Conferences & Talks

Conferences (International and National)

  1. National Polish conference, May 09, 2013, "Techno-widzenia, media i technologie wizualne w społeczeństwie ponowczesnym" [Techno-vision, media and visual technology in postmodern society]. Poznan. Speaker. Title of Talk: "Widzimy uszami i słyszymy oczami. Jak technika wykształca w nas synestezji" [Seeing with Ears, Hearing with Eyes. How Technology Molds Synesthesia Within Us].

  2. National Polish student-doctor conference, June 07, 2013, "Muzyka w przestrzeni publicznej. Filozofia Muzyki"[Music in Public Space, The Philosophy of Music], Poznan, Participant

  3. International Polish conference, October 24, 2014, "Bogactwo językowe i kulturowe Europy w oczach Polaków i cudzoziemców 3", Lodz, Speaker. Title of Talk: "Dlaczego Polska?" [Why Poland?].

  4. Interdisciplinary Polish conference, December 12, 2014, "Sztuka, polityka, pieniądze. Sytuacja artysty w świecie współczesnym" [Art, Politics, Money. The Situation of the Artist in the Modern World], Gdansk, Speaker. Title of talk: "Hermeneutyka artystyczna" [Artistic Hermeneutics].

  5. The Philosophy Student Circle's Reporting Conference at the Adam Mickiewicz University, May 29, 2015. Poznan. Speaker Title of Talk: "Filozof jako pisarz" [The Philosopher as a Writer].

  6. International Polish Conference, "MUR: Brain, Mind, Religion" Krakow, February 28, 2015. Speaker with Dorota Tomaszewska, Title of Talk: "How is our* immortality doing?".

  7. National Polish conference, March 18, 2016, "Wolność i różne jej oblicza" [Freedom and Its Various Visages], Warsaw, Speaker. Title of Talk: "Mity o wolności: aksjologiczne podstawy norm społecznych" [Myths about Freedom: Axiological Foundations of Social Norms].

  8. The Jagiellonian University seminar of game experts, lvl.up and popular music research group MUTE, April 08, 2017, "#8 Gry muzyczne i muzyka w grach" [Musical games and music in games] Krakow, Speaker. Title of Talk: "O najgorszej muzyce w grach w nawiązaniu do idei intra-akcji" [On the Worst Music in Games with Regards to the Idea of Intra-Action].

  9. International Interdisciplinary Conference, November 24, 2017, "Idee i społeczeństwo - filozoficzne podstawy podejmowania decyzji. W 150 rocznicę urodzin profesora Leona Petrażyckiego" [Ideas and Society – Philosophical Fundaments on Decision Making in the 150th anniversary of Prof. Leon Petrażycki's Birth]. Rzeszow, Speaker. Title of Talk: "Emotywizm Prawa: Systemowy irracjonalizm, porządki wyobrażeniowe i duch podejmowania decyzji" [The Emotivism of Rights: Systemic Irrationality, Ordered Hierarchies, and the Spirit of Decision Making].

  10. International Interdisciplinary Conference, December 07-08, 2017, "Memory, Melancholy, and Nostalgia", Gdansk, Speaker. Title of Talk: "A Longing for Spirit Value: Symbolic Misery, Melancholy, and Conflict in Social Media and Meme Culture".

  11. The 5th National Polish research conference on the philosophy of information science “Homo Informaticus 5.0”, December 16, 2017, Poznan, Speaker. Title of Talk: “Miłość jako technologia bycia razem Zapośredniczenia a znaczenia środowiska elektroniczneg” [Love as a Technology of Being Togerher. Mediation and Meaniing of the Electronic Milieu].

  12. The 7th International Scientific Conference on Idealized Design, January 19, 2018, The Ideal of “Democratic Man”, Kraków. Speaker and Poster. Title of Poster and Talk: The Forgetting of Our Humanity. On The Danger of Disregarding Irrationality, Vices, and Mis-Takes.

  13. National Polish conference, February 23, 2018, “Terroryzm – zagrożenia, prewencja, perspektywy” [Terrorism –Threats, Prevention, Perspective], Lublin. Speaker. Title of Talk: “Pole walki estetyki. Zwalczanie przemocy symbolicznej i toksycznej męskości jako źródła terroryzmu” [The Battlefield of Aesthetics. Combating Symbolic Violence and Toxic Masculinity as a Source of Terrorism]

  14. National Polish interdisciplinary conference, April 10, 2018, “Człowiek w świecie technologicznym” [The Human Being in a Technological World], Kraków and Academia Electronica (Second Life). Speaker and co-organizer. Title of talk: “Gry wideo a sztuka: ciała, ból I deprywacja sensoryczna” [Video Games and Art: Bodies, Pain, and Sensory Deprivation].

  15. The Nordic Society of Aesthetics Annual Meeting, May 31 – June 2, 2018, „Conflicts – Antagonisms, Agonies, Affects”. Paris, France. Speaker. Title of talk: “Aesthetic Dissonance. On Behavior, Values, and Experience through New Media”.

  16. II Interdyscyplinarna Konferencja Doktorantów i Młodych Naukowców: Dawny i obecny wizerunek mężczyzny. [The 2nd interdisciplinary conference of PhD students and young researchers: Former and Contemporary Images of Men], June 7-8, 2018, Olsztyn. Speaker. Title of talk: „Estetyka mężczyzny w obliczu toksycznej męskości” [The Aesthetics of Males Facing Toxic Masculinity].

  17. ETHConf2018 - International Conference: Investigating Transhumanisms And Their Narratives, June 20-22, 2018, Lille, France. Title of talk: Transcendental Technics. The Significance of Belief in Transhumanist Narratives. Co-author: mgr Dorota Tomaszewska.

  18. Conference of the International Association for Aesthetics 2018: Margins, Futures, and Tasks of Aesthetics, July 5-7, 2018. Helsinki, Finland. Speaker. Title of talk: Towards Behavioral Aesthetics.

  19. National Conference Homo Informaticus 6.0, December 7, 2018, Poznan, Poland. Speaker. Title of talk: "Uczenie się nowych zachowań sieciowych na wybranym przykładzie" [Learning New Online Behaviors. A Case Study].

  20. The 9th Philosophical Workshop Humanism-Posthumanism in Łódź [IX Łódzkie Warsztaty Filozoficzne. Humanizm-Posthumanizm], December 15, 2018. Speaker. Title of talk: "Stieglerowska krytyka transhumanizmu. O narracjach i negantropocenie" [A Stieglarianesque Critique of Transhumanisms. On Story-Telling and the Neganthropocene].

  21. International Conference Humans in a Technological World: The Anthropology of Technics, May 9-10, 2019, Krakow, Poland. Speaker. Title of talk: Bad Behavior and Symbolic Fertility. The Technological Functions and Dysfunctions of Aesthetics

  22. The 15th International Philosophers' Rally, June 29-30, 2019, Krakow, Poland. Speaker. Title of talk: " Sztuka nie istnieje! O estetyce behawioralnej" [Art doesn't exist! On behavioral aesthetics]

  23. The 11th National Polish Philosophical Meeting. [XI Polski Zjazd Filozoficzny], September 9-14, 2019. Speaker. Title of talk: "Estetyka behawioralna na początku XXI wieku. Powtórne rozważanie kwestii zachowań na tle sztuki, techniki i materii" [Behavioral aesthetics in the early 21st century. Re-thinking the issue of behavior with regard to art, technology and matter].

  24. The 11th National Polish Philosophical Meeting. [XI Polski Zjazd Filozoficzny], September 9-14, 2019. Speaker. Title of talk: "Technologia zachowań. Nowy behawioryzm od negantropologii do ważkości materii" [The Technology of Behavior. New Behaviorism from Neganthropology to the Gravity of Matter]

  25. National Conference: Transhumanizm: Idee, Strategie, Wątpliwości. [Transhumanism: Ideas, Strategies, Doubts]. February 22-23, 2020. Speaker. Title of talk: "The Internation Project. Climate Change and Transition.".

  26. The 1st Congress on Polish Philosophy. [Pierwszy kongres filozofii polskiej]. The Work of Art. Stansiław Brzozowski and Bernard Stiegler. September 24,2020.

  27. The Aesthetics of Attention. Annual Conference of the Nordic Society of Aesthetics. The Defaults of Attention. Interest versus Love. May 20-21, 2021.

Online Talks (in Polish)

December 1, 2015 - Morlocks or Eloys? The influence of technology on human life

The lecture, titled Morlokowie czy Elojowie? Wpływ techniki na życie człowieka [Morlocks or Eloys? The influence of technology on human life], was based on Manfred Spitzer’s book Digital Dementia, and delivered by Adrian Mroz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL). A selection of issues related to change in brain function was discussed as well as the influence of technology on the human mind. There was also a reference to the futurology of Herbert G. Wells.

Literature:

1. Spitzer Manfred, Digital Dementia: What We and Our Children are Doing to our Minds.

2. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine.

3. Her, feature film, dir. Spike Jonze (2013)

March 1, 2016 - Love in the electronic milieu

The presentation entitled Love in the electronic milieu was delivered by Adrian Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL)

The discussion was focused on the subject of love and the electronic environment – on how the latter can affect interaction and intimacy between people.

Literature:

Turkle Sherry – Lonely Together

Dominic Pettman – Love and other technologies

May 10, 2016 - The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood (Review)

Adrain Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) presented his review of James Gleick’s book entitled “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood”.

Each epoch has a distinctive quality. Now we live in the age of “information”, just as our ancestors lived in the age of "steam", "iron" or even "chipped stones". Incidentally, what is “information”? This question has been asked by the renowned popularizer of science and best-selling author James Gleick.

His latest book is a novel review that allows us to look at the contemporary world in a new perspective. This is a journey that goes back centuries, to the earliest times, when each thought was forgotten as quickly as it came into being.

Gleick guides the reader from the very first communication systems, such as drums, to the present day, where we have all unknowingly become experts in everything and where the challenge is not a lack of information, but its excess. He familiarizes us with the often forgotten generations of inventors and visionaries behind the way we understand and use information today. Every single piece of information could transform the way you perceive things.

This Information will totally redefine what you see in the world.

October 18, 2016 - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Review)

Adrain Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) presented his review of the book “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” (2015) by Yuval Noah Harari.

December 6, 2016 - The Superintelligent Leviathan: an Outline of the Problem Concerning Human Autonomy and the Autonomy of Devices

Adrian Mróz (RL) | Abenteurzeit (SL), delivered a lecture entitled The Superintelligent Leviathan: an Outline of the Problem Concerning Human Autonomy and the Autonomy of Devices, where he presented the concepts of Tomasz Hobbes in the context of contemporary society. The aforementioned concepts were juxtaposed with the ideology of “Smart Cities” proposed by the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. An attempt was made to answer the questions “Will or when will humans cease to be autonomous entities?” or “Can humans ever be independent?

March 14, 2017 - Moral dilemmas of AI

Adrian Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) presented a presentation entitled Moral dilemmas of AI, in which he referred to ethical responsibility in the digital era – a problem raised, among others, by Daniel Dennett in his article When HAL Kills, Who’s to Blame: Computer Ethics.

Human fate is increasingly bound up with algorithms and automation, so it is worth considering their consequences. A wide-ranging discussion on ethical issues in the information age will take place.

May 9, 2017 - La technique et le temps, 1: La faute d’Epiméthée (Review)

Adrian Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) addressed a selection of themes from the first volume of Bernard Steigler’s work La technique et le temps, 1: La faute d’Epiméthée.

In his opinion, technology determines the horizon of human existence. The emergence of technology not only enabled the emergence of the human being, but is also the origin of the time as such. This is important for understanding humanity and technology as a dynamic relational process.

The book is divided into 2 parts:

Part 1: An outline of selected concepts concerning the development of technique (and the source of homonization) in terms of their historical perspective. Selected thinkers include: Andre Leroi-Gourhan, Gilbert Simondon, and Bertrand Gille. Stiegler concludes that the relationship between the human being and what is “technology” is indeterminate. In other words, it is impossible to distinguish within history whether the human being is the subject or the object of history (in contrast to technology).

Part 2: The criticism of M. Heidegger in relation to the aforementioned considerations. He particularly critiques the notion of temporal “authenticity”, which, according to Steigler, is only accessible through objects, without which we do not have access to the past and the future. An essential aspect of this section is the myth of Promotheus.

June 20, 2017 - Techno-fix” regarding (un)happiness in relation to technical progress.

At this meeting, Abenteuerzeit (SL) | Adrian Mróz (RL) will present a chapter from the book “Techno-fix” regarding (un)happiness in relation to technical progress.

Extensive evidence suggests that material wealth (possession of a lot of money), consumerism and economic growth provided by scientific and technical progress have failed to improve people’s psychological well-being. At the same time, such progress has weakened or destroyed many other intangible and traditional sources of happiness.

There will be a discussion / debate on the positive and harmful aspects of the use of technology and the reliance on scientific progress as a tool for regulating human emotions. What are the arguments for and against?

E.g: Was life better or worse before Facebook? Before the Internet? Before the Industrial Revolution? Before the Agrarian Revolution? Were the most fortunate those who live or lived in a pre-industrial society (e.g. gathering and hunting, about 75,000 – 10,000 years ago)? To complement this, a reading about this period by Y.N. Harari is attached in Polish.

December 19, 2017 - Ethical aspects of representative worlds (with Dorota Tomaszewska, Lilian Kozak, Adam Jarmuła, and Mariusz Markiewicz)

The meeting was prepared by: Dorota Tomaszewska, M.A. (RL), Noc Walpurgii (SL), Liliana Kozak, M.A. (RL), Guaderlaine (SL), Adrian Mróz, M.A. (RL), Abenteuerzeit (SL), Adam Jarmuła (RL), Harmonijka (SL), and Mariusz Markiewicz (RL), Yacina (SL).

Event website: https://www.facebook.com/events/136256860372587/

Abstract:

The speakers shared their reflections on the state of moral dilemmas in the worlds portrayed in the most recent mass culture productions. Therefore, the speakers faced dilemmas that have no place (or perhaps do) in the present world, but exist in imaginary worlds. The meeting was prepared collectively. Below is a list of speakers with the titles to which the speakers referred:

Equilibrium

Dorota Tomaszewska, MA (RL) | Noc Walpurgii (SL) (Adam Mickiewicz University, The Jagiellonian University)

Extinct, Cleverman.

MA Liliana Kozak (RL) | Guaderlaine (SL) (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University)

Black Mirror

M.Sc. Adrian Frost (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) (The Jagiellonian University)

Star Trek The Next Generation

Adam Jarmuła (RL) | Harmonica (SL) (The Jagiellonian University)

The 100, Westworld

Mariusz Markiewicz (RL) | Yacina (SL) (The Jagiellonian University)

January 9, 2018 - Artificial Intelligence and Stupidity. Accounting for Calculability.

The meeting was moderated by: Adrian Mróz (RL), M.A., Abenteuerzeit (SL).

Event website: https://www.facebook.com/events/2003256253263607/

Abstract:

“There has to be a measure in poetry that prevents counting.”

Paul Claudel. Golden Skull (1890)

Faced with algorithms and social media, what counts is accountability and transparency. The meeting is mainly based on Cathy O’Neil’s book entitled “A Weapons of mathematical annihilation: How algorithms increase inequalities and threaten democracy”, Marcus Gilroy-Ware’s book “Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media”, and a selected issue presented at a conference on the same topic: https://enmi-conf.org/wp/enmi17/.

We discuss how Artificial Intelligence is a misleading term and how “effective calculation” would be better. Most models, autonomous Big Data processing systems, only duplicate the initial assumptions of the creators (sometimes erroneous) through models that create self-replicating feedback, which can be a threat to science, social life and ourselves. In such a case, we can talk about intelligent and irresponsible use of tools that can independently make decisions, including stupid ones. In addition, not every matter evaluated by human beings is easily calculable, such as measuring the effectiveness of education using a university ranking. For example, instead of the ideal of education in Lyndon B. Johnson’s view as “a way to achieve deeper personal fulfilment, greater personal effectiveness and enhanced self-esteem”, models use easy-to-measure intermediate factors that seem to be correlated with success, such as high school diploma scores, graduation rates, enrolment rates, student-to-faculty ratios, etc., which can be used to measure the effectiveness of education. This results in obscuring values with numbers, which are often made-up measures not empirically justified.

* Il faut qu’il y ait dans le poème un nombre tel qu’il empêche de compter. Translation, A.M.

May 17, 2019 - On the Neganthropocene (for the XIX Science and Art Festival in Krakow)

The Festival of Science and Art in Krakow and the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University co-organized an event called "Ethical challenges of the anthropocene era: lectures and discussions". Here is a 45-minute lecture prepared by Adrian Mróz, a PhD student of the Institute of Aesthetics, on the subject of Neganthropocene in the approach of Bernard Steigler.

During the presentation Adrian Mróz (RL) | Abenteuerzeit (SL) will discuss the concept of the neganthropocene. This concept was proposed by the French philosopher of technology, Bernard Stiegler. An English copy of his lectures on the subject can be downloaded from Open Humanities Press. The stakes of going beyond the banality of Anthropocene and its capitalist entropic disturbance of local communities and economies are important.

February 12, 2019 - The Emotivism of Law: A Continuous Challenge for the 21st Century

The meeting was conducted by: Mariusz Markiewicz (RL) | Yacina (SL)

Topic: The Emotivism of Law: A Continuous Challenge for the 21st Century

For more information about the meeting, visit the website of the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University: https://filozofia.uj.edu.pl/wydarzenia-w-if/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_OBCsoa19hL6W/4371778/141979166

Event website on fb: https://www.facebook.com/events/2258107327795422/

The speaker:

Adrian Mróz, MA, Abenteuerzeit (born 1988, Baltimore MD, USA) Graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and Jagiellonian University. He is currently a PhD student at the Aesthetics Department of the Jagiellonian University Philosophy Faculty; he is preparing his thesis on Behavioural Aesthetics under the supervision of Professor Sidey Myoo. In addition, he is the editor of “The Polish Journal of Aesthetics” and the technical editor of “Kultura i Historia” and “Medialica. Multimedia Studies in Humanities”. In his free time he plays guitar and saxophone in the band SMOGGG. His interests include the philosophy of technology, music and gender. He speaks Polish, English and French.

Abstract:

– Do you think there’s not enough composure and too much emotion in politics?

– Find out how sages dealt with their feelings. Plato will surprise you!

– Think making up stories isn’t a part of law? Think again!

The meeting is organized around the issue of emotivism in the context of Law. The Polish version of the article will be presented, in which I discuss issues related to platonism, Lisa F. Barrett’s theory of constructing emotions, and the problem of imagining reality in an aesthetic and technical context. The starting point for the discussion will be the problem of media polarisation. We will seek to reflect on how to protect against ‘stupidity’ as compared to the phenomenon of ‘systemic irrationality’. A simulation of information and cognitive “sensations” based on American politics is available here: http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/

The presentation is a Polish adaptation of the article: Mróz, A. (2018). “The Emotivism of Law. Systematic Irrationality, Imagined Orders, and the Spirit of Decision Making”. Human studies, 7(4), pp. 16-29. DOI: 10.2478/sh-2018-0020.

Abstract of the article:

According to Dan Ariely, Daniel Kahneman, Yuval Noah Harari and other behaviorists, historians and philosophers, decision-making is predictable and irrational. Previous decisions may or may not be present in human activity. Stories and shared myths are also important, especially those based on a system of human norms and values based on belief in the “supernatural” order(s). Mass organized cooperation between strangers is possible thanks to that.

December 10, 2019 - The Industrial Revolution and Music, part 1.

An introductory talk on a book on the industrial turn in musical sensitivity was presented. https://tiny.pl/tkgpz

January 28, 2020 - The Industrial Revolution and Music, part 2.

I will present a paper entitled "The aesthetic lineage of sound", in which I discuss the fact that the approach to music as something to listen to appeared in 1950, and for discussion I propose the question of the future of music, which in the XXI century has different social and technological realities. In my lecture I will speak about the fact that the way music "listeners" approach music is absurd madness from the point of view of 17th century musicians. Moreover, since the beginning of history, there has always been some kind of musical "writing", as we know from musical literature. The technology of recording music was applied in such a way that we first learned songs that were present in our socio-cultural environment, and only then did the recording of music follow (e.g. this is how some anthropologists work). We can compare this to carols or folk songs, thus such practices have not completely died out. From the 13th century onwards there was a "Copernican revolution" in music. First music was written, that is, composed on paper, and only then was it taught and performed - thanks to the development of musical notation technology. The twentieth century introduced a radical revolution in music, one that is shocking. Notation is now carried out in a radically accurate and perfect way (despite e.g. noise) thanks to machines recording sounds (e.g. records, gramophone, etc.). Jazz was created because musicians learned how to play music from using records as such, i.e. they listened to vinyl records in a slow tempo while repeating the sounds through trial and error, thanks to which we have Billy Holiday or other international virtuosos, who seem to be "unable to read" notes, Although this is a fallacy, because they are proficiently able to "read" notes with their ears (writing on paper is a privilege of the sense of sight, and here it is denied and the sense of hearing is privileged) written in any analog media. Today we can use new media (e.g. computer) as a means of a massive hyper-writing of musical sound. These technological revolutions have significant consequences for art, such as musicians' attention to sound, which was nowhere to be found in Europe before the era of microphone recording. This presentation is based on the article "The Invention of Sound" by François Delelande.