Since 2013, the Expanded Animation Symposium has been a part of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival. Building on the early discussions at the Ars Electronica media art festival about Expanded Cinema and Computer Animation, it has since become a permanent fixture for artists, curators, and scholars working at the intersection of media art, animation, and immersive and interactive experiments. The format has played a significant role in further developing and rethinking the Prix Ars Electronica category of Computer Animation. In 2023, the renaming of the category to New Animation Art marked a symbolic step in this transformation.
Over the years, the symposium has gradually evolved into an academic platform and, since 2024, has found its form as the Expanded–Conference on Animation and Interactive Art, featuring a dedicated call for scientific papers and proceedings; these were published last year on Zenodo. As of 2025, Expanded is held in cooperation with ACM SIGGRAPH, making this the first time the proceedings are published in the renowned ACM Digital Library. With 98 submissions, the conference saw an increase of nearly 38% compared to the previous year. While the 2024 edition distinguished between full-length Art Research Papers and short-format Art Papers–Extended Abstracts, the current edition no longer differentiates based on length. In 2025, contributions were sought in the categories Research Paper and Art Paper. The Art Paper track focuses on the artistic work itself, while the Research Paper emphasizes scientific aspects, including interdisciplinary research projects, artist-based research, or HCI studies. Out of all submissions, 28 papers were selected, resulting in an acceptance rate of 28.5%. All selected papers are published open access and are available in the ACM Library as well as in the archive on the Expanded website.
The academic presentations are complemented by curated panels. In the Artist Perspective panel, the artist collective Total Refusal (AT), Alessandro Bavari (IT), Alona Rodeh (IL/RO), and Wendi Yan (CN/US) present their work. In the Art & Industry panel, Volker Helzle & Andreas Dahn (DE), Dinko Dragonovic & Christian Steininger (AT), and Philipp Seifried & Regina Reisinger (AT) share innovative projects from the fields of film, games, and applied research. The ASIFA AUSTRIA Forum showcases three artists: Dagmar Schürrer (AT/DE) presents her experimental works, while Tore Knabe & Jonathan Harth (DE) speak about the VR experience Edges of Identity: A Reverse Turing Test. VR pioneer Tamiko Thiel (US/DE), together with /p (DE), discuss some of their insights into current projects. In addition, several jurors from the Prix Ars Electronica New Animation Art category are present this year: Boris Eldagsen (DE) offers a remote glimpse into his current exhibition PSYCHOPOMP! – AI Images as an Expression of the Unconscious Mind in Johannesburg, streaming live from the gallery, and Liz Rosenthal (GB) provides insights into the concurrently running Venice Immersive @ La Biennale di Venezia’s 82nd Venice International Film Festival. Everardo Reyes (MX/FR) will present insights into the collaboration between Ars Electronica and ISEA and offer an overview of the upcoming symposium in Dubai.
PROGRAM:
WED 3.9.
11:00–12:00 Evaluate, Play, and Connect
12:00–13:00 Birds of a Feather
14:00–15:30 Paper Session #1: Expanded Art
16:00–17:30 Paper Session #2: Interactive Experiences
THU 4.9.
11:00–13:00 Artists Perspective
14:00–15:30 Paper Session #3: Creative AI & Speculative Futures
16:00–17:30 Paper Session #4: Extended Reality
FRI 5.9
11:00–13:00 Art & Industry
14:00–15:30 Paper Session #5: Animation & Performance
16:00–17:30 ASIFA Austria Forum
More details about the schedule and guests here: https://expanded-conf.org/
