Art and technology in Poland from cybercommunism to the culture of makers

This book is a collection of texts dedicated to the changes taking place in many areas of Polish art of the past few decades under the impact of technological tools. It also demonstrates many authors’ interests in new scientific research. These transformations are taking place very fast and are present in all forms of art, such as in literature, music and the visual, performance arts. Importantly, however, and this follows from the studies that were carried out when we were preparing these texts for publication, new artistic practices emerge which to a great extent transcend classical definitions of art and its disciplines. These are often activities taking place at the intersection of artistic and scholarly competences which take up major problems today’s human beings, faced with technological and cultural processes, have to deal with. In most cases the texts published in this book are penned by theoreticians and practitioners, i.e. those culture scholars whose own practice within the different domains of culture is the foundation of scholarship. Another group are artist-scholars who deliberately apply scientific theories not only to inspire, but also to inform about their projects. The texts, then, are a record of the scientific and artistic experience of their authors who are involved in the dissemination of a new comprehension of the relations between culture, science and technology and of those who see the need for bridging the gaps in scholarship on contemporary art. Agnieszka Jelewska (from Introduction)