Planetary Collegium
Within a transcultural, transdisciplinary perspective, the Planetary Collegium is concerned with the advancement of emergent forms of art and architecture, in the context of telematic, interactive and technoetic media, and their integration with science, technology, and consciousness research. The Collegium's hub (CAiiA-Hub) was located in the School of Art, Design and Architecture, with nodes in Trento, Lucerne and Shanghai. Whilst it is no longer recruiting, since its inception, over 80 doctoral candidates have graduated from the programme with the University of Plymouth PhD.
Further information can be found on the i-DAT website.

Planetary Collegium

Nodes

  • DeTao-Node Shanghai, China. DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai.
    Director: Roy Ascott (roy.ascott@btinternet.com)
  • NGL-Node Lucerne, Switerland, Lucerne, Switzerland. NGL - SAA Neue Galerie Luzern - Swiss Academic Association.
    Director: René Stettler (stettler@neugalu.ch)
  • T-Node Trento, Italy. Fondazione Ahref.
    Director: Francesco Monico (francescomonico@gmail.com)

History

The Planetary Collegium was first established as the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA) by Roy Ascott in 1994 at what is now the University of Wales, Newport.

Three years later, Roy 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, Roy relocated the platform to the University of Plymouth, renaming it the Planetary Collegium, where it is now located in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business.

Since 1997, the collegium has given more than seventy conferences and symposia in Europe, North and South America, Japan, China and Australia.

Aims

The 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 the social, technological and spiritual aspirations of an emerging planetary society, while sustaining a critical awareness of the retrograde forces and fields that inhibit social and cultural development. 

It combines the face-to-face association of individuals with the trans-cultural unity of telematic communities, thereby developing a network of research nodes strategically located across the planet, each with a distinctive cultural ethos. 

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

PhD graduates of the programme

A random selection of PhDs awarded since 1998:

  • 'Subject and Aesthetic Interface - an inquiry into transformed subjectivities' Johansson, Kathrine (2015) PhD University of Plymouth. 
  • 'Facing Experience: A Painter’s Canvas In Virtual Reality' Dolinsky, Margaret, (2014) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Interactive Technologies for the Public Sphere Toward a Theory of Critical Creative Technology' Jennings, Pamela Lynnette (2006) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Principles of Metadesign'. Giaccardi, Elisa. (2003). PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'The Kinesfield: study of movement-based interactive and choreographic art'. Schiller, Gretchen . (2003). PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Art and Technology: coherence; connectedness, and the integrative field' Nobrega, Carlos Augusto Moreira (2009) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Outline of a Subversive Technopoetic: for a Libertarian Pedartgogy'. Monico, Francesco (2014) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'A Procedural Model For Integrating Physical And Cyberspaces In Architecture' . Anders, Peter (2003) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Strategies for Interactive Public Art: Dynamic Mapping with (V) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'The Hybronaut and the Umwelt: Wearable Technology as Artistic Strategy' Beloff, Laura Maria (2013) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Image and Evidence: The Study of Attention through the Combined Lenses of Neuroscience and Art' . Levy, Ellen K (2012) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Life Expansion: Toward an Artistic, Design-Based Theory of the Transhuman/Posthuman'. Vita-More, Natasha (2012) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Polyphibianism: Evolving Transdisciplinarity into an Imaginary Organism of Living Knowledge'. Ljubec, Ziva (2015) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Astral Projection: Theories Of Metaphor, Philosophies of Science, and The Art of Scientific Visualization' Cox, Donna J (2008) PhD University of Plymouth.

  • 'Ecological Understanding through Transdisciplinary Art and Participatory Biology'. Ballengée, Brandon ((2015) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Diffracting Representation: Towards A Situated Aesthetics Of Technospaces' Timeto, Federica (2013) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'The Varieties of User Experience Bridging Embodied Methodologies from Somatics and Performance to Human Computer Interaction'. Schiphorst, Thecla (2009) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Human Computer Interaction'. Schiphorst, Thecla (2009) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Communicating the Unspeakable: Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere' Slattery, Diana R (2011) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'software curating: the politics of curating in/as (an) Open System(s)' Krysa, Joasia (2008) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Amergent Music: behavior and becoming in technoetic & media arts'. Herber, Norbert F (2010) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Ludics for a Ludic Society The Art and Politics of Play' Jahrmann, Margarete (2011) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Re-appropriating Chinese Art in the Context of Digital Media: From the Chinese Past into a Mediated ‘Presence’ through Creative Practice' Hung , Keung David (2014) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Participation as Media: a compositional system for staging participation with reflective scenography' Søndergaard, Karin (2010) University of Plymouth
  • 'An Experimental Research into Inhabitable Theories' Westermann, Claudia (2011) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'On the Evolution of the Heavenly Spheres: An Enactive Approach to Cosmography' McConville, David (2014) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Towards a Phenomenologlcal Theory of the VIsceral In the Interactive Arts'. Gromala, Diane J (2007) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Communicating the Unspeakable: Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere' Slattery, Diana R (2011) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'Amergent Music: behavior and becoming in technoetic & media arts'. Herber, Norbert F (2010) PhD University of Plymouth
  • 'A dramaturgy of intermediality: composing with integrative design' Petersen, Kjell Yngve (2009) PhD University of Plymouth.

Roland Levinsky Building