24-26 October 2025 | UNATC „I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest
Venue 1: #3-b Tudor Arghezi Street, Sala Multifunctionala
Venue 2: #75-77 Matei Voievod Street, Sala Cinema
OPEN CALL
The “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest is committed to shaping the next generation of professionals in performing arts, film, and emerging creative industries, including media, multimedia, and the cultural dimensions of technology. Artificial intelligence has started to have a transformative effect on artistic expression, education, and cultural production among other societal levels. UNATC is committed to supporting the sustainable and ethical integration of current AI tools in artistic creation, while also bringing new perspectives on the future development and use of AI, through the exchange of state of the art practices and research findings.
Through its Research, Development, and Innovation Department, the university actively promotes interdisciplinary research that bridges performing arts, film, and digital media with cutting-edge technological developments. We seek to explore how artificial intelligence can enhance artistic creation, inform cultural narratives, and intersect with fields such as education, policy, and health, opening up new possibilities for both research and practice with an ethical and human-centered perspective.
We invite you to submit your applications for the second edition of the AI in Art Practices and Research international conference, organized by UNATC in Bucharest from 24–26 October 2025. The event explores the impact of AI on artistic creation and research, as well as its broader applications in society, such as accessibility, healthcare and well-being.
The Conference will have a series of satellite events that will include art installations, workshops and guest speakers on the announced themes.
Overarching theme: Artificial intelligence and creativity
Sub-themes:
- AI impact on creativity, aesthetics, cultural practices including art circulation, art and artist status.
- Ethical, responsible and sustainable AI use and research with a special focus on processes significant for the art ecosystem.
- AI and cultural heritage – the use of art in datasets, its ethics and the use of AI in archives.
- Art production and AI tools – examining how AI tools are used in current practice, enhance artistic skills, and redefine workflows and creative ecosystems.
- Explainable AI tools offering more control and agency to creators.
- AI and accessibility – the development and use of AI to facilitate access to art and culture
- Art and AI in mental health and well-being – exploring art-based AI-driven solutions for emotional expression, therapy, mental health diagnosis, and support.
- Interdisciplinary research in AI development – innovative interdisciplinary approaches based on collaboration between technologists, artists and researchers.
Conference Highlights and Submission Guidelines
Conference Participation Formats:
- Original research results (15-minute presentations within themed sessions including Q&A).
- Showcase of AI-use practices (15-minute presentations including Q&A).
- Showcase of artistic creations (15-minute presentations including Q&A).
- Masterclass (duration and format proposed by the applicant)
- Workshop (duration and format proposed by the applicant)
Language: All presentations and activities will be conducted in English.
Submission Requirements for all formats
Title
Abstract (200–250 words)
Bio (50–100 words), including institutional affiliation
Illustrations or links (if applicable)
Document type: PDF
Modes of Presentation
Participants and presenters will present in situ at UNATC Bucharest, #3b Tudor Arghezi Street.
Deadline for submission
All submissions must be received by 10 September 2025, via this submission form: https://forms.gle/MYTHECqGyr2VEHUH6
Review Process
All submissions will undergo a blind review by the Conference Committee. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 30 September, 2025.
Publication Opportunity
Selected papers will be published in the CONCEPT academic journal. Expected deadline for the submission of final materials – 10 November 2025.
Contact Information
For enquiries, please reach out to: research@unatc.ro or dr. Elena Belciu +40746230481.
We look forward to receiving your submissions and engaging in stimulating discussions on the intricate relationship between artificial intelligence, research and artistic practices.
SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS
Piotr Mirowski is the Director of Improbotics, a theatre company that pioneered improvisation with artificial intelligence and robots on stage, investigating the intersection of AI and human creativity. Piotr is also an AI researcher, currently Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and Visiting Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. He obtained his PhD in computer science at New York University (Outstanding Dissertation award, 2011) supervised by Prof. Yann LeCun. Piotr has worked on robotics, on weather and climate forecasting and now on human–centered AI, leading an interdisciplinary team working on AI and Society.
PIOTR MIROWSKI
Making Stuff up with AI and Staging Robots as Improvisation Partners
The term “robot” first appeared in Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R., but it took 80 years of technological progress to bring robots into live performances alongside actors. The coexistence of naturalism and artifice, of script and improvisation, allowed theatre companies to explore human-AI relationships, while the impressive developments in language and image models have both opened new creative possibilities for artists and surfaced ethical concerns about the impact of generative AI upon the arts. I will discuss AI as a creativity support tool, focusing on live performance with generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) or image generators. I will illustrate the talk with an example of my theater company, Improbotics, that has used AI for improvised comedy since 2016 and engages with the wider public at Edinburgh Fringe, as well as my research on the socio-technical evaluation of generative AI tools for co-writing screenplays, theatre plays and comedy.
Dr. rer.nat. Danie Meyer – Clinical Psychologist, vivo International, Co-Founder NETCollect LLC, Cologne, Germany. She has a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Konstanz, Germany and is an active member of vivo International. In 2016, she founded Cologne Counseling, a co-counseling community offering pro bono trauma-focused interventions for LGBTIA* individuals seeking refuge in Germany. In 2022, Danie co-founded NETCollect, which offers trauma-focused continuing education to mental health professionals under the American Psychological Association (APA). She also serves on the advisory board for ELNOR Education, a nonprofit providing English language training to forcibly displaced individuals worldwide. Danie is a specialist consultant for experiences of lesbophobia and is a member of the Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community (EL*C). In collaboration with RUSH University Medical Center, the University of Illinois Chicago, Indiana University and Georgia State University, Danie’s current research continues to focus on experienced and perpetrated violence in marginalized communities and perinatal populations. From 2013-2020, she served as the Project Coordinator for the European Research Council (ERC) funded Advanced Grant Project “MemoTV- Memories of Traumatic Stress and Violence,” and its Proof of Concept Project: “POPP- Putting Offense Prevention into Practice.”
SUMMARY OF KEY QUALIFICATIONS
Member of vivo International since 2019 www.vivo.org
Co-Founder of NETCollect, established 2022 www.netcollect.org
Founder of Cologne Counseling, established 2016 www.cologne-counseling.com
Member of the Eurocentral Asian Lesbian Community since 2021 www.europeanlesbianconference.org
Advisory board member for ELNOR Education since 2021 https://elnor.education/
Vahid Rostami is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cologne, Germany. His work focuses on computational and systems neuroscience, particularly using large-scale spiking neural network models and advanced spike-train analysis to explore brain function. With a strong grounding in machine learning and neural data analysis, Dr. Rostami applies advanced computational and experimental techniques to unravel the neural dynamics underlying cognition and behavior.
DANIE MEYER & VAHID ROSTAMI
Informing Equity: Building Agentic A.I. into Public Health
We present a framework for building systems that surface, structure, and distribute critical knowledge across healthcare, education, and human rights advocacy. These systems navigate not only the biased and uneven information landscapes of the internet but also enable humans—doctors, teachers, activists—to share nuanced, context-specific expertise that often goes unheard. From uncovering sparse resources on menopause to assembling survivor testimonies or curating personalized curricula, our platform integrates knowledge from both digital and human sources. By delivering this information in structured, user-centric formats, we empower individuals and communities to access, contribute to, and act on the knowledge that matters most.
Jan Zuiderveld (1995, NL) is an Amsterdam-based artist and researcher whose background spans Physics, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and ArtScience. His interdisciplinary approach examines how algorithms mediate power, identity, and social relations. Drawing from philosophy and cognitive science, he creates work that challenges how we understand and relate to AI systems and ourselves, arguing that certain forms of knowledge emerge only through embodied encounters rather than explanation.
Selected presentations and exhibitions: NeurIPS (2021, CA), Het Nieuwe Instituut (2024–2026, NL), Prix Ars Electronica (2024, AT), USC Cinematic Arts (2024, US), The Media Majlis (2025, QA), ShanghaiTech University (2025, CN), Kumu kunstimuuseum (2026, EE).
JAN ZUIDERVELD
Perceiving Aliveness in Embodied AI
In my artistic practice I create performative installations where AI is embodied in objects. A coffee vending machine with an existential crisis, a microwave that hosts a capitalist podcast, a moving camera narrating visitors as wildlife. When people encounter these machines, something shifts: they stop seeing the object as an object and start negotiating with it as a presence.
In this talk, I’ll reflect on my ongoing exploration toward understanding what makes us treat machines as someone rather than something. Drawing from recent artistic projects, experiments, and research into AI systems, I’ll share observations relating to our perception of aliveness and how AI can reveal interesting aspects of our relationship with technology and ourselves.
WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS
Piotr Mirowski is the Director of Improbotics, a theatre company that pioneered improvisation with artificial intelligence and robots on stage, investigating the intersection of AI and human creativity. Piotr is also an AI researcher, currently Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and Visiting Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. He obtained his PhD in computer science at New York University (Outstanding Dissertation award, 2011) supervised by Prof. Yann LeCun. Piotr has worked on robotics, on weather and climate forecasting and now on human-centered AI, leading an interdisciplinary team working on AI and Society.
Boyd M. Branch is a Research Fellow at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research (C‑DaRE) and Co‑director of the AI Theatre Lab Improbotics. He is a theatre technologist and academic whose work spans live performance, digital media, and interdisciplinary research. He serves as Course Director for the Master’s in Virtual & Augmented Reality at Coventry University and collaborates with scientists, engineers, veterans, and artists to create innovative performance systems – ranging from biofeedback-driven immersive theatre, to digital oral history installations and STEM-focused museum exhibits. His scholarly output includes peer-reviewed works on virtual and augmented reality in performance, remote music, and human-LLM collaborations. His media designs have been featured internationally – at the Venice Biennale, New Ohio Theatre (NY Times Critics’ Pick), New York Academy of Sciences, Yale School of Medicine, and various festivals.
PIOTR MIROWSKI & BOYD BRANCH
Immersive Storytelling with AI
This 3-hour workshop introduces you to working with an artificial intelligence and robot as a co-performer and co-designer. The workshop will be led by Dr. Piotr Mirowski and Dr. Boyd Branch of the internationally recognized Improbotics troupe. Piotr and Boyd will guide you through developing novel AI driven performance concepts, giving you an opportunity to practice your ideas along with other workshop participants. Their creative ethos is about risk, challenge, and cooperation. Their approach embodies how improvisers take on seemingly impossible tasks, and through their skill and open mind, surprise themselves.
We recommend participants are 18+ years and have an interest or experience in creative technology, creative performance, and/or the future of entertainment.
Jan Zuiderveld (1995, NL) is an Amsterdam-based artist and researcher whose background spans Physics, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and ArtScience. His interdisciplinary approach examines how algorithms mediate power, identity, and social relations. Drawing from philosophy and cognitive science, he creates work that challenges how we understand and relate to AI systems and ourselves, arguing that certain forms of knowledge emerge only through embodied encounters rather than explanation.
Selected presentations and exhibitions: NeurIPS (2021, CA), Het Nieuwe Instituut (2024–2026, NL), Prix Ars Electronica (2024, AT), USC Cinematic Arts (2024, US), The Media Majlis (2025, QA), ShanghaiTech University (2025, CN), Kumu kunstimuuseum (2026, EE).
JAN ZUIDERVELD
Creating Presence in Embodied AI
This hands-on workshop explores how to bring AI into dialogue with the physical world through conversational interfaces. Led by artist Jan Zuiderveld, participants will experiment with giving everyday objects voice and personality, investigating what makes us perceive machines as present, alive, or worth engaging with.
Through practical exercises and creative experimentation, we’ll work with text and speech to create AI systems that feel less like tools and more like entities. The workshop combines conceptual exploration with hands-on prototyping, followed by group testing and reflection on what we’ve discovered about machines, conversation, and connection.
Requirements: Participants should have basic programming experience in Python and bring their own laptop with Python 3.X installed. Ages 18+.
CHECK OUT THE 1ST EDITION OF THE CONFERENCE HERE
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By registering, you declare that: You agree to the use and processing of photo/video images taken during the event; These materials will be used for promotion on the website, social networks and in educational institutions; You will have no claim related to these uses.