EVA BERLIN CONFERENCE 2027 - Electronic Media and Visual Arts - 30th Edition.

Living Intelligence.
Creativity Between Matter, Memory and Machine

The EVA Berlin Conference addresses the transformations underway across the cultural heritage, creative industries, and memory institutions in the context of accelerating digitalisation. Building on a continuous history dating back to 1994 and following its successful relaunch in 2023, the conference reaches a significant milestone with its 30th edition.

The growing convergence of digital technologies and artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping numerous fields and exerting profound influence on contemporary society. Generative AI tools, intelligent agents and assistants, hybrid experiential spaces, immersive XR technologies, and participatory interaction ecologies are among the defining developments of this moment — each demanding both technical rigour and speculative inquiry, and raising critical questions around inclusivity, sustainability, and societal impact. Alongside these developments, renewed attention to materiality, craft, and the biography of artworks in digital environments is reshaping how cultural heritage is created, preserved, and transmitted.

Contributions reporting on ongoing projects, completed research, and emerging practice are welcomed for the forthcoming edition. As part of the international EVA conference network — with established events in London, Florence, and Paris — the Berlin edition serves as a platform for sustained international and European exchange.

Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI), and the Gesellschaft von Freunden des Heinrich-Hertz-Instituts e.V. invite submissions of contribution proposals as well as expressions of interest in cooperation, addressing but not limited to the following topics:

Topics

AI and Human Creativity: Negotiating Imperfection and Authorship
- AI-generated content and the limits of synthesis
- Image and video generation across scientific, artistic and architectural contexts
- Crypto art, net art and algorithmic systems
- Algorithmic art forms and computational creativity
- Redefining authorship: human agency, imperfection and co-creation in AI-driven contexts

Digital Infrastructure, Standards and Sustainable Heritage
- Open access to cultural heritage as precondition for tracing artwork biographies across institutions
- Visualising artwork biographies: circulation, reception and digital afterlives
- Metadata standardisation, interoperability and FAIR principles
- Virtual exhibitions, immersive tours and the digital presence of cultural heritage

Participatory Systems and Psychological Depth
- Audience-artwork interaction dynamics and affective engagement
- Gamification, play-based approaches and interactive mediation formats
- Hybrid realities, spatial installations and mixed-media environments
- Participatory research and digital inclusion frameworks

Technology Ethics and Cultural Futures
- Identity formation and self-representation in digital ecosystems
- Ownership, privacy and surveillance in art-tech spaces
- Blockchain-based provenance tracking and authentication in cultural collections
- Climate crisis and technology's role in sustainable art production
- Risks of digital life: uncertainty, resilience and algorithmic governance

Materiality, Sustainability and Digital Preservation
- Optical, kinetic and programmed art systems with emphasis on material presence
- Conservation of software-based and born-digital art: preserving artwork lives and reproduction histories
- Net art, interactive design and art-historical storytelling through multimodal platforms
- Light, sound and algorithmic experimentation
- Tactile and craft-based practices intersecting with digital systems

Emerging Intelligences: From Brain-Computer Interfaces to Biomimetic Systems
- AI-driven artwork interpretation, biography reconstruction and curatorial tools
- Brain-computer interfaces and autonomous robotics
- Biomimicry, living systems and bio-digital hybrid art
- Social prescribing, community well-being and therapeutic applications of art

Art Education and Mediation
- Visual languages, narrative design and knowledge dissemination
- Digital pedagogy and adaptive learning formats
- Art practice and mediation in augmented and hybrid realities
- Museums as laboratories for societal innovation and cultural futures

Political and Aesthetic Discourse
- Socio-political narratives in digital art practice
- Interfacing analogue and digital expressive forms
- Politics of online mediation and algorithmic bias

Lectures
Proposals for papers addressing the conference topics are invited from researchers, practitioners and scholars across relevant disciplines

Exhibition / company presentations
Submissions are welcomed for presentations, project showcases, posters and new product demonstrations as part of the accompanying exhibition

Proceedings
Contributions by accepted speakers and exhibitors will be published in the conference proceedings via Artbooks (arthistoricum.net). Each individual contribution will be assigned a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Venue
Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (Fraunhofer HHI)
10857 Berlin

Important dates
- 12 July 2026: Abstract and CV submission
- 3 August 2026: Notification of abstract acceptance
- 12 October 2026: Full paper submission
- 9 November 2026: Notification of paper acceptance

Registration
Please register via Eventbrite. Early bird rate (until Dec 20): EUR 280 + fees. Standard price: EUR 350 + fees.

Submission
Please submit abstracts and brief biographical notes (up to 300 words each) for paper presentations and/or exhibition contributions via EasyChair by 12 July 2026.

Conference Chairs
Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dominik Lengyel (BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Bienert (fmr. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Prussian Cultural Heritage)
Eva Emenlauer-Blömers (fmr. Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research, Project Future)

Scientific Committee
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anja Ballis, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Prof. Dr. Andreas Bienert, fmr. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Prussian Cultural Heritage
Eva Emenlauer-Blömers, fmr. Berlin Senate Dept. for Economics, Tech. and Res., Prj. Future
Prof. Dr. Francesca Fatta, Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria
Prof. Dr. Marinos Ioannides, Cyprus University of Technology
Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dominik Lengyel, BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg
Dr.-Ing. Ralf Schäfer, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (Fraunhofer HHI)
Priv.-Doz. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Schreer, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (Fraunhofer HHI)
Architect and M.Sc. Jacopo Spinelli BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg

Organising Committee
Jacopo Spinelli (BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg)
Jessika Krüger (BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg)
Begüm Asu Çalık (Gesellschaft von Freunden des Heinrich-Hertz-Instituts e.V. and
BTU University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg)

Supporting Institutions
Dr. James R. Hemsley (EVA Conferences International, UK)

Kind regards
The Organising Committee
infoeva-berlin-conference.de
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Chair of Architecture and Visualisation
Institute for Building and Art History
Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning
BTU Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg