Call for Artworks and Demos

The Artwork and Demo track provides the opportunity to exhibit novel and discourse-stimulating contributions relevant to CHIWORK conference topics in the Ars Electronica Center foyer throughout the conference. The selected artworks and demos will be experienceable by conference and museum visitors from Tuesday, June 23, to Thursday, June 25.

We especially welcome works that provoke, unsettle, or reimagine human-work relationships through artistic inquiry and experiential encounter. These contributions should reveal what remains invisible in conventional perspectives on work, labor, and automation. Equally, we encourage focused demonstrations that extend ongoing research conversations, introduce innovative approaches, or present self-contained studies that challenge and reframe how we understand, design, and inhabit working life.

For CHIWORK’26, we are soliciting contributions relevant to the topics of the conference, with two contribution types open to submission from and across a range of disciplines and perspectives, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, computing, and engineering.

Contribution Types

Art/Design submission

– presenting a work of art or design that critically engages with the conference topics. These submissions will be evaluated based on their potential to open new perspectives on the future of work through aesthetic, critical, or experiential means.

System/Demo submission

– demonstrating specific examples of novel systems that have been built and might facilitate new ways of working. These submissions will be evaluated based on the novelty of the system and the implementation and technical detail described in the accompanying extended abstract.

Important dates

All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when day D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

  • Submission deadline: April 10, 2026 (extended) April 25, 2026
  • Decision notification: May 2, 2026 May 15, 2026
  • Camera-ready deadline: May 25, 2026

Submission Overview

Each Artwork and Demo track submission must include an article, a video and a techrider that follow these criteria.

  • Online submission via EasyChair (choose the Artwork and Demo track)
  • Article Submission Template: ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column)
  • Article Submission length: 1 to 4 pages long, excluding references (we recommend 2–4 pages for system/demo submissions)
  • Video specifications: Up to 3 minutes showing the work in action. For works not yet fully realized, documentation of a previous iteration, a prototype walkthrough, or a rendered simulation is acceptable.
  • The extended abstract should convey the concept, context, and contribution of the work. The video should complement this by demonstrating the work’s experiential or functional qualities.
  • Techrider requirements: PDF or TXT document listing hardware and space needs
  • Anonymization: Submissions must be anonymous and should not include any author names, affiliations, and contact information. For more details, please refer to the CHI Anonymization Policy (we follow the policy of the ACM CHI conference). We recognize that anonymization is challenging when an artist’s prior work is integral to the contribution. Authors should anonymize to the best extent possible while ensuring the submission remains comprehensible. Jury members will be instructed to evaluate each submission on the strength of the proposed work itself.

Preparing and Submitting Your Artwork or Demo Submission

An Artwork or Demo submission must be submitted via EasyChair. The submission must have an extended abstract in the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column; 1 to 4 pages, excluding references). The correct template for initial submissions is one of:

  • 1-column Microsoft Word (acm_submission_template.docx). Recommended for authors unfamiliar with academic formatting conventions. See this link for more information.
  • 1-column LaTeX (sample-sigconf.tex), also on Overleaf. See this link for more information. Please note that the default template is set for 2-column and needs to be manually changed to 1-column for initial review using the following option in LaTeX:
    • \documentclass[manuscript,review,anonymous]{acmart}

The submission can include an optional appendix. The page limit for the appendix is 10 pages. However, note that any information essential to understanding the work should not be included in the appendix.

All Artwork and Demo submissions are semi-archival, meaning the published extended abstracts do not preclude further development or resubmission of the work to other peer-reviewed venues (e.g., a future CHIWORK or CHI full paper submission). Companion proceedings will include the extended abstracts of all artworks and demos presented at the conference.

Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to

  • Tools for remote work: working from home, working while commuting, and meetings with remote participants
  • New ways of getting work done: techniques for interleaving work; easy resumption, engagement, and disengagement; and incorporating well-being needs in productivity tools
  • Working and trust with AI and automation: techniques for cooperation and collaboration with AI agents, new tools for task automation, working in and with automated environments and entities including cars, drones, and robots; designing for fairness, transparency and dignity
  • Technologies for the future of work: networking, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable devices, and human-robot collaboration
  • Supporting worker well-being and health: maintaining work-life boundaries, supporting physical movement, and facilitating work attachment and detachment, exploring how systems support or privilege well-being of workers in gendered, race-, caste- and class-informed ways
  • Designing digital tools: preparing the ground for professional development and adaptation to and development of individual skills
  • Matching and developing worker skills for job opportunities: assessing worker skills, matching existing skills to new job opportunities, platforms and peer-networks for learning new skills
  • Inclusion and accessibility: technology that is built for equality and technology that supports all abilities
  • Large language models at work: use in practice, risks, organizational and staff perspectives 
  • Security and privacy: protecting work infrastructure from malicious actors and maintaining privacy while providing personalized support for work and well-being
  • Novel ways of measuring outcome: rewarding performance so that it takes into account an individual’s unique needs, incorporating well-being as an integral part of productivity, fostering and measuring creativity and innovation, and supporting self-reflection by workers
  • Tools and platforms for hiring and managing workers: new models for hiring, onboarding, and management; understanding and supporting freelancing, on-demand, crowdwork, and gig work
  • Societal impact: supporting decision-making for policy and regulation, integrating perspectives of workers, firms, governments, and communities; addressing the economics and resilience of individuals, communities, and society
  • Artistic and speculative approaches: embodied, performative, or material investigations of human–work relations; speculative design; critical making; non-productive encounters with automated systems; aesthetic and affective dimensions of labour and automation

Selection Process

Artwork and demo submissions will be reviewed through a juried process. Jury members will provide light feedback alongside their evaluation, which is based on the following criteria:

  • Significance: Does the work meaningfully address the themes of CHIWORK’26 and the future of work?
  • Originality: Does the work offer a novel contribution that expands upon or challenges the existing discourse in the field?
  • Rigor: For demos, is the system’s design rationale clear, and are its claims supported by technical detail or evaluation? For artworks, is the concept critically coherent, and is the proposed experience well-articulated?
  • Resonance: Will the work stimulate productive exchange among CHIWORK attendees across disciplinary boundaries?

Attendance, Venue and Budgeting

Artwork and demo authors must be available at the conference venue to install and uninstall their work and facilitate interaction with it at scheduled times. The build-up day for artwork and demos will be Monday, June 22. Artwork and demos can be taken down on Thursday, June 25, in the late afternoon, or on Friday, June 26. 

The venue provides standard power supply and WiFi. An interactive 3D map of the exhibition floor can be found at this link. Further details on the exhibition space, available infrastructure, and technical specifications will be shared with accepted authors. Authors with specific spatial or technical requirements are encouraged to include them in the requirements document that accompanies their submission.

Authors are expected to finance the costs of travel, logistics, installation materials, and conference fees themselves.

Contact Us

Artwork and Demo Co-Chairs

  • Emanuel Gollob (University of Arts Linz), Francesco ​​​​Chiossi (LMU Munich), Yoana Ahmetoglu (UCL), Pascal Knierim (University of Innsbruck)
  • For questions, please email [email protected]