2005, NT2’s mandate has been to promote the study, the creation and the archiving of new forms of text and hypermedia art. In order to secure this mandate, NT2 pursues three research objectives.
- To develop original research strategies in art and literature.
- To comply with this objective, we have developed a database management tool exploiting the Drupal software technology. Drupal offers to researchers an online solution facilitating information sharing and increased accessibility. It allows the creation of a genuine research and knowledge environment, namely a space of exchange for research communities where it is possible to publish intermediary and final research results in diverse art and literature areas.
- To bear witness to the manifestations of a screen culture;
In answer to the expansion of cyberculture and of Internet culture, we have developed multiple review and presentation approaches to those emergent phenomena. First, the Hypermedia Art and Literature Directory offers a collection of more than 3900 documented works, annotated and classified according to different criteria to simplify research. The Website also provides a News section relaying current information about screen culture, as well as a collective blog, Delinears, allowing NT2 researchers to share their reflections and their discoveries and, ultimately, to interrogate and to theorize cyberculture. Finally, through the E-Journal, proceedings of symposiums organized by the NT2 are published online in order to report on the latest research of the laboratory members.
- To host research activities from the Figura researcher community, the Research Center for Text and Imaginary (FRQSC grant, 2008-2014).
The technological infrastructure adopted by the NT2 has facilitated the creation of various database projects lead by research groups constituted of Figura regular members. Numerous projects that are already completed (gathered on our site under the Agora banner) attest to the possibilities of research and knowledge environment development, foreshadowing a new era of academic research in consonance with cyberculture.
The vast project of Figura, the Observatoire de l’imaginaire contemporain (OIC), integrates those three objectives to a colossal research and development program. The NT2 is a physical space, i.e. the laboratory itself, and a virtual space, namely the management platform for NT2 projects relying upon a unique expertise in the management of online data systems.
