CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS, PANELS, POSTERS and WORKSHOPS
Department of Music and the Mixed Reality Lab, School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham present
The Second International Conference in AI Music Studies: Inside the Music: Prospects, Challenges and Methodologies of Studying AI Music in the Humanities and Social Sciences
30th March - 1st April 2026 Nottingham UK
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/i2mt/events/aims-2026-conference.aspx
Building on the success of the First International Conference in AI Music Studies at Stockholm in 2024, this conference will continue the theme but with a tilt towards expanding the discourse from inside musicking (Small 1989). Because of this we are still interested in "AI music" (music generated by or with artificial intelligence technologies) and its incorporation in established music ecosystems. While only a few years ago such music was “on the fringe”, it is quickly becoming more present and moving into the mainstream due in large part to the commercial exploitability of the technology, what it produces for what it costs, and its growing public accessibility (complete with claims of "democratizing" music production and composition). The development and application of AI to music creation is attracting significant sums of money from private circles, not to mention considerable efforts in academic engineering circles; yet, perhaps with the exception of intellectual property (e.g., legal ownership) and ethics (e.g., responsible use), many topics of AI music remain by and large under-explored by critical examination and reflection in the humanities and social sciences. This motivates several key questions for critical analysis and reflection:
1. How do we communicate and discuss the insider knowledge that is generated through interacting, relating, and co-creating in/with/through/because of AI music ecosystems?
2. How can the AI music ecosystem and its components be formally studied, and what considerations must be made to make sense of it?
3. What challenges arise in the application of established disciplines, such as musicology or ethnomusicology?
4. What are the prospects and challenges for AI Music Studies for the Humanities and Social Sciences in general?
5. What is needed in terms of new methodologies for this area of study, and what interdisciplinary connections are required?
6. How are copyright, and intellectual property more generally, being challenged by the emergent music ecosystem being populated by AI music?
7. What are the implications of AI Music in terms of economic, environmental and sociocultural sustainability?
8. What are perspectives from music ecosystems other than the hegemonial popular music ecosystem of the Global North?
9. What are the positions of music cultures that so far remained largely outside of the digitalization of cultural data?
The Second International Conference in AI Music Studies explores the prospects,
challenges and new methodologies required for the study of AI music within the Humanities and Social Sciences with a focus on inside knowledge. It aims to bring into conversation scholars working in musicology, ethnomusicology, human-AI interaction, sound studies, science, music computing and technology studies, philosophy, ethics, economics, feminist and posthumanist studies to help define and develop, or even challenge the need for, a discipline of AI music studies. The three-day conference will feature papers, panels, workshops, a keynote address, and a concert.
We are seeking presentations, panels and workshops for the conference. Each presentation will be given 20 minutes in a session, and each session will conclude with a podium discussion of its presented works. Each panel will have 3-5 participants, and last at least 60 minutes with audience discussion. A workshop consists of two hours of directed work and discussion around a topic.
To submit a presentation, please write an extended abstract of 300-500 words about your work and how it relates to the core themes of the conference. For panels, please write a description of the topics to be discussed and composition of the panel. For workshops, please write a description of the topics to be worked with, a schedule, and information on the workshop leaders.
Important Dates:
- Presentation/Panel/Workshop Submission: November 28 2025
- Decision Notification: January 30 2026
- Early Conference Registration: January 5 2026
- Conference: 30 March - 1 April 2026
Submission:
Please use this online form for all submissions (presentation, panel, poster or workshop):
https://forms.office.com/e/gyZWxjK2L7
Other information:
The conference registration fee, and the exact location, have yet to be decided. Please see the conference website for the most current information https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/i2mt/events/aims-2026-conference.aspx
Please send questions or comments to craig.vear@nottingham.ac.uk
Publication
Selected paper from this conference may be published in an edited volume for the Springer Series on Cultural Computing https://link.springer.com/series/10481
Keynotes:
TBC
Funding Acknowledgment
The Second International Conference in AI Music Studies gratefully acknowledges support from Department of Music and the Mixed Reality Lab, School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham, RAI UK: Creating an International Ecosystem for Responsible AI Research and Innovation [EP/Y009800/1, The Digital Score, Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence [grant number EP/Z534808/1], STAHR Collective and Xtreme projects. The Digital Score project (DigiScore) is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. ERC-2020-COG – 101002086
Organising Committee https://cms-uon.cloud.contensis.com/Default.aspx
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Craig Vear (University of Nottingham, UK), co-chair
Steve Benford (University of Nottingham, UK), co-chair
Paper Chairs - Anna Shvets and Juan Martinez Avila (University of Nottingham, UK)
Performance/ installation/ Technical Chairs - John Richards, Glenn McGarry, Laurence Cliffe (University of Nottingham, UK)
Technical Chair - Glenn McGarry & Laurence Cliffe (University of Nottingham, UK)
Panel Chair - Alan Chamberlain (University of Nottingham, UK)
Poster Chair – Adrian Hazzard (University of Nottingham, UK)
Steering Committee
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Bob L. T. Sturm (KTH, Stockholm)
Elin Kanhov (KTH, Stockholm)
André Holzapfel (KTH, Stockholm)
Toivo Burlin (Stockholm University)
Jan-Olof Gullö (KMH, Stockholm)
Hans Lindetorp (KMH, Stockholm)
Georgina Born (University College London, UK)
Oded Ben-Tal (Kingston University, UK)
Nick Collins (Durham University, UK)
Ken Déguernel (Univ. Lille, CNRS, France)
Martin Clancy (Centre for Digital Humanities, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Eric Drott (University of Texas, USA)
Ollie Bown (UNSW Sydney, Australia)
Thomas Hodgson (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
Rujing Stacy Huang (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)