Czech Centre London

An interview with the head of Czech Centre London, Přemysl Pela on the occasion of the 24th edition of Made in Prague On/Off Festival

Listen to an interview with the head of Czech Centre London, Přemysl Pela for Radio Prague International on the occasion of the 24th edition of Made in Prague On/Off Festival. 

The Made in Prague On/Off Festival presents for its 24th edition a hybrid festival moving between an online and offline presence, delivering both virtual and physical events and bringing Czech films, visual arts, music and debates to the UK audience. Opening with the UK premiere of Havel, a brand new biopic about the charismatic playwright turned president, six virtual film premieres portray great Czechs who have helped to shape Czech society and culture. Krištof Kintera’s The End of Fun! is a timely exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham while in London emerging artists Andrea Vytlačilová & Josef Zlamal exhibit at the Czech Centre’s Vitrinka Gallery, and the Gossamer Fog Gallery will host the Jiří Chalupecký Award Winner, Matyáš Chochola, - all representatives of the vibrant Czech visual art scene. For the closing gala the festival partners with Rich Mix for a live stream of intricate electronic music and dizzying visuals from Central Europe, Electronica: Vision of Sound II.

For more information please visit our website here:  https://bit.ly/MadeInPrague2020

AI Science Café Series 2020: Conversational AI. With Jan Šedivý

A live stream from Prague with Jan Šedivý, Chaired by Michael Londesborough on Conversational AI.
Wednesday 14 Oct 2020, 6 pm BST
More at https://bit.ly/33UW9N0

Intelligent speakers are now paving the way in the AI scene. Alquist, a social chatbot designed by the Czech Technical University team of students under the leadership of Jan Šedivý, has won two second places and one third place in a row in the Amazon Alexa Prize competition, while beating more than a hundred international academic teams. Jan briefly reviews the competition and its primary motivations but his main focus is on the Alquist team’s expertise, which embraces several disciplines, such as Conversational AI, Dialogue Management, Linguistics, Audio design, Creative writing, and many more. Šedivý  also explains the development of the dialogues for favourite conversational topics. Finally he discusses the plans of how to turn Alquist into a product. 

Part of AI Science Café Series 2020 - https://bit.ly/3ocOVvS 

Alena Mornštajnová: Hana

In our new episode, a critically acclaimed, bestselling novelist Alena Mornštajnová talks to Julia Sherwood, a renowned translator, about her gripping novel HANA, which has won the Czech Book Award 2017 and has been translated into over a dozen languages across the world. The book is coming to English readers thanks to Parthian Books on 1 October 2020.

Based on real events and set in Mornštajnová’s native town Valašské Meziříčí, it tells a story of nine-year-old Mira and her aunt Hana.

It’s 1954 and nine-year-old Mira’s life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile. Gradually, Mira uncovers the secrets of their troubled family history and begins to understand why her aunt is so incapable of trusting herself and the world around her.

Deftly weaving two separate timelines, the harrowing reasons behind Hana’s reclusive way of life, the guilt she wears as palpably as a cloak, and the tattoo on her wrist, are revealed to Mira.

Alena Mornštajnová is a teacher of English and translator and author of five successful novels. Her most recent novel, Tiché roky (Years of Silence, 2019), has confirmed her position as a critically acclaimed, bestselling novelist with more than 400,000 copies of her books sold in the Czech Republic alone. Rights for her most successful novel Hana have been sold to thirteen countries: United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Latvia, Syria and Greece.

Julia Sherwood is a freelance translator from Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian and German into English (with Peter Sherwood), as well as into Slovak. In addition to book-length publications, her work has appeared in Two Lines, BODY. Literature, The Missing Slate, Words Without Borders, OpenDemocracy, Eurozine, Aspen Review and salon.eu.sk. She is editor-at-large for Slovakia for Asymptote, the international online literary journal, administers the group Slovak Literature in English Translation and co-curates the website slovakliterature.com

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OVERTHINKING: THOUGHT PROVOKING INTERVIEWS ON EUROPE, CULTURE AND OUR FUTURE

An interview with Jiří Přibáň opens the Czech Centres’ podcast series with leading Czech personalities living in various European countries reflecting on social, economic and political changes during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. There are many issues to be addressed such as how the pandemic will change our lives, will Europe as we know it survive, how culture will cope with the economic downturn and much more.

Jiří Přibáň is a Professor of Law at Cardiff University, UK. He graduated from Charles University in Prague (1989) where he was appointed professor of legal theory, philosophy and sociology in 2002. He was also visiting professor or scholar at various universities across the world, including European University Institute in Florence, University of California in Berkeley, the University of Pretoria and University of New South Wales, Sydney. Jiří Přibáň has published extensively in the areas of social theory and sociology of law, legal philosophy, constitutional and European comparative law, and theory of human rights. He is an editor of the Journal of Law and Society and a regular contributor to the Czech and international media. 

Global Science Café: Pandemic and other Challenges. With Josef Průša. Chaired by Guy Borg

A live stream from Prague with With Josef Průša, Chaired by Guy Borg on Pandemic and other Challenges.
Thursday 21 May 2020, 5 pm BST
More at https://bit.ly/36CKbHi

As the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the main focuses has been to enhance additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3-D printing, as a way to help provide as many medical supplies as possible, especially personal protective equipment (PPE). In terms of global efforts, Prusa Research, a Czech company and the world’s second-largest manufacturer of 3-D printers, is playing a significant role in this process. Tune into our online Global Science Café with Josef Průša to learn more!

With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, the Prusa Research company is actively involved in producing protective face shields using the 3-D printing technique. The open-source 3D printing code has been provided free of charge to the entire 3D global printing community. Moreover, Prusa Research has donated thousands of protective shields to hospitals, general practitioners, emergency departments, orthodontists, pharmacies, police forces, teachers and other professionals around the world.

Josef Průša, born in Havlíčkův Brod in 1990, is a 3-D printer developer and owner of Prusa Research. He was a student of Applied Informatics at the University of Economics, Prague, and started designing 3-D printers when he was 19. After having built his first 3-D printer in 2012 under the name “Prusa Mendel”, he founded the Prusa Research company, and thereby introduced the world of 3-D printing to a much wider public. His business was built upon the RepRap project (short for replicating rapid prototyper) – an open-source desktop 3-D printer that is capable of partial self-replication. At present, Josef Průša gives public lectures on 3-D printing and open-source hardware. He also teaches Arduino at Prague’s Charles University.

Part of the GLOBAL SCIENCE CAFÉ SERIES Global Science Café is a series of popular science presentations and talks by the best Czech scientists, innovators, economists and other notable figures of today presented by the Czech Centres around the world. It is basically an informal forum for the discussion of various scientific and social issues. All events are currently held online and their content is being shared within the network. 

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