Polish fine arts academy specialising in visual imaging technologies, iconosphere studies, and transcultural art education through MSCA-RISE coordination.
Akademia Sztuki w Szczecinie (Academy of Fine Arts in Szczecin) is a Polish public art academy conducting research at the intersection of visual arts, digital imaging technologies, and social sciences. Their H2020 work focuses on how images — digital, scientific, and artistic — function as communication and meaning-making tools within urban environments and across cultures. They lead staff-exchange projects that bring together artists, art historians, and social scientists from multiple countries to study visual culture, image technologies, and transcultural dimensions of art and art education. As a coordinator, they serve as the intellectual and administrative hub for international research partnerships built around humanistic and artistic inquiry.
TICASS (2017–2021) explicitly addressed technologies of imaging in communication, art, and social sciences, introducing the concept of the iconosphere — the visual environment of images surrounding us in urban and digital space.
TPAAE (2020–2024), with the largest budget of EUR 427,800, focused on transcultural perspectives in art and art education, indicating a research interest in how art pedagogy crosses cultural boundaries.
TICASS keywords include urban space and digital imagery, showing the academy studies how images and visual technologies operate in real city environments.
The keyword 'scientific images' in TICASS points to an interest in how images produced by science (medical scans, data visualisations, satellite imagery) are interpreted, communicated, and culturally embedded.
In their first project (2017–2021), the academy's focus was clearly on the material and semiotic dimensions of images — imaging technologies, digital imagery, scientific images, and the iconosphere as a theoretical framework for understanding visual urban environments. Their second and larger project (2020–2024) shifted toward art education and transcultural exchange, moving from analysis of images themselves toward how artistic knowledge and practice are transmitted across cultural boundaries. The trend suggests a broadening from image studies toward cultural pedagogy — from asking "what do images mean?" to "how is art taught and understood across cultures?"
The academy appears to be moving toward comparative and transcultural art education research, which positions them as a potential partner for European cultural exchange, art pedagogy, and digital humanities projects rather than purely technical imaging work.
This academy coordinates rather than joins — both of their H2020 projects were led by them, which is unusual and suggests strong project management capacity and confidence in building European partnerships. They work with relatively small consortia (10 unique partners across 6 countries for 2 projects), indicating focused, curated collaborations rather than large open networks. MSCA-RISE is their instrument of choice, meaning they are comfortable with the staff-exchange model that relies on genuine research mobility and reciprocal visits between institutions.
The academy has worked with 10 distinct partner institutions across 6 countries through 2 MSCA-RISE projects, reflecting a small but international European network. No single-country dominance is evident from the data, suggesting they actively seek diverse geographical representation in their consortia.
Akademia Sztuki w Szczecinie occupies a rare niche as a specialist fine arts academy that has successfully competed for — and led — EU research funding in the humanities and visual culture space, where competition for MSCA-RISE grants is strong. Unlike technical universities, they bring arts-specific expertise in image theory, visual semiotics, and art pedagogy that humanities-heavy consortia cannot easily find elsewhere in Poland. For project coordinators looking to include a genuine arts institution (not a media studies department within a large university) from Central-Eastern Europe, this academy offers credibility, coordinator experience, and a defined research identity.
