Łukasz Kozak is a medievalist, technology and media expert. He cooperates with numerous cultural institutions and scientific institutions in the fields of innovation and new media.

Born in 1990 in Gdańsk, where he graduated from the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts. His graduation work “Production, commercialisation and hype – or about consuming art” earned him a degree from the studios of Prof. Henryk Cześnik, Prof. Witosław Czerwonka and Prof. Robert Florczak, and an award from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage at the Best Fine Arts Graduation Works exhibition. Ignatowicz has also completed directing studies at the Gdynia Film School. New Bronx, his debut feature short about youth from Gdańsk’s Nowy Port neighbourhood, made under the supervision of Prof. Robert Gliński – was shown at over 40 international film festivals worldwide and received 7 film awards.

Since 2017, Ignatowicz has lectured at the Faculty of Painting of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts. In 2018, he earned a PhD with his dissertation “Art Fair. The consumer versus culture – about fake, lovebranding and self-commodification”.

His latest works mostly look at the life of people functioning within the consumer reality. Although his art is rooted in painting, it is it in fact multidisciplinary: Ignatowicz creates video art, objects, installations, performance art and public space interventions. He also works with film, photography, art and research projects as well as video set design and online performance. He is the author of two developing projects: FIGNACY&co and artUNBOXING.

www.artunboxing.com

Project presented during the Digital Cultures Festival:
artUNBOXING

City Culture Institute in Gdańsk is implementing the Medialab Gdańsk project, combining culture, social activism, education, and technology. It is a space for experimentation, cooperation, and knowledge-sharing to seek solutions. It promotes responsible use of new media and technology to help develop culture and society.

Medialab’s chief activities cover reusing digital collections, openness in cultural institutions, and media education.
It also cooperates with Gdańsk cultural institutions on other projects and puts together interdisciplinary teams whose members represent a variety of scientific fields.

The Gdańsk Criers – Revival project in 2019 was a collaboration with a wide range of specialists, including Dr Marta Bieszka and Jacek Tlaga (linguistics, linguistic reconstruction); Aleksandra Litwinienko (history of music, sound reconstruction); Dr Małgorzata Biłozór-Salwa (history); Kompania Kaperska (historical re-enactment); Fromline Studio (graphic design for publications; film production and editing); Paweł Schulz (visualisations); Łukasz Skotarek and Marcin Młyński (music, programming, musical hackathon); and Karina Rojek (reusing digital collections, coordination). We will be presenting this team’s work at Digital Cultures 2020.

www.medialabgdanski.pl
www.facebook.com/MedialabGdansk

Project presented during the Digital Cultures Festival:
The Cries of Gdańsk

Project manager at the National Film Archive –AudiovisualInstitute (FINA), in charge of international cooperation, mostly focused on access and creative re-use of Institute's digital collection for research, educational or artistic purposes. She is board member of the EUscreen Foundation, member of the Europeana Association Members Council and Chair of the FIAT/IFTA Value, Use and Copyright Commission.

In the past, she co-created a crowdfunding site for culture Wspieramkulture.pl and worked as an international relations expert at the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Maria holds a MA in sociology and she also completed postgraduate studies in cultural diplomacy.

Project presented during the Digital Cultures Festival:
TuEuropeana

An architect and a researcher of spaces and virtual worlds.
The author of the theory of virtual heritage reconstruction, informational balance in the presentation of artwork and architecture in new media as well as the theory of the layers of modernity. The author of a study on and categorisation of the narrative structure for virtual environments as well as a number of solutions dedicated to museum spaces. He is currently conducting research in the field of virtual and augmented reality as a narrative environment and spatial interface as well as universal design that takes accessibility and use of new media into consideration.

Project presented during the Digital Cultures Festival:
SteamRift

Deputy director for strategy and communications at the National Museum in Kraków.

An economist, cultural manager, and European official. Supported innovations in the SME sector for the European Commission in Brussels, was an internal process analyst at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, created promotional strategies and coordinated cooperation with foreign partners at Royal Łazienki Park Museum in Warsaw. At the National Museum in Kraków, he is responsible for communication strategies, education, digitisation, publications, and fundraising.

He is in his element working at “interesting intersections”, particularly between the cultural field and the private sector. Believes in transferring energy from business to culture and cultural values to business. Constantly in search of new angles, narratives, and solutions, he approaches the digital challenges faced by museums with interest and an open mind. A keen traveller, tennis player, writer, and rocker, as well as a father by vocation.

Project presented during the Digital Cultures Festival:
Collections of the National Museum in Krakow in the digital world of culture