Creative Practices Meets Future Networks: IADT Joins SFI’s CONNECT Centre
IADT is now part of a group of twelve leading universities and research institutions across Ireland which form the CONNECT Centre. This partnership reflects the shared strategic commitment of both CONNECT and IADT to fostering creativity and innovation at the intersection of technology, art, and design, while advancing research with significant and far-reaching impact.
The CONNECT Centre plays an important role in shaping the technological landscape and is a world leader in research on future networks and communications. IADT will lend its expertise to several projects across the CONNECT Centre enhancing the centre’s interdisciplinary approach to research.
Dr Tina Kinsella, Head of Research, IADT commented: “We are delighted to become a member of CONNECT and to join with colleagues at TCD and across Ireland in the further development of this world-class research centre. As Ireland’s campus for the creative industries, IADT welcomes the opportunity to be a part of a Centre focused on communications challenges and future networks that can improve our world. I know that IADT researchers will embrace these new opportunities to work on multidisciplinary teams addressing a range of societal challenges through meaningful, collaborative research that is consistent with our commitment to engage in impactful applied research, innovation and knowledge transfer that has a positive impact on our economy and society.”
Professor Dan Kilper, CONNECT Director, commented: “Joining forces with IADT marks an exciting step forward in our mission to explore the future of communication technologies. This partnership brings a unique interdisciplinary approach, blending art, design, and technology, which will undoubtedly enrich our research and innovation efforts. We are thrilled to welcome IADT to the CONNECT Centre and look forward to the insights that will emerge from this collaboration.”
As part of this collaboration, Dr Jessica Foley from IADT will lead the “Engineering Fictions” project. Dr Jessica Foley is a writer and researcher whose work bridges contemporary visual art, conceptual writing, telecommunications, and critical pedagogy.
Dr Jessica Foley added: “Engineering Fictions invites technology researchers and leaders to make room for critical reflection and conversation within future network research through creative practices. It is a methodology that empowers researchers to challenge assumptions and biases (personal and cultural) in a non-judgemental and creative way. It is about inviting radical honesty into interdisciplinary research such that it becomes more possible to slow down and to change tack — to momentarily resist the fast-paced and extractive logic of digital culture — so that we may better enable just designs and sustainable technologies for a liveable and shared future to emerge.”
About CONNECT Centre
The CONNECT Centre is a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre focused on future networks and communications. It is a hub of research and innovation, bringing together academia, industry, and government to advance the frontiers of knowledge in networked systems. For more information on the CONNECT Centre and its research initiatives, visit www.connectcentre.ie.
