"Exploring the Gap": intercultural learnig in literature and the arts in Lifelong Learning

Lev Manovich (2001) suggests that the heart of the new media relationship is language, programmes and people in collaboration producing and interpreting new representations of the world through «cultural interfaces — Web pages, CD-ROM titles, computer games». In this paper, I explore the gap in-between the artist, the programme and the cultural interface. Gaps are something into which we either fall — or we fill. We may rush to fill an awkward gap in a conversation; or alternatively, we may use that gap — relish the silence — and take the opportunity to explore it creatively. This paper provides a contribution towards filling the digital gap in new media learning via analysis of student questionnaires, recorded interviews and exemplar material, and concludes with reflections on the pedagogical and intercultural theoretical issues involved.