Program

A conversation about what makes up Poland's immersive art infrastructure today - from Wesoła Immersive, Kraków's new media art centre housed in a former hospital kitchen, through Art & Science Lab Poznań, a residency and workshop programme bridging art, science and technology run at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center, to other initiatives which are actively supporting the growth of the industry. The panel looks at what tools, spaces and support artists working with immersion need today, and where the biggest gaps in this ecosystem still are.

Details to be announced.

Dr Sandra Gaudenzi is a scholar in interactive and immersive narrative, co-curator of Image Ouverte festival, as well as the author of the WHAT IF IT methodology used to design interactive factual narratives. In her talk, she will challenge XR creators to think about impact not as an add-on to a project, but as something built into its narrative structure from the very start. She will discuss the shift from story-telling to “story-living" - experiencing a story rather than simply observing it, and how phenomenological frameworks for experience design help immersive creators shape the emotional and social resonance of their work more deliberately.

This panel accompanies Tuning to Common Frequencies, a Polish-Korean exhibition on view from 23 September to 6 October 2026 at CSW Zamek Ujazdowski. Bringing together six works by artists from Poland and South Korea, the exhibition explores how artificial intelligence, 3D scanning, immersive installation, sound and scent are reshaping how we understand the body, memory and community. The works range from speculative installations built around living organisms and generative sound, through multisensory VR cinema with wearable haptic interfaces, to video and documentary pieces examining deepfake technology, folklore, institutional memory and non-visual ways of navigating the world. The panel brings the exhibiting artists together for a conversation about what connects the Polish and Korean new media art scenes - shared "frequencies" across different cultural and technological starting points.

Julia will provide an overview of various alternative controller video games, what makes a game controller „alternative", as well as how hardware hacking and DIY electronic engineering can empower users to understand the technologies that shape our daily lives. She will provide an analysis of Sound Blok, a stackable musical instrument, describing how the user interaction, electronics, and visual design work in unison. She will also provide a step by step discussion of her design process for her latest work in progress, Brutalist Angels.

A panel on how artists creatively and critically engage with artificial intelligence in their work - not as a ready-made tool, but as material for experimentation, an object of critical reflection, or a co-author of the creative process. Jacek Nagłowski, Evi Stemou and Ivona Tau will speak about their individual approaches to AI in artistic practice.  A discussion on where the line between tool and co-creator lies today, and how art engages with that question differently than the tech industry does.

A joint guided walk-through of Tuning to Common Frequencies, the Polish-Korean exhibition on view at CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, led by a curator and artists. The tour offers festival guests a closer look at the six works on show - from speculative installations built around living organisms to multisensory VR cinema with wearable haptic interfaces.

An informal evening of networking, drinks and conversation at SPATiF, Warsaw's legendary artists' club, bringing together festival speakers, artists and guests to close out the day.