The Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) is a Norwegian Center of Research Excellence dedicated to establishing digital narrative as a new, independent, and interdisciplinary field of study. Our mission is to move beyond the state of the art in digital humanities and develop new frameworks for understanding how stories are created, experienced, and transformed through technologies.
Narratives are fundamental to human existence. They shape how we understand ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. Narratives structure our individual and collective understanding of matters ranging from our ideas of the self to our understanding of the nation-state, to our perception and caretaking of the environment. Digital narratives, resulting from the interactions of human storytellers with algorithmic systems, have the power to change the way we think and adjust the trajectory of society.
Digital narratives are computationally driven forms of storytelling that increasingly define contemporary life. From conspiracy theories spreading on social media that influence our politics, through immersive storyworlds in video games, to AI systems generating fiction and code, digital narratives are now an unavoidable aspect of everyday life. Yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of how they work, what purposes they serve, and how they reshape culture and society.
Storytelling is no longer exclusively a human domain. Algorithmic narrativity describes the interplay between human understanding of stories and computer processes of all kinds, from analog narrative systems to generative AI models. Understanding algorithmic narrativity in its manifold forms is the core focus of all the research at the CDN.
CDN provides a theoretical and practical platform for understanding digital narrative. CDN merges theory and practice in essential humanities-led research on digital narrative in electronic literature, computer games, computational narrative systems, social media and networked narratives, generative AI, extended reality, digital anthropology, digital arts and other related fields. By combining theoretical inquiry, documentation of emerging genres, database infrastructure and publishing platform development, and creative experimental research into new narrative practices, CDN is building an international hub for cutting-edge, humanities-led research. We bring together scholars, artists, and technologists to explore how digital storytelling can illuminate, challenge, and transform the way we live.