The Planetary Collegium (a.k.a. CAiiA / Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts) is an international transcultural and

transdisciplinary Transdisciplinarity is an approach that iteratively interweaves knowledge systems, skills, methodologies, values and fields of expertise within inclusive and innovative collaborations that bridge academic disciplines and community perspectives, ...

new media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of new media, electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robo ...

educational research platform that promotes on the

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

level the integration of art, science, technology, and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

research under the rubric of the '' technoetic arts''. It is based in the School of Art, Design and Architecture department at Plymouth University in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

with nodes in

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. The founding President is Professor Roy Ascott. Logo for The Planetary Collegium

History

The Planetary Collegium was conceived and established by Roy Ascott as the ''Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts'' (CAiiA) in 1994 at what is now the University of Wales, Newport Three years later, Ascott 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 contracted to relocate the platform to Plymouth University, renaming it the Planetary Collegium, where it is currently located in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Structure

As conceived and directed by Ascott, the Planetary Collegium consists of artists, theoreticians and scholars working within the context of

transdisciplinarity Transdisciplinarity is an approach that iteratively interweaves knowledge systems, skills, methodologies, values and fields of expertise within inclusive and innovative collaborations that bridge academic disciplines and community perspectives, ...

and

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

so as to develop their research in the practice and theory of

with a special interest in telematics and technoetics. Currently, their doctoral research leads to the award of the University of Plymouth PhD. Post-doctoral research is also pursued. Currently, 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, Plymouth University.Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz, ''Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings'' (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by Kristine Stiles) University of California Press 2012, p. 464 The Collegium has a Node De Tao-Node in Shanghai.

Node Directors

*DeTao-Node Shanghai, China. DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai. Director: Roy Ascott *T-Node Trento, Italy. Fondazione Ahref. Director: Francesco Monico *NGL-Node Lucerne, Switzerland. NGL - SAA Neue Galerie Luzern - Swiss Academic Association. Director: René Stettler

Awards

The Collegium was awarded The World Universities Forum Award for Best Practice in Higher Education 2011.

Collegium President

Roy Ascott, Founding President, 2014 Recipient of the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica Award for Visionary Pioneer of

New Media Art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of new media, electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robo ...

. Doctor ''Honoris Causa'', Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. Honorary Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark. Honorary Professor, West London University, UK. Professor, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. DeTao Master of Technoetic Arts, DeTao Masters Academy, Shanghai, China. In 2025 Ascott discussed The Planetary Collegium as part of a comprehensive interview at Artforum conducted by Hans-Ulrich Obrist.
''GIVE AND TAKE : Roy Ascott reflects on his career'' by Hans-Ulrich Obrist Artforum, VOL. 63, NO. 6

Collegium Advisory Board

*Marco Bischof * James Gimzewski *

Pierre Lévy Pierre Lévy (; born 1956) is a Tunisian-born French people, French philosopher, Culture theory, cultural theorist and media scholar who specializes in the understanding of the cultural and cognitive implications of digital technologies and the p ...

* Luis Eduardo Luna * Roger Malina *Ryohei Nakatsu *Louise Poissant * Thomas S. Ray * Marilyn Schlitz * Barbara Maria Stafford * Mike Phillips, Principal Supervisor, CAiiA-Node *Jane Grant, Principal Supervisor, CAiiA-Node *Jing (Luna) Zhou, Associate Director, DeTao Node

Advanced Research Associates

The Advanced Research Associateship (ARA) involves post-doctoral or advanced practice research. ARAs are required to attend three Composite Sessions within their year of registration, and to participate in the associated international research conferences. *** CAiiA-Hub: ** Heather Raikes, University of Washington, Seattle, US (2011–12). ** Paulo Rodrigues, University of Aveiro, Portugal (2010–11). ** Wengao Huang, University of Plymouth, UK (2005–06). ** Cristina Miranda de Almeida, University of the Basque Country. (2005–06). ** Andrea Gaugusch, University of Vienna, Austria (2003–04). ** Dene Grigar, Washington State University—Vancouver (2002–04). ** Katia Maciel, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2001–02). ** Tania Fraga, University of Brasilia, Brazil (1999–2000). *** M-Node: ** Luisa Paraguai, Anhembi Morumbi University, São Paulo, Brazil (2011–12). ** Gianna Angelini, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy (2012-) ** I-Node, Lila Moore,(2014-2015).

Research Sessions and Public Conferences

Sessions and conferences have been hosted by: *Artspace Media Centre,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

(1997) * La Beneficia Cultural Centre,

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

(1998) *CYPRES,

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

(1999) * Federal University,

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

(1999) *

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

, Tucson (2000) *

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(2000) *Fondazione Fitzcaraldo, Turin (2001) * Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(2001) *University of California DARNet, Santa Cruz and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

(2001) *University of Arizona, Tucson (2002) * Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (2002) * IAMAS, Ogaki,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(2002) *The Hochschule fuer Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich (2003) *Image Technology Center, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Paraciutu and

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

(2003) *Ciberart,

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

(2004) *School of Software,

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, Beijing (2004) * Texas Woman's University,

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

(2005) * University of Plymouth, Plymouth (2005) * Sabancı University,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

(2005) *University of Arizona, Tucson (2006) * University of Plymouth (2006) *SESC, São Paulo, Brazil (2006) *Hexagram, 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) Vienna, Austria (2008) *SESC, São Paulo, Brazil (2008) *La Sala Parpallo Valencia, Spain (2009) *macromedia hochschule für medien und kommunikation Munich, Germany (2009) *Artshare, Porto, Portugal (2010) *Ionion Centre for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia, Greece (2011) *CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies, Prague, Czech Republic (2012) *XARTS - International Conference on Extended Arts - From Virtual to Real, Syros, Greece (2013) *Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg."Fak'ugesi Digital Africa Conference".214. *2016 American University in Cairo, Egypt. "Cairotronica".

External links

The Planetary Collegium at University of Plymouth, England

Footnotes

{{University of Plymouth Transdisciplinarity New media art International artist groups and collectives University of Plymouth