Image AI generated

OPEN CALL #02
Artistic concepts for the synthesis of XR & AI

Submit until: 23.11.2026

Artists and cultural practitioners provide important impulses for the discourse on how technologies shape society, and vice versa. They explore the potential and challenges of digital technologies, and their work strengthens media literacy among audiences. It is precisely at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) – augmented, mixed and virtual reality as well as projection-based 3D worlds – that new forms of artistic expression and spaces of experience emerge.

This is where the EU-funded project IUNO – Innovation Centre for Intelligent and Immersive Technologies in the Independent Cultural Scene at HTW Berlin comes in with its annual Open Call.

The OPEN CALL 2027 is aimed at individuals and teams from the visual arts, music, literature, performing arts, design, photography and video art. It addresses Berlin’s independent scene and small companies in the creative industries.

We are looking for a strong artistic concept that combines AI and XR technologies in a novel, interactive cultural experience.

This year’s theme:
ANTHROPOMORPHISM – Between Human and Machine

Where does technology become human, and where does the human become technical? We lend systems voices and faces and attribute human abilities to them, while measuring ourselves against standards set by data centres and current technologies. In between, entities emerge that seem to belong clearly to neither.

The theme invites you to explore these attributions, transitions and hybrid forms between human and machine using XR and AI. Possible approaches include:

• Human machines (ELIZA effect, chatbots, humanisation, etc.)
• Technologised bodies (embodiment, the human as dataset, body tracking, etc.)
• Human-machine relationships (AI companions, parasocial relationships, etc.)
• Chimeras and hybrids (composite beings, fusion of human and technology, etc.)
• Projection and power (biases, mechanisms of concealment, exercise of power and influence, etc.)

These thematic fields are invitations, not fixed categories. Your project is welcome to sit between them or at their intersections.

We’re excited to see your ideas and themes! Concepts that use the immersive potential of XR to help shape the public discourse on the promises and risks of AI technologies through an artistic contribution have particularly good chances.

We welcome prior technological experience and a keen interest in working with our technology experts to take up and test current developments such as Spatial AI, Embodied AI, Agentic AI, World Models, Machine Perception, Algorithmic Sensing and human-AI multiplayer – and to push them to their limits in synthesis with interactive XR technologies (AR / MR / VR).

From the submissions, our expert jury will select one concept to be realised as part of a fellowship at HTW Berlin starting in February 2027 (see the rough timeline below).

INFO SESSION ON THE OPEN CALL: 21 October 2026, 5 pm, via Zoom (link)

The Fellowship includes:

• Support in refining the concept for the subsequent development phase
• Insight into and experience with agile development methods
• Close collaboration with our interdisciplinary IUNO team, with expertise in XR development and AI, user navigation, digital media production, storytelling and project management
• Workspace at the Research Centre for Culture and Computer Science at HTW Berlin
• State-of-the-art equipment (hardware/software)
• A public networking event at HTW Berlin as a platform for presenting the project after the collaboration concludes
• Interdisciplinary research and a scientific paper on the project

Rough Schedule:

Requirements/experience:

• Basic knowledge of XR and AI technologies
• Openness to interdisciplinary collaboration
• Willingness to provide the information needed for interdisciplinary research (e.g. through interviews or co-authorship)
• Commitment to regular meetings throughout the collaboration (approx. once a week, except Aug/Sep)
• Independent work in Aug/Sep
• Desirable: experience with interdisciplinary cultural projects
• Applicants must be based in Berlin

Application

Your application should include the following documents (font size 12):

• A letter of motivation of max. one A4 page
• The concept, 2–5 A4 pages, with at least one visualisation (e.g. sketch, model). The use of AI should be described as precisely as possible.
• An outline of the required work packages and responsibilities
• Short CV(s) of max. half an A4 page per person
• For each team member, a link to website(s) or a portfolio of relevant previous work

Applications may be submitted in German or English..

Further information on the application

• Applications are accepted by email only, to hi-iuno@htw-berlin.de.
• The deadline is 23 November 2026 at 11 pm.
• The decision will be made in early January 2027. Applicants will be notified by email.

If you have questions, for example about the timeline or the outline of work packages and responsibilities, feel free to email us at hi-iuno@htw-berlin.de or join the info session on 21 October 2026 via Zoom (link).