| Anna Malinowska, PhD, DLitt, Assoc. Prof. – curator of Love Week |
During Love Week, we witnessed scientific and experimental approaches to emotions, relationships and intimacy, in which specialists in selected fields from Poland and abroad discussed the latest research relating to feelings, experiencing them and their representation.
The programme included medical lectures (on cardiac broken heart syndrome – Takotsubo), sociological lectures (on representations of love in contemporary culture), legal and economic lectures (on taxes in relationships), theological lectures (on divine love from a human perspective), philosophical lectures (on relationships between beings of organic and inorganic species), psychological lectures (about maps of feelings and the reality of a romantic meeting), artistic lectures (demonstration of a machine for controlling feelings), as well as quantum physics lectures (about particle entanglement). There were also debates (such as the one about the ideal of love), workshops (e.g. a philosophical one about eroticism) and meetings (including those enabling people to learn about the emotional experiences of individuals with disabilities or different sexual orientations).
The undisputed hit of the week was the art-and-science and civic science scientific experiment EEG KISS, which allowed for neurological measurements of tenderness between people. Thanks to it, we could see images of parental, brotherly, friendly and romantic love, as well as see how data collected from the brain can create collective landscapes of feelings.
The Love Week events also included exhibitions (about the destructive passion of architecture and machine emotions), a concert (about the experience of heartbreak) and a cinema show (a review of music videos about love). There were also discussions about the design of feelings and the systematisation of processes related to contemporary relationship practices.
Related content
- Love Week in the City of Science website
- ‘A scientific look at love testers and heartbreak’ – article about the research of Silesian scientists