From 7 to 9 November 2025, the 14th edition of ArtsIT International Conference on ArtsIT, Interactivity & Game Creation took place at Heriot-Watt University in Dubai. The event brought together a wide range of perspectives at the intersection of technology and the arts, including digital storytelling, immersive media, human-computer interaction, and experimental interfaces. Professor Michel van Dartel contributed to the 14th edition with both a keynote lecture and a panel discussion.
In his keynote speech, Professor Michel van Dartel reflected on how art can support understanding and reflection on our relationship with rapidly evolving technological environments. He argued that in order to do so, the production and presentation of work at the intersection of art and information technology must themselves be situated within these environments and structures rather than taking place in isolated labs, studios, galleries, or conferences. He illustrated this “situated turn” with examples of situated art and design practices, and with research carried out “in the wild” by his research group Situated Art, Design, and Technology at CARADT.
In the panel session he chairs, Professor Michel van Dartel brought the notion of ‘situatedness’ (originally developed within feminist studies and later applied in information technology research) into dialogue with artistic and design practice. While situated approaches are well established in fields such as interface design and cognitive science, they remain less commonly explored in the context of artistic production and presentation. The panel invited participants to reflect on the potential relevance of situatedness for the ArtsIT community.
Panel participants included Dr. Elizabeth Churchill (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, UAE), Prof. Eirini Mavrommati (Hellenic Open University, Greece), Vanessa Cesário (Professor of Communication Sciences at the University of Madeira) en Edwin van der Heide (Leiden University).
ArtsIT 2025 is described as a platform where engineers, artists, and designers reimagine the way humans experience technology. It hosts peer-reviewed research in areas such as digital sound and music interfaces, game design, virtual museums, and mixed reality environments. This year’s edition was organized in Dubai, a location that mirrors the conference’s focus on innovation shaped by diversity and context.
Blogs of EAI Conferences about ArtsIT:
As noted in the EAI article Conferences to attend in 2025, conferences such as ArtsIT offer valuable opportunities to engage with recent research and ongoing discussions, even for those not presenting their own work. These events create space for learning, connection, and long-term collaboration across disciplines and practices.
EAI Conferences you can still attend this year are:
These conferences are open to students, professionals, and independent researchers, and participation is possible without submitting a paper.
‘People are the product of their relationships with their environment. It’s important to understand how technological developments influence these relationships.’
Michel van Dartel is Research Professor Situated Art, Design and Technology at the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT) and was affiliated with V2_Lab for the Unstable Media between 2005-2024. He holds an MSc in cognitive psychology and a PhD in artificial intelligence.
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
Read more
Thank you for your subscription! Please check your email inbox to confirm.