Asian Centre for Digital Cultures (ACDC)

The Asian Centre for Digital Cultures aims to become one of Asia’s foremost centre for studying digital life and developing digital methods tailored to Asian contexts. The Centre develops digital tools to study Asian politics, society and culture; and humanities and social science approaches to study digital society. ACDC is committed to ensuring that Asia’s cultural, social, and linguistic diversity plays a central role in shaping global conversations about digital technologies and artificial intelligence. We support the flourishing of human individuality in a time of rapid digital expansion, and we provide a platform for Asia-led innovation in digital culture research and practice.


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A. Two Core Strands of Work

  1. Digital Methods and Tools
    2. This strand develops and applies computational approaches that are sensitive to the linguistic, cultural, and historical complexity of Asia. ACDC builds methodological leadership in three flagship areas:

    1. Multilingual Asian Language Models (Text and Speech)
      2. We advance research on large language models designed for Asian linguistic realities at scale. This includes:
      • Models capable of understanding and generating code-switched language
      • Tools that capture culturally specific metaphors, references, and communicative norms
      • Speech technologies for tonal, agglutinative, and understudied Asian languages
      • Computational infrastructures that ensure Asian voices and linguistic practices are represented in global AI development

    2. Computational and Artificial Intelligence Tools for Mapping Conceptual and Linguistic Change
      3. We use advanced computational techniques to track how ideas, values, terminologies, and discourses evolve across space and time. Examples include:
      • Large-scale cultural and historical text mining
      • Tracking shifts in public opinion and everyday semantic usage
      • Analysing long-term cultural change through digitised archives, media corpora, and social platforms
      • Visualising conceptual networks that illuminate the emergence of new ideas or the decline of older cultural frameworks

    3. Knowledge Graphs and Digital Representations of Complex Multi-site Heritage
      4. We develop data-driven frameworks for representing Asia’s cultural and historical worlds digitally, including:
      • Knowledge graphs that model relationships across people, objects, places, rituals, and texts
      • Multi-layered digital maps and timelines of heritage sites
      • Tools for connecting local knowledge communities with digital cultural resources
      • Digital infrastructures for understanding regional flows of culture, migration, technology, and memory

    Together, these areas form the Centre’s methodological core. They support both research innovation and the development of culturally grounded digital tools.

  2. Digital Societies and Cultures
    3. This strand investigates how digital transformations are reshaping everyday life, creativity, governance, identity, and social relationships across Asia. Key themes include:
    • Digital capitalism and its impacts on work, inequality, and cultural consumption
    • Online creativity, user-generated cultures, and new artistic forms
    • Platform governance, digital publics, and misinformation
    • Digital heritage, memory practices, and community storytelling
    • Artificial intelligence and its ethical, cultural, and social implications

B. Programmes, Education, and Training

ACDC will house the Master of Arts in Digital Humanities, launching in 2026. The programme will equip students to:

  • Apply computational methods to humanistic inquiry
  • Analyse digital cultures critically and contextually
  • Understand the social and ethical implications of artificial intelligence
  • Work across languages, data types, and disciplinary boundaries

ACDC will also run workshops, short courses, and public programmes that bring digital humanities, data science, communication, and cultural studies together.


C. Partnerships and Public Engagement

The Centre works with:

  • Industry partners seeking culturally informed digital insights
  • Museums and heritage organisations exploring digital storytelling
  • Cultural institutions incorporating artificial intelligence into creative practice
  • Regional universities building shared digital humanities infrastructures
  • Community groups and the public through exhibitions, talks, and collaborative projects