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The English language volume of the quarterly Tekstualia originates in a conference that was held on 16th and 17th May 2019 at the University of Gdańsk, Poland, as part of the Between.Pomiędzy Festival. When considered literally, the main theme of the festival – i.e. “Island” – called to mind Ireland’s outstanding artists; however, the conference discussion remained open to other, less obvious readings. In literature, or, more broadly, art, we were looking for metaphorical and symbolic interpretations of the island. We welcomed the participation of literary and theatre scholars, and those engaged in research within the humanities and other disciplines, including the natural sciences (one of the guest speakers was quantum physicist Professor Marek Żukowski).

 

The main purpose of the conference was to provide a space for discussion, linking the worlds of art and of the university, so that we might leave our studios, offi ces and laboratories to enter into the space of everyday life that surrounds us. The invitation was open to scholars, researchers, scientists, artists and anyone interested in developing a working – as well as accessible – discussion at the intersection of literature, theatre and science. Central to this undertaking were questions relating to the laboratory – a specific cognitive island – within which both artists and researchers from the natural and experimental sciences can come face to face. This being the case, the conference was open to the possibilities that exist in a comparison of practical (including workshop) laboratory experiments. In this way, we hoped to fi nd points of contact between the sometimes complementary, but also very diverse cognitive perspectives mentioned above.

 

The articles published in this volume illustrate the structure of the conference.

 

Sopot – Warsaw – Cracow
24th September 2020
Tomasz Wiśniewski, Klaudia Łączyńska and Izabela Curyłło-Klag