Dean of Doctoral School Prof. Adérito Fernandes-Marcos leads ARTECH 2025
Dean of Doctoral School Prof. Adérito Fernandes-Marcos leads ARTECH 2025
04
Dec
04/12/2025
Dean of the Doctoral School Professor Adérito Fernandes-Marcos served as the Honorary Chairman at ARTECH 2025 – the 12th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts, held in Braga, Portugal, from 26 to 28 November.
Professor Adérito Fernandes-Marcos, Dean of the Doctoral School at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) Macao played a pivotal role as Honorary Chairman at ARTECH 2025 – the 12th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts, held in Braga, Portugal, from 26 to 28 November. The biennial event was jointly organised by the University of Minho in Portugal and Artech-International, with the support of USJ’s Doctoral School.
Professor Fernandes-Marcos, a pioneer researcher in the field and President of Artech-International – a strategic partner of USJ, – and founder of the ARTECH series, which began in 2004, was a key speaker and moderator. He addressed attendees at both the Opening Session, titled “Media Art Cultures, Communities & Territories”, and the Closing Session. Professor Fernandes-Marcos also presented an article co-authored with Selma Pereira and Ricardo Alexino Ferreira, entitled “Na senda das dimensões da média-arte digital nas narrativas biográficas em Macau: uma perspetiva à luz da diversidade cultural” (On the path of digital media art dimensions in Macau biographical narratives: a perspective in the light of cultural diversity).
ARTECH 2025 showcased a rich collection of works and articles across 18 thematic sessions and an artistic exhibition, offering a privileged vantage point on Digital and Interactive Arts research and creation. A central theme was the pervasive influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), not merely as a technological trend but as an aesthetic and epistemic agent challenging fundamental categories of visual culture. The presented works explored AI’s significant impact on language, representation, algorithmic systems, authorship, archives and memory, face, body, aura, and overall sustainability, emphasising the need for a critical and responsible engagement with AI in Digital and Interactive Arts. The conference proceedings will be published by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and indexed by Scopus.
The success of ARTECH 2025 was a testament to collective effort, with sincere gratitude extended to the International Scientific and Artistic Committee, authors, secretariat team, and the dedicated students and faculty of the University of Minho’s Master’s in Media Arts. Local partners, gnration and Braga – UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, also provided crucial support. Special thanks were also given to the Research Centre in Arts and Communication of the University of Algarve, the Doctoral School, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at USJ Macao for their shared experience in organising the event.
As Professor Fernandes-Marcos highlighted during his address on the 20th anniversary of ARTECH, looking ahead to the next twenty years, he confidently stated that every effort and collaboration has been essential in building a vibrant and global community, prepared to lead the evolution of digital and interactive art in an era characterised by virtual processes, worldwide connectivity, and the rise of the post-digital.
The University of Saint Joseph works with Artech International to organise the annual ARTECH International Conference on Digital Arts, promoting interest in current digital culture and its intersection with art and technology. Previously, USJ organised ARTECH 2017 in Macao and the associated events ARTeFACTo 2022 and ARTeFACTo 2024.
