From October 20 to 24, 2025, the international event Creative Playgrounds 2025 took place at the Technical University of Košice, organized as part of the Ulysseus Košice Week program. The event connected the fields of contemporary art, science, technology, creative research, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The MAO / Media Art Office platform from the Faculty of Arts TUKE, aimed at supporting media art, digital culture, creative technologies, and research-art formats, also collaborated on the preparation and implementation of the event. The organizer of the event on behalf of the Faculty of Arts TUKE was doc. Mgr. art. Ing. Richard Kitta, ArtD., in collaboration with the team of the Faculty of Arts TUKE, the Faculty of Economics TUKE, and partners of the Ulysseus Košice Week program.

An important dimension of the event was the connection of TUKE's artistic, technological, and innovative environment with the topics of cultural and creative industries, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and international cooperation. In this context, cooperation with the Faculty of Economics TUKE played a significant role, reinforcing the program's reach towards innovation, strategic development, and the creative economy.

The key program day was Thursday, October 23, 2025, which was dedicated to Art-Tech and Art-Sci topics. A series of presentations, discussions, and networking meetings took place in the Atrium of the Faculty of Arts TUKE, focusing on contemporary approaches to connecting art, technology, design, research, robotics, gaming environments, sound, multimedia, and hybrid media. The program provided insights into current artistic strategies, digital tools, creative education, sustainability, and new forms of international cooperation. Among the invited guests were personalities from several countries in Europe and the world, including Belén Cisneros Juárez (MX, FR), Roland Farkas (HU), Raquel Barrionuevo & Laura Nogaledo (ES), Manuel F. Mancera (ES), Tomáš Marušiak (SK, CZ), Martin Flašar (CZ), Clio Flego (IT), and other guests from partner universities and creative platforms.

Part of Creative Playgrounds 2025 was also the exhibition section Art-Sci Forms, which took place from October 20 to 24, 2025, in the premises of the Campus Gallery TUKE. The exhibition highlighted the creative potential of the Faculty of Arts TUKE and its partners within the international network of the Ulysseus European University.

Creative Playgrounds built upon a nearly decade-long line of activities that formed in Košice within the environment of media art, digital culture, and experimental presentation formats. The platform grew on the basis of the DIG platform initiatives in cooperation with the Technical University of Košice, gradually creating a space for artists, researchers, and students to meet. The 2025 edition pushed this tradition further thanks to the connection with the Ulysseus alliance, which brought a broader framework of European cooperation. The Creative Playgrounds 2025 program focused on European strategies for cultural and creative ecosystems, hybrid media environments, robotics, digital cultural heritage, gaming platforms in education, sound and media art, as well as creative transfers between the artistic, academic, technological, and economic environments. At the same time, the event supported the networking of Ulysseus research and innovation groups in the areas of digital culture, creative industries, cultural heritage, innovation, and interdisciplinary education.