Month: October 2021

Aesthetic and non-aesthetic factors shaping the reception of Polish contemporary art

It is assumed that there are many factors responsible for the interpretation and understanding of art. These include aesthetic disposition, intellectual preparation, experience, and social status. However, in our study, we are also interested in non-aesthetic sociocultural factors. We examine the extent to which worldview and attitudes toward key aspects of social life are important in the process of receiving artistic messages. We adopt a phenomenological perspective on aesthetics, according to which the central issue is the experience of art, its affective, motor, and cognitive aspects. We are interested in confronting the pre-reflective, intuitive, and immediate with the reflective, declarative, and cultural. We study young intellectuals, i.e., people with higher education in the 20–30 age range. We carry out our measurements using traditional and modern research tools. In addition to questionnaires and informal interviews, we use eye-tracking, face-reading, and GSR (skin conductance) techniques.

The study is conducted by:

Tomasz Ferenc, PhD, professor at the University of Lodz, sociologist, head of the Department of Sociology of Art. His areas of interest focus on anthropology and visual sociology, migration processes and borderland culture, as well as biographically oriented sociology of art.

Kamila Biały, PhD, assistant professor at the Department of Sociology of Art at the Institute of Sociology, University of Lodz, sociologist and psychotherapist, her areas of interest include epistemological problems of cognition, in particular phenomenological criticism of culture, the issue of non-dualism, and posthumanism.

Dagna Kidoń, PhD student at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences at the University of Lodz. She conducts doctoral research using eye tracking at the Perception and Reception Research Studio. Her academic work focuses on the social determinants of the perception of Polish contemporary art.

 

Erasmus XR – Summer School in Malta in July 2022

As part of the “Experience and immersive technologies – from creative practice to educational theory” project, we announce a call for students to go to Malta.
The Summer School, scheduled from July 11 to 15, 2022, is open to 5 students from each participating university interested in immersive technologies XR (VR, AR, MR).

If you are interested in going, please answer the following questions in the form linked below:

1) What are your motivations for the Immersive Technologies Summer School?
2) Have you done any projects in the field of immersive technologies, multimedia, or new media arts?
3) Do you have future plans related to immersive technologies or related technologies?

We provide participants with contact with the latest technology, specialists and scientists working on immersive content, transportation, accommodation and meals. In return, we expect motivation and willingness to work and scientific development.

Form – Registration UJ – closes on 15.11.2021
Form – Registration PWSFTViT – closes on 25.10.2021

 

XR School in Malta

Scientists from four academic centers from Poland, Greece and Malta, implementing an international project under the Erasmus + program, led by a team from the Institute of Culture of the JU, have just returned from training on the use of new immersion technologies in culture and art.

After the success of the meeting inaugurating the international project, co-financed under action 2 “Strategic Partnerships for digital education in the higher education sector” in the Erasmus + program, entitled “Experience and immersive technologies – from creative practice to educational theory”, which took place on June 2, 2021 and brought together over 60 representatives from academia as well as business, it is time to implement further activities. Scientists from the Lodz Film School in ?ód?, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the University of Malta and the Jagiellonian University met in Malta to participate in a training course on the application of new immersion technologies in culture and art.

New immersion technologies training lasted from September 27 to October 1, 2021 and was the first meeting of the team outside the digital realm. Due to the current restrictions related to the SARS-COV2 pandemic, the group of representatives of each of the partner universities was limited. Dr. Adnan Hadzi [Hadziselimovic] and his team planned numerous workshops, during which he introduced the team to examples of projects implemented by researchers from the University of Malta, in which augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) were used. The hosts of the autumn XR school – partners from the University of Malta, invited 10 people from Poland and Greece. In addition, six working groups were launched in the development of syllabuses of courses on immersive technologies, which in the future will be included in open educational resources in the vein of open science commons approach, addressed to future artists and managers of culture and media. The training was the first from the cycle – further training is planned for July 2022 as part of the summer school, also organized in Malta. This time, it will be attended not only by researchers, but above all by students for whom workshops are planned, enabling them to gain experience in the use of new immersive technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and how to use them to engage cultural audiences and art.