From 4 to 6 February 2026, we will be organising the second edition of Vision and Depiction, for which abstract submission is now open and will close on 15 November.

We invite artists, designers, scholars, and scientists interested in the formal aspects of vision and depiction. This focus originates from a reappraisal of formal analysis — particularly those formal elements that bridge science and art, such as texture, colour, light, shape, space, material, motion, and more.
 We are also interested in whether these formal elements apply to the representation (motif) or the artwork’s surface (medium) — and how they may interact. Lastly, we welcome contributions exploring the relationship between formal elements and their iconographic or semiotic meaning.

If you are unsure whether your work fits the scope, please feel free to contact us. In practice, there is always a difference between the top-down scope of a conference and how it unfolds in reality. If you are curious about how the previous edition turned out, you can visit the 2024 archive on our website.

Abstracts submission:
You can submit a 300 word abstract via our registration website: https://www.aanmelder.nl/vision-and-depiction-2/home.
During the online submission, you will be asked to select your presentation preference: poster or oral. Most people prefer to give an oral presentation for both practical reasons (you do not have to print a poster, and you automatically reach a large audience) and prestige reasons (in some fields, an oral presentation is regarded more highly than a poster presentation). This is somewhat unfortunate because poster presentations can be very engaging as you have direct discussion with your peers, instead of the 3 minute time slot normally allotted at oral presentations. And to accommodate the practical burden, just like last edition, we will provide a poster printing service! Give the finite time of the conference, we cannot guarantee all ‘oral presentation’ preferences and hope you will not be disappointed (and in fact, enjoy) a possible poster presentation!

There are some rules for the abstracts to be taken into consideration:
- You need to be registered as an attendee (check out the cancellation policy which takes into account the notification of acceptance date: https://visionanddepiction.github.io/#cancellation-policy).
- You can only submit one abstract as first author

Timeline:
Abstract submission opens: 5 October 2025
Abstract submission closes: 15 November 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 30 November 2025
Early bird registration: 15 December 2025
Conference: 4-6 February 2026
Deadline papers special issue Art and Perception: 1 May 2026

Contact:
visionanddepictiongmail.com

For all details, including our selection of keynote speakers, the full timeline, and registration information, visit the conference website at https://visionanddepiction.github.io.