Let yourself EXPERYMENT.
*the event requires separate registration, which will be launched soon.
An experiment is the implementation of curiosity. Since childhood we have been checking, testing, modelling, forecasting: Is it hot? Will it withstand my weight? What will they do if I say this? Maybe this will encourage them to read it? Let's try this…
We experiment not only out of curiosity, but also out of caution. Experiments prepare us for the unknown, especially for what may turn out to be dangerous and threatening. For diseases, drought, floods, famine, pollution, or depletion of energy sources. But also for what kind of job we want to do; what we like, what we can do, what we are skilled at. We experiment to avoid unnecessary risks.
From 6 to 8 December 2025, experiments will fill the space of the International Congress Centre in Katowice during the 9th Silesian Science Festival Katowice.
On top of that, we invite you to the Night of the City of Science – a special event of the Silesian Science Festival Katowice, which will take place on 6 December 2025, at 6.30 p.m. at the International Congress Centre in Katowice.
This year we will open the largest popular science festival in Poland and Europe with a unique spectacle.
EXPERYMENT is a performance centring around research ethics in psychological sciences, directed by Piotr Jankowski, inspired by the famous 1971 prison experiment conducted by a group of Stanford University psychologists led by Prof. Philip Zimbardo, with whom we have been collaborating in Silesia for many years.
How well do we actually know ourselves? Can we confidently predict what we would be capable of, or what we would never do, in circumstances that were completely new to us? What causes ordinary people to radically change their behaviour? What do we allow ourselves to do when remaining anonymous? Do the sense of power and assigned roles change us, and if so, to what extent? How does man become evil?
After the performance, we invite you to listen to a conversation with Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, PhD, DSc, Assoc. Prof., Marcin Moroń, PhD, Agnieszka Skorupa, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Magdalena Bolek-Kochanowska, PhD, and director Piotr Jankowski, who will be looking for answers to these questions before our very eyes.
The prison used in the performance will be built right in front of the audience, and the participants of the experiment will be those among us. The line between the stage and the spectators will blur, and we will be pushed to confront the knowledge we thought we had about ourselves. We will also learn about the limits of research involving human participants and discuss the ethical aspects of experimentation.