New Interfaces for Musical Expression
28 JUNE - 1 JULY 2022
online
Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa
Organised by
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
About NIME
The International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression gathers researchers and musicians from all over the world to share their knowledge and late-breaking work on new musical interface design. The conference started out as a workshop at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in 2001. Since then, an annual series of international conferences have been held around the world, hosted by research groups dedicated to interface design, human-computer interaction, and computer music.
Theme: Decolonising musical interfaces
In the last few editions of the NIME conference, an increasing number of publications and artistic work has been identifying, challenging, and addressing the hegemonic cultural and ideological perspectives in the work that we make. The theme of the NIME 2022 has been chosen to encourage further theoretical and artistic submissions based on and pushing for epistemologies and methodologies other than traditional Western empiricism. This theme is inspired by the rising commitment in the host country of NIME 2022, Aotearoa New Zealand, to develop decolonial methodologies that reassess the value of Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. Decolonisation also involves rethinking the Western imaginary of technological innovation, central in music technology. What is innovation at NIME? What is the N in NIME? What values are we ready to trade off for the sake of innovation? In addition to encouraging submissions that offer alternative knowledge systems, we further embedded the decolonisation theme in the structure of the conference. A mentorship program will assist researchers from under-represented communities, and the Call for Music is also open to performances with old NIMEs, to resist narratives of technological innovation.
What's new at NIME 2022
This edition of NIME introduces several exciting opportunties:
Doctoral Consortium
For the first time at NIME, there will be a Doctoral Consortium. This is an opportunty for PhD students to discuss, perform, or demo their ongoing research and receive feedback from the NIME community on their conceptual, theoretical, technical and/or musical research components, and participate to an open discussion among peer students and senior scientists, interaction designers and computer musicians.
Mentorship program
A Mentorship Program has been developed to increse inclusiveness of our community by helping NIME newcomers, especially underrepresented groups and non-native speakers, to navigate the NIME discourse.
New music, old NIMEs
In addition to the traditional call for music developed with new NIMEs, the Call for Music now includes the possibilty to submit pieces performed or composed with NIMEs that have been presented before . This includes new pieces for interfaces that have been previously presented at NIME.
News
The NIME 2022 Conference Hub website is now online!
14 Jun 2022
Updates in New Zealand immigration policies indicated that the country will reopen the borders to international travellers only from October 2022. Thus, we sadly need to confirm that the NIME 2022 will be entirely virtual.
08 Feb 2022
While we had hoped to have a hybrid online or in-person conference, the critical situation in New Zealand regarding immigration and the pandemic means that that possibility is currently unlikely. We will review and finalise our decision in February 2022 at the latest. We thank everyone for their continued patience, and rest assured that our team is working hard to host the best conference that we can under these conditions!
25 Oct 2021
Site online!
20 Sep 2021
Keynote
speakers
Khyam Allami (born in Damascus 1981) is an Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, researcher and founder of Nawa Recordings. Primarily a performer of the Oud, his artistic research focuses on the development of contemporary and experimental repertoire based on the fundamentals of Arabic music, with a focus on tuning and microtonality. He holds a BA and Masters in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London and is currently completing an M4C/AHRC funded PhD in composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University.
Performance scholar working on art and technology, embodiment and expressive gesture, sound environments. Director since 2017 of Te Kōkī/ New Zealand School of Music (Te Herenga Waka/ Victoria University Wellington). Previously co-founder of Sussex Humanities Lab and founding Director of Culture Lab, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. As STEIM Artistic Guest Director (1998-2000), co-organiser of the Touch Festival. Dual citizen (New-Zealand-France) engaged in international cultural policy and research.
Rekka Bellum & Devine Lu Linvega operate a small open-source software studio, aboard a 10 meters long sailboat called Pino. They have sailed around the Pacific Ocean and realized how fragile the modern-day computing stack was. Living in remote uninhabited parts of the world has offered them a playground to learn how technology degrades beyond the shores of the western world. Hundred Rabbits is a nonprofit organization exploring the planned obsolescence of modern technology at the bounds of the hyper-connected world, with the hope of building a more resilient future.
Call for papers
We welcome submissions of original scientific and artistic research on the creation, use, and ethical and sociocultural implications of new interfaces for musical expression.
Topics
Original contributions are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Approaches on decolonising music and musical interfaces
- Studies or reviews of non-Western musical epistemologies and pedagogies
- Novel controllers, interfaces or instruments for musical expression
- Augmented, embedded and hyper instruments
- Technologies or systems for collaborative music-making
- Discussions about the artistic and cultural impact of NIMEs
- Reflections on the ethical, environmental, societal, and political impact of NIMEs
- Critical analysis of existing commercial, academic or artistic NIME practice
- Historical, theoretical or philosophical discussions about designing or performing with NIMEs
- Easier/cheaper approaches to the design of bespoke and customizeable accessible instruments
- Strategies that improve the reach and replicability of one-off accessible instrument projects, particularly those that are unlikely to have full commercial potential
- Musical interfaces designed by/with disabled/neurodiverse musicians
- Practice-based research approaches/methodologies/criticism
- Music-related human-computer interaction
- User studies and evaluations of NIMEs
- Interactive sound art and sound installations
- New music performance paradigms
- Gesture to sound mapping
- Sonic interaction design
- Musical robotics
- Sensor and actuator technologies for NIMEs
- Interface protocols and data formats supporting musical interaction
- Machine learning and artificial intelligence in NIMEs
- Pedagogical perspectives and/or student projects in NIME-related courses
Submission types
We welcome submissions in the following categories:
- Full paper (up to 5000 words in proceedings, optional demo)
- Short paper (up to 3000 words in proceedings, optional demo)
The word count is for the article’s main text. It does not include title, abstract, acknowledgment, ethics statement, references, or appendices. Presentation formats (talks, posters and demos) will be announced later and will be similar for full and short papers.
Submission process
NIME papers will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Paper template
Submission portal
Review Process
A description of the review process can be found here. All paper submissions will be subjected to a rigorous double-blind peer review process by an international committee of experts. All of the submitted papers should demonstrate rigorous research methodology and will be evaluated according to the following criteria: novelty, academic quality, appropriateness of topic, importance, readability, ethical standards, and paper organization. Authors should also familiarize themselves with the NIME statements on diversity, environmental, and ethical issues.
Important Dates
- Paper submission deadline: 22 January 2022
- Paper final submission upload deadline: 31 January 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 15-19 March 2022
All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth Time Zone (UTC - 12)
Call for music
We invite submissions of musical pieces performed or composed with new interfaces for musical expression.
Submission types
This year, there are two different calls for music and selected pieces will be performed at two different concerts.
- In alignment with the theme of NIME 2022 decolonising NIME, it promotes a vision of technology-mediated music practice that is focused on the actual cultural practice of making music rather than the technological innovation. It also challenges consumeristic ideologies or innovation for innovation sake.
- It aims to mitigate the environmental impact of the creation of a new NIME by fostering a culture of reusing rather than disposing.
- It promotes replicability of NIMEs, following the numerous debates that took place at NIME 2021 on replicability and documentation of NIMEs.
Submission information
All music proposals will include:
- Project title
- Project description
- Type of submission (Option 1 or Option 2)
- Description of technical requirements
- Short program notes
- Link to audio or, preferably, audio-visual recording of the performance. The link should be unrestricted to ensure easy access by both chairs and reviewers.
Submission process
NIME music submissions will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Music submission template
Submission portal
Review Process
A description of the review process can be found here. All of the submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria: artistic and academic quality, appropriateness of topic, and ethical standards. Authors should also familiarize themselves with the NIME statements on diversity, environmental, and ethical issues.
Important Dates
- Music submission deadline: 22 January 2022
- Music final submission upload deadline: 31 January 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 15-19 March 2022
Call for Workshops
NIME 2022 welcomes the submission of workshop proposals. These proposals may take the form of tutorials on specific NIME topics or forums for discussion and development. Typical NIME workshops have been from two hours to a full day in length. We encourage authors to address time zone diversity and hybrid presentation in their proposal (e.g., through repeated or asynchronous content).
Submission information
The workshop proposal should include:
- Workshop title
- List of organisers/speakers including short bios
- Workshop description up to 750 words, describing the topic and nature of the workshop
- Short description up to 70 words, for the conference program
- Preferred length of workshop: number of hours, half-day, or full-day
- We suggest that workshop organisers consider whether asynchronous or repeated sessions could include global participants
- Workshop webpage (suggested for submission, required for accepted submissions)
Submission process
NIME workshop submissions will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Workshop submission template
Submission portal
Website information
Accepted workshop submissions will be required to create a simple website for communication with their participants independently from the main conference website (e.g., using free services such as GitHub Pages or Google Sites). We encourage submissions to include a draft website if they would like. Examples of past workshop websites are:
Review Process
Workshops will be curated by the Workshop co-chairs and associated review committee, based on the Workshop proposal’s relevance to the NIME conference and conference theme, and feasibility. As a result, the feedback on these curated acceptances and rejections will be limited. Workshop proposal submissions are not anonymous.
Important Dates
- Workshop submission deadline: 22 January 2022
- Workshop final submission upload deadline: 31 January 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 15-19 March 2022
Call for Installations
We invite submissions of art installations on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Given the online format of NIME 2022, accepted proposals will be exhibited online.
NIME2022 is pleased to be partnering with Collab-Hub for the art installation stream. If your submission is accepted, you'll have the opportunity to work with Collab-Hub to create a fully engaging virtual presence for your installation.
A NIME2022 information page is available on the Collab-Hub website and we encourage you to visit it and explore the possibility of using their platform for your work. Please feel free to ask the Collab-Hub team any questions.
Submission information
The submission will include the following entries:
- Title
- Authors names and short bios of contributing artists
- Description
- Technical information and system requirements
- Feasibility
- Link to audio-visual documentation, live demo of the installation itself or to the work as it already exists online
- Access requirement
- Compliance with NIME standards on diversity, environmental, and ethical issues.
Submission process
NIME installation submissions will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Installation submission template
Submission portal
Review Process
All installation submissions will be evaluated by a review panel according to the following criteria: originality, impact, creativity, technique, presentation, and feasibility. Upon acceptance, artists of accepted works will be asked:
- to provide a video of their installation for online presentation along with additional supporting material if required, e.g., thumbnails, programme note, etc.
- if they wish to participate in an optional artists discussion panel as a part of the conference.
Documentation of the installations will be available online after the conference.
Important Dates
- Installation submission deadline: 22 January 2022
- Installation final submission upload deadline: 31 January 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 15-19 March 2022
All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth Time Zone (UTC - 12)
Call for Demos
We welcome the submission of proposals for late breaking demonstrations to showcase works in progress, proof of concept NIMEs, and early prototypes that may not be ready or appropriate for submission as a full or short paper. This category is especially suitable for submissions by people new to NIME, or those who are in the early stages of research and would benefit from feedback from the NIME community.
Submission information
Submissions are encouraged in, but not limited to, the main conference theme “Decolonising musical interfaces”, as well as any of the topics listed in the Call for Papers. As NIME 2022 will take place as a virtual conference, this presents a challenge to the traditional “hands-on” demonstration sessions that have been a part of previous editions. Thus, we urge people to consider unique ways to present a demonstration interactively with remote attendees. This could include web-based components that permit distributed control of a remote or virtual instrument during the session, or providing downloadable interactive versions of a NIME or other technology. The submission should include the following components:
- Title and author(s)
- Abstract (200 words)
- Requirements
- Program description
- Media
Please note that a demo submission is not a conference paper, however the abstract will appear in the conference program and official proceedings.
Submission process
NIME demo submissions will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Demo submission template
Submission portal
Review Process
All demo submissions will be evaluated by a review panel according to the following criteria: originality, impact, creativity, technique, presentation, and feasibility. Those submitting should also familiarize themselves with the NIME statements on diversity, environmental, and ethical issues.
Important Dates
- Demo submission deadline: 1 April 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 1 May 2022
All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth Time Zone (UTC - 12)
Doctoral Consortium
Established for the first time in this conference edition, the NIME 2022 Doctoral Consortium gives an opportunity for PhD students to discuss, perform, or demo their research. We welcome applications from students who would like to receive feedback from the NIME community on their conceptual, theoretical, technical and/or musical research components, and participate to an open discussion among peer students and senior scientists, interaction designers and computer musicians. Ideal candidates will be early-stage or mid-way through their program, presenting some concrete research content within the NIME topics yet with no conclusive achievements already at hand. Candidates should clearly explain their contribution to the Doctoral Consortium as well as the expected benefit from participating to it.
Submission information
Proposals will include the following entries:
- proposal sections: title, keywords, research question/s/problem, context/theory, methods, the expected outcomes (what you hope to contribute and get from the Doctoral Consortium), references/bibliography (not part of the word count)
- (optional) software, videos, audio recordings, blueprints documenting music interface concepts and physical prototypes, either uploaded along with the main document or hyperlinked from it
- a short recommendation letter from the Supervisor, also clarifying the student's year of study, research objectives, method, and activity in the context of the Department/Research Lab where the PhD is done
Submission process
Doctoral Consortium submissions will be using Pubpub, a multimedia platform for publication. Authors will create submissions there, export them as PDFs, and submit them for review through the NIME 2022 Conference Management Toolkit (CMT).
Submission instructions
Doctoral Consortium submission template
Submission portal
Selection Process
The Doctoral Consortium committee will review and select a limited number of candidates via a curation process that considers the quality of their work, and its possibilities to contribute to the creation of a multidisciplinary, diverse, balanced and ethical discussion forum furthermore highly profitable for the participants. Duplicated material submitted also to other NIME calls will be immediately rejected from the Doctoral Consortium.
At the Conference
If accepted, based on your proposal, we will ask you to design a multimedia poster to both contribute to a live consortium discussion and virtual poster at the NIME conference. Each poster can include performances, demo, design, etc. The Doctoral Consortium will run the day before the beginning of the main conference, on June 27th, with the Chairs actively participating to the event. Please note that the final posters won't be published in the NIME proceedings.
Important Dates
- Doctoral Consortium submission extended deadline: 15 April 2022
- Notification of acceptance: 1 May 2022
All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth Time Zone (UTC - 12)
Chairs
General Co-Chairs
- Fabio Morreale Waipapa Taumata Rau (The University of Auckland), Aotearoa
- Sasha Leitman
Paper Co-Chairs
- Andrew McPherson Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
- Emma Frid IRCAM, France & KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Music Chair
- Raul Masu Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
Poster & Demo Co-Chairs
- Johnny Sullivan McGill University, Canada
- Diana Siwiak Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington), Aotearoa
Workshop Co-Chairs
- Doga Cavdir Stanford University, United States
- Charles Martin The Australian National University, Australia
Installations Co-Chairs
- Meg Schedel Stony Brook University, United States
- Paul Dunham Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington), Aotearoa
Doctoral Consortium Co-Chairs
- Cécile Chevalier University of Sussex, United Kingdom
- Federico Fontana University of Udine, Italy
Virtual & Hybrid Chair
- Astrid Bin Ableton, Germany
Sponsor Chair
- Robert Jack Bela, United Kingdom
Sponsors
Full sponsors
Bela is a maker platform for creating beautiful interaction with sensors and sound. Designed for artists, musicians, researchers and makers, Bela brings the power of ultra-low latency interaction to your digital audio projects. Find out more here.
Ableton was founded in 1999 and released the first version of Live in 2001. Our products are used by a community of dedicated musicians, sound designers, and artists from across the world. We make Live, Push and Link — unique software and hardware for music creation and performance. With these products, our community of users creates amazing things.
Technical sponsor
Collab-Hub is a tool that helps artists, musicians, circuit-benders, game developers, and creative coders share data effortlessly between remote systems and collaborators (or on the same local network).
Mentorship program
The objective of the NIME mentorship program is to increase the inclusiveness of our community by helping NIME newcomers, especially underrepresented groups and non-native speakers, to be onboarded in the NIME discourse. A mentor is expected to help a newcomer (mentee) positioning her/his work within the NIME discourse and the mentorship would result in a co-authored NIME submission.
Who can be a mentee?
There are two main categories of mentees:
- Master students or early-stage PhD Students without a supervisor who is part of the NIME/music technology debate.
- Anyone who has not published at NIME before and is without a supervisor who is part of the NIME/music technology debate.
Being the first edition of the program, we understand that some people are not included in these categories. Therefore, if you feel you need a mentor and do not fit into these categories please send us an email, we are happy to discuss your application. People from underrepresented groups will have priority.
How to apply for a mentor
To apply for the mentorship program, it is required to submit 1) a short paragraph (abstract) with a research topic/idea (up to 300 words) and 2) a motivation letter (up to 300 words). In the motivation letter, the applicant should ask what type of mentor they want (language, gender, or any other type of preference) and why they would like to have a mentor.
Who can be a mentor?
Everyone with past experience at NIME can volunteer to be a mentor. Everyone who applies to be a mentor has to guarantee at least two hours of supervision time every two weeks from October to January. Each mentor needs to familiarize herself with all the NIME codes and statements.
Duties of the mentor
The mentor and the mentee will develop the idea/topic proposed by the mentee in the application together. The mentor is expected to suggest relevant literature, and help the mentee to position her/his idea/topic within the current music technology debate. This type of support should go beyond the direct objective of writing the paper but help the mentee for future research. Each mentor must dedicate at least two hours every two weeks to work with/supervise the mentee (e.g., a two-hour meeting every two weeks, or a one-hour meeting every week).
How to apply to become a mentor
Each mentor candidate needs to submit a fill the form with the information about why she/he is capable of being a mentor and where she/he fits, in terms of expertise and in terms of whom she/he would like to mentor as well as a google scholar link or CV.
Important Dates and submission information
The following timeline assumes the usual NIME deadline (end of January)
- 3rd October - deadline for the open call to request a mentor and to volunteer to be a mentor
- 6th October - notification to mentors and mentees about the selection and the coupling
- 8th October - Kickstart meeting of the program
Copyright © 2025 NIME 2022. All rights reserved.
