Special Issue on "Algorithmic Imaginaries: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Creativity, and the Remaking of Culture in the Twenty-First Century"

A special issue of Digital Technologies Research and Applications (DTRA) (E-ISSN: 2754-5687).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026

Guest Editors:

Prof. T Simelane
Affiliation: GAIC lab, University of Johannesburg, Human Sciences Research Council
E-mail: tsimelane@hsrc.ac.za
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4041-9693

Dr. Olu Randle
Affiliation: GAIC lab. University of the Witwatersrand
E-mail: Oluwarotimi.randle1@wits.ac.za
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7948-1681

Special Issue Information:

Dear Colleagues,

The intersection of artificial intelligence and digital culture has become one of the most consequential and underexamined domains in contemporary scholarship. As machine learning systems migrate from industrial pipelines into the realms of creative production, artistic expression, and everyday cultural practice, researchers in diverse disciplines are confronted with a set of questions that resist easy categorisation: What happens to authorship when generative algorithms co-produce cultural artefacts? How do communities of practice adapt when the tools of creative labour are majorly transformed by computational agents? In what ways do prevailing cultural values, aesthetic hierarchies, and institutional frameworks affect and in turn become affected by the proliferation of AI-mediated experiences?

This special issue, titled Algorithmic Imaginaries: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Creativity, and the Remaking of Culture in the Twenty-First Century, assembles a curated body of original studies that addresses these questions with rigour, interdisciplinary breadth, and notable depth. The issue which is placed in the productive space where there is a convergence of computer science, game studies, cultural theory, media studies, and the digital humanities, the issue foregrounds the intellectual programme of the Games and Artificial Intelligence (GAI) Lab, which is an applied research unit that is committed to advancing the study of AI as a medium of cultural and creative transformation.

The issue is structured around three interrelated thematic pillars: (i) the computational foundations of AI-driven creativity and their implications for digital arts practice; (ii) the cultural, ethical, and representational dimensions of AI-generated content in games, interactive media, and digital heritage; and (iii) the epistemic and institutional challenges that come up as AI systems assume greater roles in determining what audiences encounter, remember, and value. Contributions cover theoretical essays, empirical studies, system design reports, and interdisciplinary syntheses, which shows the conviction that the most pressing questions at the AI–culture interface demand methodological pluralism.

Guest Editors:
Prof. Thokozani Simelane
Dr. Dr. Olu Randle

Keywords:

• artificial intelligence
• digital arts and culture
• game studies
• generative AI
• procedural content generation
• computational creativity
• digital heritage
• AI ethics and governance

Manuscript Submission Information:

Please visit the Submissions Guidelines page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Manuscripts should be submitted online through the online manuscript submission and editorial system. Additionally, please include a cover letter specifying that the manuscript is intended for the Special Issue "Algorithmic Imaginaries: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Creativity, and the Remaking of Culture in the Twenty-First Century" when submitting it online. Manuscripts can be submitted until the submission deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract can be sent to the Editor Aries Li aries@ukscip.com for announcement on this website.