The “Alfredo Rizzardi” Centre of Canadian Studies of The University of Bologna, in collaboration with The Marconi Foundation, The National Committee for the centenary celebrations of the Marconi Nobel Prize, The Institute of Advanced Studies-ISA, the Centre for Canadian Studies of York University Toronto, The Mobile Media Lab (Concordia University, Montréal - York University Toronto), The Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto and The Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council - Canada have begun the following project of international research: “Wireless Communications and the Marconi Galaxy: Culture, Technology and Myth-Making”.

On December 12^th 1901, Guglielmo Marconi made the first wireless transmission between Europe and North America (Canada). It was an extraordinary event that helped to radically change global communications. In his volume The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), the Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan recalled Marconi’s name to underline how the consequences of that research and the subsequent technological applications contributed to the passage from the mechanical age- or Gutenberg age- to the electronic age. The project “Marconi Galaxy” aims to investigate the complex cultural and technological consequences of Marconi’s first click produced by a simple electromagnetic impulse.

An international research group is involved in the project which aims to explore the Marconi Galaxy and investigate its changes and developments on a global scale. The project includes scholars from the following fields: Applied Technology. Communication and Media, Cultural Studies, Design and Architecture, Literature, Engineering, Visual Arts and History. This commitment to international research coincides with the centenary celebrations of Marconi Nobel Prize for Physics, which was awarded for the first time to an Italian citizen. The National Committee for the celebrations has launched many international collaborations in order to organise important initiatives connected to Marconi and the history and current importance of wireless communications. The initiative is sponsored by The Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Bologna (isa.unibo.it) as ISA Topic 2009 project.