From 1 to 10 December, the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia in Katowice will host prof. Derrick de Kerckhove from the University of Toronto (Canada).
The research and education project “Digital Mind and Connective Intelligence: What We Can Learn from New Media Art Experiments” will feature public lectures, discussion panels, seminars and consultations. The events are addressed to the entire academic community of the University of Silesia and the Academy of Fine Arts, residents of the region, employees of cultural institutions, including the Silesian Museum, and the open public.
Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove will visit the University of Silesia at the invitation of Anna Maj, PhD, DLitt from the Institute of Culture Studies of the University of Silesia and the Silesian Science Festival KATOWICE.
Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove
Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove is one of the most significant researchers in the world working in the field of new media, relations between society, culture and technology (STS), a long-time director of the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology founded by Marshall McLuhan at the University of Toronto. He has cooperated with many universities in Canada, France and Italy, the Library of Congress and cultural institutions in many countries, as well as economic institutions of a global nature and importance (Prof. De Kerckhove is, among others, a member of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a member of the Club of Rome – he was honoured the Papamarkou Chair in Technology and Education at the Library of Congress). He is a beneficiary of grants in the field of electronic media development. as well as the author of many significant books and articles on media, translated into many languages. He was honoured with many national and international distinctions and scientific awards in, among others, France, Italy, Brazil and Argentina.
Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove was born in 1944 in Belgium, and has been a Canadian citizen since 1967. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1974 and a Doctorat du 3e cycle in Sociology of Art from the University of Tours (France) in 1979. In the years 1967–2012 he worked at the University of Toronto, he has been associated with the Marshall McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology from 1968. He worked with Marshall McLuhan as his assistant, translator and co-author. He was the Director of the McLuhan Programme in Culture and Technology from 1983 until 2008. Currently he is a professor emeritus at the Faculty of French.
Several of his dozen books have been published in multiple languages, including: Brainframes: Technology, Mind and Business (1991), The Skin of Culture (1995), Connected Intelligence (1997) i Architecture of Intelligence (2001). His latest book The Quantum Ecology, written in collaboration with Stefano Calzati, is being published by MIT Press in Boston. For 25 years of directing the McLuhan Programme, he invited artists dealing with art and new technologies to join the programme and in his research on cultural changes. From 2004 to 2014 he was a professor at the Department of Sociology at Università Federico II in Naples, he is still a professor at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano and research director at the Interdisciplinary Internet Institute at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona. He lives in Rome, where he works as a Scientific Director of the monthly magazines “Media Duemila” and “Osservatorio Tuttimedia”.
Schedule of the meetings
From 1 to 10 December 2023, prof. Derrick de Kerckhove will participate in scientific research, closed-door consultations and seminars for employees and students of the Institute of Culture Studies of the University of Silesia, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Silesian Museum.
From 1 to 4 December 2023 the scientist will take part in 1st International Scientific Symposium: „New Media Perspectives: art – design – science – technology”. The event is organised in cooperation between the University of Silesia, the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and the Silesian Museum as an event announcing the celebration of the European City of Science Katowice 2024. It is an international scientific, artistic and science communication project to which renowned experts, new media researchers and new media artists, both foreign and Polish, representing various scientific and artistic centers were invited. The project is coordinated by the employees of the Institute of Culture Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of University of Silesia (Anna Maj, PhD, DLitt), the Multimedia Activities Studio of the New Media Department of the Academy of Fine Arts (Prof. Marian Oslislo, Ksawery Kaliski, PhD) and the Silesian Museum (Karol Makles, PhD). The event was planned as a cyclical event, the next edition will be held in 2024 as part of the European City of Science. The essence of the idea is to combine scientific and artistic activities in the field of new media art with academic education and the science and art communication in the city space, in various locations of the Culture Zone and Science Zone.
The lectures will be organised in various locations:
- 1 December at 12.45 in the Silesian Museum in Katowice, ul. Dobrowolskiego 1;
- 2 December at 12.30 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, ul. Raciborska 50;
- 4 December at 9.45 a.m. at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia, ul. Uniwersytecka 4 in Katowice.
The last lecture requires prior registration at formularza zgłoszeniowego. Registration for the meeting starts on 17 November at 8.00 p.m. and will be open until 30 November, at 8.00 p.m.
- On 9 December at 3.50 p.m. at the International Congress Centre, conversation with Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove and Anna Maj, PhD, DLitt, will be held as part of the Silesian Science Festival KATOWICE.
The project “Digital Mind and Connective Intelligence: What We Can Learn from New Media Art Experiments”. Project in cooperation with Prof. Derrick de Kerckhov (University of Toronto, Canada) was financed by the GZM Metropolis under the “Metropolitan Science Support Fund” programme for 2022-2024.