We are an interdisciplinary research centre devoted to advancing creativity, digital innovation, and civic engagement, producing new methodologies and fostering connections with the digital, creative, and cultural sectors in the region and beyond.
The Centre is committed to impactful media research and creative practice, driving social change across the research themes of Safe and Inclusive Communities, Health, Performance and Wellbeing, and Sustainable Futures.
Welcome to the Centre for Media, Arts & Creative Technologies (MACT). I am delighted to be launching this Centre in 2025, at a moment when the pursuit of social justice and equality is vital, and when the need for media criticality and literacy is paramount.
At MACT, we have assembled a leading team of media theorists, filmmakers, artists, and practitioners to foster creativity, digital innovation, and civic engagement. Our mission is to produce first-rate interdisciplinary research that addresses key cultural and social issues of the day through nuanced, contextualised, and historicised approaches.
How to advance critical thinking and progress media and artistic practice in an age of data doubles, deepfakes, disinformation, and doom-scrolling is a critical focus for MACT. We aim to find ways to help people navigate the complexities of the digital media surround and promote collaboration between academia, industry, and the public.
The Centre foregrounds the value of cross-disciplinary inquiry, as we engage with ARU’s key research themes of Safe and Inclusive communities, Health, Performance, and Well-being, and Sustainable Futures. Finding innovative, participatory, and arts-based research methodologies to help engage with stakeholders and communities is key to our collaborative, inclusive vision of the role that media theorists, practitioners, and artists can play in driving social change.
I am excited about what the future holds as we build MACT and forge new partnerships with the digital, creative, and cultural sectors in Cambridge and beyond.
Prof Tanya Horeck
Director of MACT