International Conference on Media, Arts and Interaction. Intermediartes mission is to promote the intersection between the arts and technologies through a series of interdisciplinary activities. This Conference aims to be an interface and a space for dialog and discussion, where the different overlaps of media, arts and interaction awaken new creative approaches in the various fields, bringing together academia, artists and the surrounding community. The focus of Intermediartes is to boost new learning by complementing the training of all those involved, but also to encourage artistic and scientific dissemination.

The 8th edition of Intermediartes will take place between May 20 and 22, with the theme [x]Human.

It has been said that we have entered an era of unprecedented advancements in development, in that of artificial intelligence, the network of things, physical, digital, quantic, and also of bodies, brains, identities, thoughts, actions, and of the post-human and post-digital philosophy, where postulates about, e.g., Human+, the Singularity, the Cyborg, are already things of the past, where what it means to be human has evolved into new interpretations and proposed interpretations. Although there is some consensus on what was and is being human, the truth is that, if we are truly objective, we still don't know, so we can only speculate about what it will be. It seems, however, that to be human is to be privileged and from other world, let's say, since it has generated-generates-will generate zeuses, pandoras, frankensteins, echidnas, マインダー, minotaurs, phoenixes, dragos, prometheuses, osirises, 上帝, damrus, also hals, nexuses-6, perhaps already -1096, stellarcs, manns, harbissons, concrete corporea, metaphysical ideals, goertzelian brains, vita-morean primos, kurzweilian singularities, the atlas, cl1, crispr-, crio-, transistors, transcribers, lucy in the sky with diamonds, dolly, and also electric sheep; which celebrates the animate and the inanimate, the known and the unknown, which declares that, finally, it has developed an intelligence, which it says is artificial, already better-than-himself and soon better-than-everyone-at-the-same-time. Around 1.5 million years ago, according to current consensus, “the relationship between biology and technology became clearly bidirectional: our biological capabilities drove technological progress, while technology, in turn, shaped essential aspects of our own evolution” (Medrano, 2025). We even hypothesize, and suspect, that the human has a rib of the machine, ancestral. Still: "No es que la carne supere al metal, sino que la evolución funciona de una manera muy distinta a la ingeniería" (Javier Sampedro, 2025) Intermediartes 2026 challenges to rethink what it means to be human, in an achronological way, which can raise hypotheses about what will be, but also about what was, and is. In this context, x refers to unknown, extended, unconfined, [independent] variable, physical, metaphysical, inorganic, biological, natural, synthetic, analog, digital, perhaps not "or", but rather "and", with all the digits, multipliable and not, i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0… Why not, then, imagine [x]Human as [future] systemic blastemas, but not only of primordial bioparticles, but also particles of other, also primordial, e.g., titanium, photons, from whose [re]generation potential beings may emerge: wolverines [perhaps again], icaruses—finally, or x-beings. And other forms and other conditions, recognizable or not, natural, social, synthetic; and other states, e.g., liquid, gaseous, fourth, photonic; why not x-rays or combustion? But always ethical and upright!

Intermediartes therefore invites academics, researchers, artists and professionals to submit theoretical, practical or experimental research articles in the form of papers, and/or artworks and performances that should explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Artificial Intelligence and Creativity
• Augmented and Virtual Reality
• Creative Programming
• Digital and Interactive Media
• Digital Art
• Net Art
• Digital Puppetry
• Imersive Media
• Generative Art
• Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Immersive Experiences
• Interaction Design
• Interactive Storytelling
• Interactivity in Performing Arts
• Live Interfaces
• Physical Computing
• Performance and Interactive Animation
• Sound and Interactivity
• Video Mapping
• Virtual and Interactive Environments

Under the theme, [x]Human, Intermediartes 2026 welcomes proposals for papers, which will be blind reviewed by a scientific committee. The paper will then be published in the Conference Proceedings (in digital format).

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Review process:

• The submission of papers must respect the defined deadlines and in accordance with the defined template;
• Each paper submitted will be reviewed by at least two members of the Scientific Committee. The papers will be reviewed using a blind review model, in a process that will assess the originality and relevance of the paper, as well as the artistic and technical results;
• Once the review process has been completed, the corresponding author(s) will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of the submitted paper. In the event of acceptance, the author(s) must submit the camera-ready version by the deadline set by the Intermediartes Chairs. Authors should consider the recommendations for improvement suggested by the reviewers;
• If the recommendations made by the reviewers have not been taken into account when writing the final version of the paper, the Scientific Committee reserves the right not to include that paper in Intermediartes 2026.

Specific information for submitting Papers:

• Papers should describe finalised research/work or work in progress, but with relevant preliminary results to be discussed. Papers can also be submitted based on artwork that has been submitted in the "Artworks" section. In these cases, the submission must respect the specific information and scientific rigour mentioned here;
• Submissions should be limited to a minimum of 4 pages and a maximum of 6 pages (according to the template provided). References are not included in the page limit;
• Papers should respect the instructions for authors and the template in word format provided here and should be submitted via the Microsoft CMT platform. The corresponding author must create an account on this platform and submit the paper via the following link: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/INTERMEDIARTES2026/
• If necessary, include an appendix in word format (.doc or .docx) with additional documentation to the paper, as well as links to multimedia files (audio, video, preview of the work...) relevant to the review process by the scientific committee, such as documentation, audio, video, preview of the work, URLs, etc;
• Information that makes it possible to identify the authors should be excluded. Authors' names, affiliations should not appear in the initial version, and this information should only be included in the camera-ready version;
• Papers can be written in Portuguese or English (UK) and the style used should be APA 7th edition (as indicated in the template provided). In the final version of the paper, images and other multimedia files must be attached as separate files. Images must be sent with a minimum resolution of 150 dpi in PNG or JPG format;
• The camera-ready of the paper to be submitted must contain: i) a final version in ‘.pdf’ format; ii) a final version in .doc or .docx format; iii) all additional files with the indications listed in the previous points;
• Images and multimedia files must be authorised for publication.

If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to: intermediartes@esmad.ipp.pt

Download Template

Intermediartes 2026 is open to proposals for artistic works, which will be considered by an artistic curatorial committee (ACC) that will curate this section of the Conference. The Artworks submitted will be analyzed and may be selected for one or more of the following exhibition modalities:

Exhibition modalities:

• Public presentation in a physical space;
• Publication of the work's documentation on the Intermediartes website;
• publication of the work's documentation in the Conference Proceedings (in digital format).

Selection process:

• Artwork submissions must respect the established deadlines and comply with the requirements outlined in the online submission process.
• Each work (artwork) will be analyzed by the Intermediartes 2026 ACC.
• The selection criteria will prioritize
  1. Quality and consistency of the work, particularly its uniqueness and relevance.
  2. Contextualization in the author(s)' career [this criterion does not disadvantage young artists with potentially shorter careers in comparison to established artists]
  3. Connection to the general theme of Intermediartes 2026.
• The selection of artworks will take into account their particular characteristics, constituents and aspects and their suitability for the Intermediartes 2026 curatorial framework;
• After the selection process, the Intermediartes organization will notify all authors who have submitted artworks, informing them whether or not they have been selected/accepted;
• In the event of selection/acceptance, if any aspects need to be clarified, the ACC may contact the author(s) to clarify them and/or, if necessary, propose adjustments to the implementation or documentation;
• If the suggested adjustments (regarding implementation or documentation) cannot be made, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to exclude the artwork from Intermediartes 2026.

Notes:

• The essence of the artwork - form, character and substance, whether visual, sound, static, animated or performative - is entirely open”. However, the submitted documentation must clearly define the conceptual and technical elements that compose the artwork. The documentation submitted must be clear about the elements that make up the artwork, both in conceptual and technical terms;
• Given the uniqueness of the artistic visions and, possibly, the specificities of the implementation of each artwork, Intermediartes cannot guarantee the availability of all the necessary resources for them. Any required support must be explicitly stated in the technical rider, which is an essential part of the submission materials.

Each submission must include:

1. Document with:
   • Abstract with a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 200;
   • Expository text with a minimum of 800 words and a maximum of 1800;
   • A representative image of the artwork (at least one, up to a maximum of three), with a minimum width of 1920 pixels (height relative to proportion)
   • URL to a site with documentation on the submitted artwork, including previews (e.g. photos, videos)
2. Artistic and Technical Rider with:
   • Details (as much as possible) about the implementation and local development;
   • Diagrams and/or other images, where appropriate;
   • Equipment/technical needs (e.g. projection, sound).
   Within these:
   • Which are provided by the authors;
   • Which, if any, Intermediartes needs to supply.
3. Online
• In the case of online implementation and development, the information should cover aspects related to, e.g., type of server, languages/systems that guarantee the functionality(ies), planned disk space.

Artwork submission information:

• Artworks must follow the instructions above and must be submitted via the Microsoft CMT platform. The corresponding author must create an account on this platform and submit the article from the following link: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/Intermediartes2026
• Artworks can be written in Portuguese or English (UK) and the standard used should be APA 7th edition.
• Images and multimedia files must be authorized for publication.

Papers

Article submission -> March 8th

Communicating results -> April 26th

Camera Ready Version -> May 10th (updated)

Artworks

Article submission -> March 22th

Communicating results -> May 4th

Camera Ready Version -> May 10th