CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION
Interaction designer and complex systems researcher, head and co-founder of CreativeCoding.pl – postgraduate studies breaking the boundaries between art, design, science, and technology in an anti-disciplinary way.
He created the term and manifesto "The Matter of Code”, proposing a new look at code – the source text of a computer program – as a type of material that can be shaped by experience, just like in the case of a sculptor learning to shape wood or stone or a clay-forming ceramicist. "The Matter of Code" is also a physical manifestation of code breaking the screen barrier due to the combination of code with electronics and digital fabrication. The combination of these three components is not a simple sum. It has emergent properties that make the material unique.
Bartkowski lectures at the School of Form and the School of Ideas at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. He is the author of pioneering educational programmes that combine information technology with the humanities and a creative use of technology. Passionate about sharing programming skills, he teaches artists and designers to use “the matter of code”.
His academic interests include complex system research. He creates computer simulations and analyses large data sets from techno-social systems; in particular, he studied how social impact occurs in relations mediated by technology. He has conducted research, among others, within the framework of the “Future and emerging technologies” EU programme on the subject of "Quality Collectives: Socially Intelligent Systems for Quality". He created tools used at the UN and West Point. In his first PhD approach under the supervision of prof. Andrzej Nowak, he studied "emotional" artificial neural networks as a tool to optimise approximate solutions to NP-hard problems.
His academic activities brought him closer to the world of art and design. His scientific visualizations and interactive installations were presented, among others, at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Zachęta National Gallery, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Arsenał Gallery, Artothek in Munich, Powszechny and Nowy Theatres in Warsaw.
He has collaborated with the Florida Atlantic University, Ammerman Center for Art and Technology in Connecticut, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation Torino, Columbia University and the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
He collaborated with Florida Atlantic University, Ammerman Center for Art and Technology in Connecticut, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation Torino, Columbia University and the Institute of Computer Science PAS.
In 2018, Bartkowski won the DESIGN ALIVE AWARD, called the Oscars of the Polish design industry, in the Animator category – among others, for broadening horizons and combining interactive technology with the humanities, art, and design.