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

‘Prototypes of Encounter’ is a project that aims, through artistic practices, to rethink ways of organising and participating in a pluralistic society. By creating spaces for practical experimentation, residencies and performative laboratories, the project aims to materially test forms of cooperation both within and outside artistic production. Although more commonly associated with design or the digital world, the word ‘prototype’ is understood here as a potential form of experimentation, employed as a methodological tool to establish a basis for dialogue with artist collectives, individual artists and invited researchers. By making room for scheduled and spontaneous encounters, for unpredictability and the possibility of failure, the key will be to experiment and test together new vocabularies, ecologies and configurations of existing or yet-to-be-invented practices. Power relations in everyday life, and the distribution and performance of roles in the collective experience, are some starting points for questioning configurations and modes of interaction in the social sphere.

A theoretical and practical workshop, organised by the Protótipos de Encontro project in partnership with Intermediartes 2026, inviting students from ESMAD and ESMAE, as well as the local community, to explore the world of BERTIE, a virtual reality video game for theatre.

Organized by Rita Barbosa / Circular Festival

Rita Barbosa (1979, Porto) is a filmmaker and visual artist, holding a degree in Digital Arts from the Sound and Image course at UCP (2002). Her artistic practice focuses primarily on moving images, though she has also collaborated on the creation, writing and visual design of projects in the fields of theatre and performance. In her work, she seeks, through interdisciplinary approaches, to deconstruct operational processes, viewing art as an aesthetic game. Her notable works include: the short film A Hora da Estrela (yet to be released),which was part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner’s Focus WiP 2024; the VR video game for theatre Bertie (2024), premiered at the Teatro Municipal Rivoli (Porto), TCA (Aveiro) and gnration (Braga); the short film 2.ª Pessoa (2022), which won the Audience Award at Vienna Shorts, a Special Mention at the Glasgow Short Film Festival, the Best Documentary award at Silhouette, Best Short Film at Caminhos do Cinema Português and Porto Femme, and Best Fiction at the Arquitecturas Film Festival, and screened at various international festivals, such as Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Uppsala, Encounters, KFFK/Kurz Köln, Minimalen, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Sundsvall, amongst many others; the TV film Jogos de Enganos (2022), by Ukbar Filmes for the RTP series Contado por Mulheres; the performance film Amigos Imaginários (2019), presented at the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival, PT.21, Teatro Municipal Rivoli and CCB, amongst others; and the short film À Noite Fazem-se Amigos (2016), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. She has produced experimental videos screened at the Cartier Foundation, Impakt and Courtisane. In theatre and performance, he has collaborated with Tiago Rodrigues on *3 Dedos Abaixo do Joelho* (2012), and with various theatre companies and artists, including the Mala Voadora company, Máquina Agradável, Maria Jorge, Lígia Soares, Miguel Castro Caldas, Sílvia Pinto Coelho, Andresa Soares, Sónia Baptista and Tiago Guedes. He has been working in advertising since 2006, having produced dozens of television campaigns. He began working in this field in collaboration with Tiago Guedes and has extensive technical and creative experience in filming, directing and coordinating teams.

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May 20 - 14h00 : 18h00 - Blackbox ESMAD

Applications are now open for Intermediartes Workshop

application form

Perspectives on Portuguese Animation is an initiative of CINANIMA – International Animated Film Festival of Espinho, originally conceived and developed in 2021 by the then Artistic Director of CINANIMA, professor, researcher, and multi-award-winning animation director Pedro Serrazina. Since then, CINANIMA has continued to organise, on an annual basis, new editions of the symposium, with the additional objective of producing scholarly publications as outputs of the initiative. Following the launch of the first two editions—the first dedicated to filmmakers David Doutel and Vasco Sá, curated by Pedro Serrazina, and the second focusing on the female duo Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves, curated by Cátia Peres—two further volumes have now been published, corresponding to the 2023 and 2024 symposia. In 2023, the 3rd edition of the Perspectives on Portuguese Animation symposium was held within the framework of the 47th CINANIMA Festival, and in 2024, during the 48th Festival, the 4th edition took place. The primary aim has been to further develop a multidisciplinary analysis of works by Portuguese animation filmmakers, based on the recognition that this remains a relatively underexplored field within scientific and academic research. The first volume (2023), edited by Cátia Peres, focuses on the analysis of the feature films Nayola, by José Miguel Ribeiro, and My Grandfathers' Demons by Nuno Beato. The contributing researchers include Cátia Peres, Cynthia Levitan, Sandra Ramos, João Apolinário, Inês Rebanda Coelho, and Risa Cohen. The second volume (2024), edited by Sahra Kunz, features analytical contributions by Laura Castro, Patrícia Oliveira-Silva, and Pedro Serrazina on the work of Regina Pessoa. Based on these two years of symposium activity (2023 and 2024), and with the support of the ICA – Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, two bilingual scholarly publications have been produced for various academic communities in Portugal and abroad, available both in a limited print edition and in a freely accessible digital format via the CINANIMA website. The presentation of the publications will take place from May 2026 onwards at festivals, conferences, higher education institutions, and other cultural and educational organisations, targeting the general public and featuring the participation of curators and editors, as well as authors and researchers. At this presentation, alongside the editorial coordinator Cristina Novo, there will also be contributions from the researchers Inês Rebanda Coelho (3rd edition) and Laura Castro (4th edition).

Organized by Cinanima

Project Coordinator: Cristina Novo

With a pre-Bologna degree in Sociology from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (1999) and ongoing training in areas such as digital marketing, cultural project design, digital and cultural communication, record production and marketing, statistics, institutional partnership culture, social development and territorial strategic planning, diversity and inclusion, as well as a Professional Certificate of Pedagogical Aptitude for Trainers, Cristina has been designing and developing social and cultural projects for various organisations in Portugal for over 20 years. She was also producer of the live-action documentary Imago, from the director Rui Pedro Lamy, with cinematography by António Morais, and has worked as a producer on interactive digital art projects (Mecha Studio). In 2018 she joined CINANIMA – International Animated Film Festival of Espinho, initially taking on the coordination of the Communications and Partnerships department. She currently fosters the establishment of partnerships between the festival and numerous cultural and educational institutions, coordinates educational projects, supervises internships, and acts as executive producer of critical-thinking initiatives such as masterclasses, meetings, debates, symposiums, pitching sessions and workshops. Her main role is that of project manager in CINANIMA’s education department.

Inês Rebanda Coelho

Inês Rebanda Coelho has a Bachelor in Sound and Image, a master’s degree in Cinema and Audiovisual (both from EA- UCP), and a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences within Film and Television Studies (UMinho). Inês is a jury at ICA and has worked in cinema, television and audiovisual production for more than 15 years, being specialized in Production Consultancy and Executive Production. She’s a professor, researcher at CECC-UCP, the co-director of the indexed journal “Cinema & Territory” and, the coordinator and co-founder of the research work group Economics and Management in the Moving Image of AIM. Author of fantasy and Sci-Fi’s published literature.

Laura Castro

Professor at the School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University, where she was director between 2013 and 2017, and researcher at the Centre for Research in Science and Technology of the Arts. Laura Castro has a PhD in Art and Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. Between the early 1990s and 2006, Laura worked in the cultural sector. She was regional director of Culture for the North and vice-president of Cultural Heritage, IP. She writes regularly on modern and contemporary art, museology, art and landscape and public art. Laura is a member of the Portuguese Association of Art Historians and the International Association of Art Critics. Laura chaired the board of Círculo de Cultura Teatral/Teatro Experimental do Porto (2015-2021), was a member of the board of Árvore/ Artistic Activities Cooperative (2010-2015), and of the board of Lugar do Desenho/Júlio Resende Foundation (2009-14 and 2019-20).

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May 21 - 12h00 at Auditório Luis Soares

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 -> April 7th

Communicating results -> April 26th

Camera Ready Version -> May 10th

Artworks

Article submission -> April 7th

Communicating results -> May 4th

Camera Ready Version -> May 10th