Planetary Collegium

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The Planetary Collegium is an international network for research in art, technology and consciousness, based in the University of Plymouth. with linked centers ("nodes") in Zurich and Milan. The Collegium consists of artists, theoreticians and scholars who meet online, and periodically face-to-face in many parts of the world, to develop their research into new media art. Their doctoral research leads to the University of Plymouth PhD. Post-doctoral research is also pursued. Within the context of transdisciplinarity and syncretism, the Collegium promotes "the integration of art, science, technology, and consciousness research within a post-biological culture". Its constituency also includes General Members, who share the aims and interests of the Collegium, and are invited to participate in its development. Founded in 1994 by Roy Ascott at the University of Wales, Newport as the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA), Ascott moved its base in 2003 to the University of Plymouth, renaming it the Planetary Collegium. It has attracted an impressive number of internationally well-established new media artists, musicians, performers, designers, architects, theorists and scholars involved in doctoral and post-doctoral research. With its geographically dispersed members and frequent research sessions and public conferences in the Americas, Europe and the Far East, it constitutes a worldwide research community.The "hub" of the Collegium is situated in the Faculty of Technology, School of Computing, Communications and Electronics, University of Plymouth, England, its Nodes are in Zurich and Milan.

  • Planetary Collegium President: Professor Roy Ascott. CAiiA-Hub Director: Professor Roy Ascott, Z-Node [1], Director, Professor Jill Scott:; M-Node [2], Director, Francesco Monico. Since 1997, the Collegium has given over twenytfive conferences in Europe, North and South America, Japan, China an Australia.


Contents

[edit] Collegium Advisory Board

  • Chair
  • Roy Ascott, President.
  • Honorary Members of the Collegium:
  • James Gimzewski;
  • Pierre Lévy;
  • Roger Malina [3];
  • Louise Poissant [4];
  • Thomas S. Ray;
  • Marilyn Schlitz [5];
  • Barbara Maria Stafford [6].
  • Academic Members of the Collegium:
  • Principal Supervisor (Theory) Michael Punt
  • Principal Supervisor (Practice) Mike Phillips
  • Director of Z-Node: Jill Scott
  • Director of M-Node: Francesco Monico
  • Graduate Members of the Collegium:
  • Peter Anders [7]
  • Victoria Vesna [8]

[edit] Aims

The Planetary Collegium aims to produce new knowledge in the context of the arts , through transdisciplinary inquiry and critical discourse, with special reference to technoetic research and to advances in science and technology. It seeks:

  • to reflect social, technological and spiritual aspirations of the emerging planetary society, while sustaining a critical awareness of the retrograde forces and fields that inhibit social and cultural development.
  • to combine the face-to-face association of individuals with the nomadic, trans-cultural interactions of telematic communities
  • to develop a network of research nodes strategically located across the planet, each reflecting a distinctive cultural ethos, and each embodied eventually in an architecture of unique distinction.


  • to develop a syncretic strategy towards art, science, technology, and consciousness research.

The Collegium seeks outcomes that will involve new language, systems, structures, and behaviours, and insights into the nature of mind, matter and human identity.

[edit] Questions addressed

  • How might new technologies and the metaphors of science be employed in artistic research and development?
  • How might the insights of the artist contribute to the advancement of knowledge in science and to technological development? (Ask not what science can do for art but what art can do for science!).
  • How might technology and art combine in the navigation of consciousness, and the exploration of mind? How can the accrued wisdom of exotic or ancient cultures be allied to the search for meaning and values in a post-biological society?
  • How might new technologies serve to support and sustain cultures that lie beyond the Western paradigm? How might the Net serve the needs of interactive, non-linear, transdisciplinary learning, and engender creative thought and constructive action?
  • How might new discourses be initiated which will bring critical, ethical and spiritual perspectives to bear on emergent fields of art practice?
  • While exploiting the constructive and expressive potential of telematic and interactive digital media, how might the Collegium pursue developments in post-biological research, molecular engineering, neuro science, and nanotechnology, while identifying artistic and spiritual strategies that optimise human capabilities, and seed new visions of a planetary society.?

[edit] The PhD research programme

  • All part-time doctoral research candidates attend three mandatory ten-day face-to-face Composite Sessions each year over a continuous three year period.. Typically, each session involves three days of individual research updates presented for discussion by the group; a three stage critique by all members of the group in respect of each others work; individual supervisory tutorials; a two-day public symposium; and a one-day cultural visit.
  • Full-time research
 doctoral candidates are required to be resident in the University of Plymouth or at a Node (Zurich or Milan) for a continuous three year period.

[edit] Research Reporting Procedures


Doctoral candidates are required to submit progress reports to the University of Plymouth Research Committee at regular intervals.

  • At the conclusion of each Composite Session, candidates submit their Research Update (ppt) and Critical Response (Word).
  • The Transfer Report (5,000 words), accompanied by independent expert commentator's report, is submited to support the transfer from MPhil to full PhD status.
  • 
After a minimum of four year’s research, a candidate is eligible to submit a thesis for Final Examination, which includes a viva voce examination. The final submission may consist in either a written thesis of 80,000 words, or a thesis consisting in two parts: a digital portfolio of practical work which has been initiated, researched and developed exclusively within the candidate's registered research period, and a linked narrative of no less than 35, 000 words.

[edit] The Consciousness Reframed Conferences

The International Research Conference Consciousness Reframed: art and consciousness in the post-biological era, convened and directed by Professor Ascott, has brought together between 70 and 100 presenters from up to 25 countries each year, at the following locations:

  • 1997, 1998, and 2000. University of Wales College Newport

  • 1998. Conference workshop The Architecture of Consciousness
  • 2002. Perth, Western Australia. Hosted by Curtin University
  • 2003. University of Wales College Newport
  • 2004. Beijing, China. Qi and Complexity hosted by the Digital Media Studio, Central Academy of Fine Arts; China Electronic Music Center, Central Conservatory of Music; Department of Digital Art and Design, School of Software, Peking University; Institute of Digital Media, Beijing Normal University.
  • 2005. University of Plymouth. Altered States: Transformations of Perception, Place & Performance. 

  • 2006. University of Plymouth. Altered States: Immatereality.
  • 2008. Vienna. New Realities : Being Syncretic Hosted by Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien.
  • 2009. Munich. Hosted by the University of Applied Science, Munich.

[edit] Notable alumni

Peter Anders PhD; Jon Bedworth PhD; Geoff Cox PhD; Char Davies PhD [9]; Elisa Giaccardi PhD; Diane Gromala PhD; Dew Harrison PhD; Pamela Jennings PhD [10]; Eduardo Kac PhD ; Joasia Krysa PhD; Joseph Nechvatal PhD; Miroslaw Rogala PhD; Gretchen Schiller PhD; Jill Scott PhD; Bill Seaman PhD; Christa Sommerer PhD; Victoria Vesna PhD [11].

[edit] Current PhD candidates

CAiiA-Hub Plymouth. Elif Ayiter, Lecturer, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey; Laura Beloff, Independent artist, Oslo, Norway.; Isabelle Choinière, Artistic Director, Le corps Indice, production artistique - Montréal, Canada; Donna Cox, Professor, School of Art and Design, and joint appointment with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Margaret Dolinsky, Assistant Professor and Research Scientist, School of Fine Arts, Indiana University Bloomington; Maia Engeli, Assistant Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada; Wolfgang Fiel, architect, Vienna; Norbert Herber, Lecturer, Indiana University, Bloomington; Margarete Jahrmann, Professor for Media Arts/ Mediapoiesis, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich; David McConville, Director of Noospheric Research, The Elumenati, West Asheville, North Carolina, USA.; Francesco Monico, Director of the Milano Node of the Planetary Collegium. Head of Media Design Department studies Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti -NABA, Milan Italy.; James Moore, Independent researcher, London; José Luiz Moutinho, Neoris, Portugal. Sana Murrani, BSc & MSc Arch, Architectural/Graphic designer, Research Student, Planetary Collegium, School of Computing, Communication and Electronics, University of Plymouth, UK; Shaun Murray, Independent Architect, London.; Guto Nóbrega, Faculty of Technology, University of Plymouth; Kjell Yngve Petersen, Lecturer, School of Arts, Brunel University, London.; Nicolas Reeves, Professor and Scientific director, Hexgram Institute for Research and Creation in Media Arts and Technology, University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada.; Natacha Roussel, independent artist, Paris;Semi Ryu, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA Thecla Schiphorst, Associate Professor in Interactive Arts at the Simon Fraser University.; Yacov Sharir, Professor, Dance, University of Texas at Austin; Diana Reed Slattery, Director, DomeWorks, Albany, NY; Karin Sondergaard, Independent Artist, Copenhagen; René Stettler, Independent Scholar, Lecturer Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst, Luzern, Switzerland; Natasha Vita-More, Director, Transhumanist Arts & Culture, Austin, Texas; Ron Wakkary, Associate Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, Canada; Claudia Westermann, University Assistant, Faculty of Architecture, TU Vienna, Austria; Monika Weiss, Artist, New York City & Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Washington College.

M-Node Milan . Simona Caraceni, Assistant Professor, University of Bologna; Jennifer Kanary, Independent artist, Amsterdam; Jurgen Faust University of Applied Sciences, Munich; Franco Marineo, cinema critic and author, Milan; Federica Timeto, independent feminist scholar, Milan;

Z-Node Zurich . Brandon Ballengee, Independent Artist, New York, USA; Valerie Bugmann, independent Columbian artist; Teresa Chen, independent Artist,, USA/Switzerland.; Monika Codourey, independent architect, Warsaw/Zurich; Louis-Philippe Demers, Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Karmen Franinovic, Director, Zero-th Association, Pula (Croatia)/Montreal; Nadia Gisler, Senior Lecturer, Hochschule Fur Gestaltung und Kunst. Zurich; Honor Harger, Director AV Festival Newcastle upon Tyne, England; Sandra Hoffmann, Professor for Typography and Communication Design, University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt; Tiffany Holmes, Associate Professor, Art and Technology Studies, School of the Art Institute, Chicago.; Kirsten Johannsen, Independent Artist, Zurich; Hung Kung, Assistant professor.Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Juergen Moritz, Researcher, Institute for Playstudies Bangkok; Andreas Schiffler, Physicist and Media Art Programmer/Senior Software Architect, IC-Agency, Geneva/Canada; Trebor Scholz, Assistant professor: SUNY at Buffalo. New York.

[edit] Research Sessions and Public Conferences