Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art

From a small community of pioneering artists who experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) in the 1970s, AI art has expanded, gained visibility, and attained socio-cultural relevance since the second half of the 2010s. Its topics, methodologies, presentational formats, and implications are closely related to a range of disciplines engaged in the research and application of AI. In this paper, I present a comprehensive framework for the critical exploration of AI art. It comprises the context of AI art, its prominent poetic features, major issues, and possible directions. I address the poetic, expressive, and ethical layers of AI art practices within the context of contemporary art, AI research, and related disciplines. I focus on the works that exemplify poetic complexity and manifest the epistemic or political ambiguities indicative of a broader milieu of contemporary culture, AI science/technology, economy, and society. By comparing, acknowledging, and contextualizing both their accomplishments and shortcomings, I outline the prospective strategies to advance the field. The aim of this framework is to expand the existing critical discourse of AI art with new perspectives which can be used to examine the creative attributes of emerging practices and to assess their cultural significance and socio-political impact. It contributes to rethinking and redefining the art/science/technology critique in the age when the arts, together with science and technology, are becoming increasingly responsible for changing ecologies, shaping cultural values, and political normalization.

Re-framing the Crusades: The Representation of Space, Landscape and Architecture in the Comics Series Croisade

In both medieval and contemporary culture, defamiliarization in space frames the imagined relationship with the other in fantasized views of the East. This paper addresses ways the creative imagination functions in the contemporary four-volume Belgian comics series Croisade by Dufaux and Xavier (vol I-IV). They foster a self-reflexive vision of competing universes, from the Celtic to the ancient Roman, from the Moorish to the Gothic. The cultural relativism of our contemporary era seems more relevant than any attempt to historicize faithfully the fictional plot. These comic books exploit the visual evidence of space as emblematic natural sites of heterotopias like the desert, and architectural space like Jerusalem, some burial sites, the sultan’s oriental palace and the Crusaders’ fortress, while assessing the changing representation of space from the medieval era to the present.

Overcoming awkwardness

As Chinese people engaged with the Australian cultural scene in recent years, two posts about its humour attracted considerable attention from netizens in the People’s Republic of China. The post authors believed that their firsthand accounts of events demonstrated how Australians used humour to overcome awkward situations and regarded this as an essential national characteristic. In each case, other interpretations were possible if cultural factors had been taken into account, including the contemporary culture of China, Putonghua language usage and the Anglo-centrism that is common to cross-cultural studies. This exploratory generalist textual study concludes that the authors’ interpretations were largely determined by their cultural bias and by traditional regard for ‘face’ and politeness, and reflect the fact that, ultimately, the extent of cross-cultural communication is governed by international politics.

Magnetowid i walkman jako przedmioty nostalgiczne w najnowszej literaturze polskiej

This article is devoted to analysing and interpreting nostalgic objects in contemporary culture. Video and Walkman have changed the way we listen to music and watch films. It is worth mentioning that contemporary Polish writers often come back to their childhood and describe objects that were important in their existence, such cassettes of their favorites artists and actors. Nostalgia is a crucial feeling in their writings and a result of the digital age we are living in. Walkman and video resemble an analogue time machine taking one back to a period when the past was written in objects.

The concept of "Contemporary Dance": cultural, philosophical, and artistic approaches

The purpose of the article is to analyze and systematize approaches to the definition of the concept of "contemporary dance". Methodology. The research methodology is based on the analysis of scientific sources related to the topic, approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "Contemporary Dance", using terminological and historical methods. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the main approaches to the definition of contemporary dance are revealed and its characteristic features are revealed. Conclusions. Contemporary dance has taken a prominent place among the directions of choreographic art, has a wide circle of admirers, is recognized as a stage phenomenon and cultural and artistic practice. Currently, there is a wide range of approaches to understanding contemporary dance, which leads to terminological differences in scientific works. Among the main positions in contemporary dance, one can single out its consideration as an avant-garde form of choreographic art that evolved from modern dance; as a dramatic virtuoso dance originating from ballet and jazz; as an intellectual dance that originated in Europe and America, based on various techniques and techniques, it is perceived as a tool for the development of the dancer's body. We adhere to the position that contemporary dance is a direction of choreographic art that arose in the late XX – early XXI centuries in Europe and America, based on techniques and techniques that act as tools for the development of the body, the formation of awareness and the individual choreographic language of the dancer. Keywords: contemporary dance, contemporary culture, choreography, contemporary dance, terminological approach.

„Blind football” i (nie)widoczna integracja (nie)widocznych piłkarzy

“Blind football” was initiated in the last century. What has significantly contributed to its development are newly established organizations, the primary goal of which was to manage various forms of activating people with visual impairment. Popularisation of “blind football” is a long-term, complicated process, in which a plethora of factors are involved. The aim of this article is to reflect on “blind football”, especially on the problems with spreading it. Most of all, the article is an attempt to define the mechanism of the functioning of “blind football” in the sphere of meanings of contemporary culture.

Menus for the Soul Changing Food Landscapes in Contemporary Japan

As Nancy K. Stalker (2018) points out, in recent years food in Japan has established itself as a fundamental feature of national and local identity and became one of Japan's most influential cultural brands. An intriguing example is the B-kyū gurume boom, the celebration of creative versions of typical comfort food, intertwined with the obsession for local traditions. Such processes are reflected in representations of food in media and arts: contemporary culture plays a fundamental role in shaping but also in connoting food culture with new meanings. The aim of this paper is to analyze the construction and narration of contemporary Japanese food culture in one of the most recent and successful franchises, Shin’ya Shokudō, the popular manga by Abe Yarō, which inspired the Netflix series that enjoyed unexpected international success in 2017.

«THE MAKROPULOS AFFAIR» AND THE THINKING ABOUT LONGEVITY AND THE SENSE OF LIFE

The paper deals with the play, written by the Czech writer Karel Čapek «The Makropulos Affair». The play is analyzed in the context of philosophical search of the time of its emergence. Particularly, I. I. Mechnikov’s essays concerning longevity and accompanying it the sense of life matters are observed in the paper. Also, the author makes the comparative analysis of the ideas, represented by the K. Čapek’s play and by the Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw’s theatrical work «Back to Methuselah», in which the ideas of longevity and the sense of life were raised. These works were published almost simultaneously, and both authors were influenced by Mechnikovs’ views. The points of contact and differences in authors’ positions are observed. The paper represents modi of actualization of longevity and the sense of life issues in the contemporary culture by the examples of the musical «The Recipe of her Youth» and the case study from the Julian Baggini’s popular philosophy guide «The Pig that Want to Be Eaten». We can agree with the Baggini’s idea that the sense of life is not defined by the numbers of years, but by their fullness with contents and the desire to use them in full.

Applied cultural studies and culture management: research methodology

The purpose of the article is to study the interconnection of applied cultural studies and culture management, develop methodological basis for analysis of efficiency of their integration, define viability of realizing cultural practices in the context of applied cultural studies branch. The methodology. By analyzing and synthesizing the scientific knowledge, a flexible methodological system is created, which enables analyzing the present and predicting the future, and create, not only in theory, but in practice, the culture­creation technologies, thus setting the vector for culture development. The leading methods of research are analysis of scientific facts, juxtaposition of theoretical positions, generalization and synthesis of methodological basis for defining leading scientific approaches to researching applied cultural studies and culture management. The results. Utilization of developed methodology enables examination of applied cultural studies as a mechanism of culture creativity, and culture management as a tool of scientifically justified regulation of this process. Thanks to applied cultural studies, management gains deep meanings, and not only rational management and realization of its own functions, and applied cultural studies is manifested in practice and transforms into a technological plane the meanings and concepts of contemporary culture model. The topicality. It was defined that gnoseological, worldview, logic­gnoseological, scientific content­related, technological and scientific­methodological levels of methodology allows to create the applied cultural studies and culture management analysis model in a substantial interconnection. Justification was provided for some scientific approaches, which are taken as the baseline of methodological analysis of integrating applied cultural studies branch and management in the sociocultural field. The practical significance. According to the results of the study, applied cultural studies have a broad social mission, which manifests itself in creation of advantageous environment of interaction in the object field of culture, constructing mechanisms of implementing innovations in the sociocultural field, and developing future cultural practices models, which will eventually promote establishment of its new formats. In order to achieve this task, culture management implements social marketing, innovative and investment varieties of management technologies, branding, purposeful communication and human resource management, etc., which opens new perspectives of diversifying research of culture management in the context of applied cultural studies.