Planetary Collegium

The Planetary Collegium is an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub based in the University of Plymouth, with linked centers ("nodes") in Zurich and Milan. Its president is Roy Ascott

World Universities Forum Award for Best Practice in Higher Education 2011 . 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 in the practice and theory of new media art with a special interest in telematics and technoetics. Their doctoral research leads to the award of 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. In addition to doctoral candidates and graduates, supervisors and honorary members, its constituency also includes general members, who share the aims and interests of the Collegium, and are invited to participate in its development. It was founded in 1994 at the University of Wales College, Newport as the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA) by Roy Ascott, who three years later established STAR (Science Technology and Art Research) in the School of Computing, University of Plymouth. CAiiA-STAR constituted a joint research platform, with access to supervisory and technical resources of both universities. In 2003, Ascott relocated the platform as a whole to the University of Plymouth, renaming it the Planetary Collegium. It has attracted an impressive number of internationally well-established 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 Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe, it constitutes a worldwide research community. The hub of the Collegium, CAiiA-Hub (the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts) is situated in the School of Art and Media, Faculty of Arts, , University of Plymouth. Its Nodes are M-Node in Milan and Z-Node in Zurich. Since 1997, the Collegium has given over twenty five conferences and symposia in Europe, North and South America, Japan, China and Australia.

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.

Collegium Advisory Board

Chair

• Roy Ascott, President of the Collegium

Honorary Members of the Collegium

• Marco Bischof
• James Gimzewski
• Pierre Lévy
• Luis Eduardo Luna
• Roger Malina
• Ryohei Nakatsu
• Louise Poissant
• Thomas S. Ray
• Marilyn Schlitz
• Barbara Maria Stafford

Academic Members of the Collegium

• Jane Grant, Principal Supervisor, CAiiA-Node
• Francesco Monico, Director of M-Node
• Mike Phillips, Principal Supervisor, CAiiA-Node
• Jill Scott, Director of Z-Node

Planning and Development

• Peter Anders

Advisory Board

• Victoria Vesna (Doctoral Graduate)

Advisory Board

• Elif Ayiter (Doctoral Candidate)

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.

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 submitted 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.

The Consciousness Reframed Conferences

Instituted by Roy Ascott, the international research conference series Consciousness Reframed: art and consciousness in the post-biological era brings together each year between 60 and 100 presenters from up to 25 countries

• 1997, 1998, and 2000. University of Wales College, Newport
  
• 1998. University of Plymouth, England. 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 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, England. Altered States: Transformations of Perception, Place & Performance.
• 2006. University of Plymouth, England. Altered States: Immatereality.
• 2008. Vienna, Austria. New Realities : Being Syncretic Hosted by Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien.
• 2009. Munich, Germany. Macromedia Hochschule für Medien und Kommunikation. Experiencing Design, Behaving Media .
• 2010. Trondheim, Norway. TEKS - Trondheim Electronic Arts Center. Making Reality Really Real .
• 2011. Shanghai, China. Institute of Visual Art, Fudan University. Transcultural Tendencies | Transmedial Tendencies.
• 2011. Centro Cultural Belem and Artshare. Lisbon, Portugal. Presence in the Mindfield: Art, Identity and the Technology of Transformation .
• 2012. Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture. Kefalonia, Greece. Technoetic Telos: Art, Myth and Media

Research Sessions and Public Conferences

• Sessions and conferences have been hosted by:
• Artspace Media Centre, Dublin (1997)
  
• La Beneficia Cultural Centre, Valencia (1998)
• CYPRES, Marseilles (1999)
• Federal University, Rio de Janeiro (1999)
• University of Arizona, Tucson (2000)
• École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2000)
• Fondazione Fitzcaraldo, Turin (2001)
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona (2001)
• University of California DARNet, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles (2001)
• University of Arizona, Tucson (2002)
• Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (2002)
• IAMAS, Ogaki, Japan (2002)
• The Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich (2003)
• Image Technology Center, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Paraciutu and Fortaleza (2003)
• Ciberart, Bilbao (2004)
• School of Software, Peking University, Beijing (2004)
• Texas Woman's University, Dallas (2005)
• University of Plymouth, Plymouth (2005)
• Sabanci University, Istanbul (2005)
• University of Arizona, Tucson (2006)
• University of Plymouth, (2006)
• SESC [1], São Paulo, Brazil (2006)
• Hexagram [2], Montreal (2007)
• University of Plymouth, (2007)
• Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano - NABA (2007)
• LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijon, Asturias, Spain (2008)
• Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien (2007) [3] Vienna, Austria (2008)
• SESC [4], São Paulo, Brazil (2008)
• La Sala Parpallo [5] Valencia, Spain (2009)
• TBA, Venice, Italy
• macromedia hochschule für medien und kommunikation Munich, Germany (2009)