[NIME26 Workshop] Call for Participation: What Makes it Fun? Mapping Playful Interaction in Music-Making with AI.

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Call for Participation

 

What Makes it Fun? Mapping Playful Interaction in Music-Making with AI

 

We invite researchers, artists, designers, and technologists working across playful design, AI music, and digital musical interaction to participate in our NIME 2026 workshop.

 

Tuesday 23 June 2026, 14:00–18:00 

LUL Here East Campus, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, UK

 

This workshop explores how playfulness can be systematically understood and intentionally designed within AI music-making systems. Through collaborative discussion, analysis, and hands-on demonstrations, participants will work toward developing a shared vocabulary for playful AI musical interaction, and exploring practical design strategies for fostering playfulness in AI-mediated music systems.

 

Submission tracks

 

We welcome submissions in three formats:

 

1. Demo Showcase — Playful AI music interaction systems or broader playful digital music projects

2. Presentation — Research or practice-based work on playful AI music interaction

3. Speculative Design Concept — Provocations, concepts, or future proposals for playful AI music systems

 

Demo presenters should bring their own equipment and prepare any required system configurations in advance.

 

Important dates:

 

• Submission deadline: 19 June 2026 (AoE)

• Notifications: rolling acceptance

• Workshop: 23 June 2026, 14:00–18:00

• Conference: 24–26 June 2026

 

Workshop website: https://sites.google.com/view/nime26-workshop

Submission form: https://forms.gle/X9Yh3Miz2QknUuSGA

Conference website: https://nime2026.org/

 

Organisers:

 

Jingjing Sun (Imperial College London)

Francesco Di Maggio (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Rebecca Fiebrink (University of the Arts London)

Corey Ford (University of the Arts London)

Bart Hengeveld (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Sebastian Deterding (Imperial College London)