Column series by Tomasz Bielak, PhD, DLitt summarising each of the 50 Weeks in the City of Science held as part of the European City of Science Katowice 2024. Subjectively, but accurately.
| Tomasz Bielak, PhD, DLitt, USil Faculty of Humanities |
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June
These are the words of Anne Shirley, the main character of the iconic book series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but for most of us – members of the academic community – June is the month of exam sessions, document filing, and diploma theses defences. We are of the mind that there is nothing interesting going on at the university aside from the usual ‘switching the lights off’ at the end of the semester. Therefore, a question arises of how to motivate ourselves to still pay some attention to the intensive and absorbing events of the ECSK 2024.
And because I was searching for a certain internal rule system, a kind of action model to make it a little easier to grab hold of this diverse and plentiful series of events (both for myself and for you, my Dear Readers) and this time – in June – I decided to take advantage of this method. The June celebrations consist of five weeks of differing activities; however; there seems to be a certain interesting tendency. First and foremost, there are two weeks heavily associated with travelling, which went well together with the atmosphere of an upcoming summer that could be felt in the air. My colleagues from the Silesian University of Technology prepared a series of exceptionally interesting stories connected with transport in its most elite and modern version.
Planes fly through the sky, and I…
Surprisingly, Flying Week was largely down-to-earth, rather in the positive sense of the word. Its creators transferred a large portion of the organisational energy to popular science discussions on the characteristics and functioning of the aviation industry (including transportation services) in the context of economic and climate changes. For the region in which we live, it is of significance. I still remember the time when Pyrzowice wasn’t considered a proper airport but rather arbitrarily established and unprofessional. Currently, it is a key facility in terms of transport in Silesia and (most importantly) now has global reach. Talking about aviation – even though often viewed through the lens of technical innovations – is increasingly becoming an important part of the discourse on public transport. Modern railways, eco-friendly buses, pipe dreams about the metro in every Polish city (often with only one street, mind you) is A-Okay and seem to push forward this cart we call ‘Maybe someday…’, it allows all kinds of activists and the-so called green architects to express freely their wild dreams of ‘15-minute cities’, the world without Diesel engines (which I obviously adore) and bicycle ecstasy supported only a little bit with a small Bosch battery.
Flying Week (also through an interesting fair and vocational offer) helped participants to realise that the true transport and energy revolution takes place approximately 11 km above the surface of the Earth ideologically ‘taken over’ by ecological ‘denialists’.
Let’s see how the prices of aviation services changed over the last 20 years and how much we have broadened the field of our economic operations thanks to quick air transport. And finally – how the quality and exclusive nature of these services translated into copies of these solutions (the scope of services offered, or even the similarities in use and architecture of transfer centres and airport terminals etc.) We need to follow aviation closely because its costly and novel character (including travel safety) necessitates many various solutions to problems that we will also face in the upcoming technological transformation (AI working in the conditions of fuzzy logic in transport) and ecological transformation (move away from fossil fuels in ground transportation).
Hitchhiking through the galaxy…
Flying Week seamlessly transitioned into the Transport of the Future Week. The time between 17 and 23 July was not so much a continuation of the solutions proposed by the curators from the Silesian University of Technology but a broadening of sorts of the concept I mentioned earlier. Event participants had the opportunity to confront their own knowledge and beliefs on e.g. the use of hydrogen as motor fuel: the difference between the narrative created by the well-known car brand from Japan and the laboratory reality – and believe me – it is vast and quite significant…
The industries of the future are one of the primary ideas at the European City of Science, and I’m proud that my colleagues from Silesian universities did not approach this topic in either a grandiose or neglectful manner. I am of the opinion that one of the most significant successes of ECSK 2024 (which I touched upon in a podcast with the main person behind this ‘ECSK’ thing – Justyna Szostek-Aksamit will be the common sense approach, finally based on material knowledge (and not on phrases such as ‘I think that…’), regarding the need for changes in the region, how quick and how broad should they be, and what problems could emerge. I keep asking myself what we want (or perhaps what should we) to show to people. That based on hard data, livestock produce more pollution than 10 Ikarus buses? That ecology is and will be expensive, and that the talks about cheap renewable energy sources are largely stories from the Whodunit Detective Agency book series?
On the other hand – should we just fear-monger with data about diseases, increasing temperatures in cities, the lack of space for healthy functioning, or the cost per metre of greenery by your house?
Currently, we are not aware of a good narrative solution, but I am glad that thanks to the ideas presented in these 14 days we are not getting into another ideological or political conflict. We gain language, nomenclature, and tools necessary to talk and come up with creative ideas and solutions.
I’ve been living here ever since I was a kid
Before I take a look at the two June weeks of a slightly different character – the last week of June was organised by my colleague from the Institute of Polish Studies, Prof. Lucyna Sadzikowska. Lucyna (we know each other, let’s not pretend…) knows a lot about Silesia, she researches the topic of Silesianness and searches for such Silesian spirit that seems to slip away from the stereotypic interpretations – e.g. through the elements of culture, dialect, and narratives highlighting the industrial heritage in the culture of the region. The curator decided to focus on providing scientific answers to the questions of whether coal – building blocks of Silesia – will be pushed out in favour of rare-earth elements. What does it mean not only for the economy, but most of all for the residents of these areas, in which coal plays an inherent role?
Against this backdrop, the proposal to visit together the exhibition of photographs devoted to Silesia, which we rather do not want to see or which is already more in our memories, entitled ‘somewhere on the edge of town’ (following Jerzy Jarniewicz’s analyses of the project by Libera and Foks), was particularly interesting. The Italian photographer, the author of this story, documents the 1990s and shows their industrial beauty in various aspects of everyday life. These are not ‘easy’ pictures – but every person that grew up in Silesia will find a part of themselves in them. In turn, for people from outside the region, it will be a lesson of humility and respect for all industrial regions in any country.
I have a favourite photo of mine depicting a group of children playing – with bikes, footballs, the game of tag, and all – at a mining waste dump, in the debris among pipes (resembling canons). I wouldn’t say that I miss these times. I grew up in a neighbourhood made of prefab high-rises where the materials left after the construction was over got adopted as the so-called elements of small architecture, and the asbestos panels set the routes for bottle cap races between the racing legends: Laurent Fignon: (Pepsi bottle cap) and Greg LeMond: (Staropolanka bottle cap). Make sure to see this exhibition!
Jewel in the crown…
The echoes of the last scientific proposal in June – Crystal Week resounded during Silesia Week. The diversity of ‘crystal’ events was quite large but particularly interesting was the one focused on Jan Czochralski and Polish advancements in research on graphene, its modifications and broad application. In this regard, the achievements are undeniable, and part of them received some media coverage and float around in the so-called wide circulation, but building proper publicity for specific scientific achievements in new technologies is always a welcome sight.
What did Crystals Week give me? First and foremost, the awareness that there is not many such scientific legends as Jan Czochralski – regardless of the amount of money allocated to science. I also know that there is Polish contribution in every microchip produced and that brilliant solutions and scientific value is not assigned to a specific language or latitude – it is always a result of passion, one’s abilities, and talent. There was also a lot going on during this week for our youngest audiences – after all, stones, sands, and glitter are treasures that can be used to beautifully carry a scientific message – and after all, this week’s curator, Magdalena Szubka, PhD is a well-known science communicator involved with the Children’s University of Silesia. This is why initiatives aimed at the youngest audiences just had to work out great!
Youth is not eternity…
For the last, I’ve left the week that was a little strange and unconventional. Even though it fell on the first days of June, it seemed to come as a closing point for this story. Prof. Agnieszka Batko-Szwaczka decided to construct its narrative around… old age.
In some sense, I think of myself as a bit of a specialist in this regard – until recently my great-grandmother, Tekla Juniewicz was the oldest woman in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe. I had the opportunity to view old age from many different perspectives: surprise and respect, and sometimes fear and aversion. Old age is graceful as a narrative (as the organisers of the week showed us within the Georgian topic) and in media coverage (over-the-counter drugs, search for the love elixir, health and physical well-being), but it can also be a psychosomatic hell: neurological and movement problems, cognitive difficulties, issues in social functioning… Perhaps, the burdens of old age are simply plentiful. Old Age Week turned out to be a week not for people dealing with their own age, but for those who need to prepare themselves sensibly, wisely, and knowledgeably for old age. Because old age is, in a sense, inevitable and can be arranged accordingly (assuming it goes without major problems, of course). Old Age Week is very much a week of self-awareness on many levels: shaping one’s own body, trusting in the scientific achievements of medicine, exercising the mind, and preparing for specific challenges in the area of social competence.
Annie was right – it’s a shame that June doesn’t last forever.