Call for submissions: Catalyst Postgraduate Symposium

Symposium theme: Entanglement(s)

Thursday 4–Friday 5 June 2026 @ Catalyst, Funkhaus, Berlin

Featuring two days of artist talks, dialogues, presentations and demonstrations of artistic research in progress, Catalyst – Institute for Creative Arts and Technology's annual symposium unpacks the work of postgraduate artistic research students and special guests.

• Submission form
• Deadline: MONDAY 23 February

The symposium will feature presentations of research-in-progress, offering insight into emerging artistic investigations. These will be complemented by curated panels and guest researcher presentations that critically engage with the symposium’s central theme of Entanglement(s). 

/// Theme

The Catalyst Postgraduate Symposium will engage the theme of entanglements in their multi-layered, multidisciplinary, multi-modal intertwinings. From the assemblages of Latour to the entanglement of matter and meaning in Barad, the posthuman knowledges of Braidotti, tentacular entanglements in Haraway's Staying with the Trouble, to the hyperobjects and dark ecologies of Morton, contemporary artistic research is embedded within an interconnected, interdependent, interdisciplinary context. As the radical critique of the humanities increasingly illuminates the webs of collaboration inherent in the human – biological, non-biological, technological – artistic researchers have been vital in this unfolding.

This year's symposium engages the rhizomatic nature of contemporary artistic practice, its thousand plateaus of entangled emergence and flight. At the intersection of the sixth extinction and the fourth industrial revolution, as the polycrisis accelerates, artistic research brings situated knowledges and embodied insights to cultures increasingly disconnected from the material.

What does it mean to create from within the mesh? How does artistic practice make visible, tactile, audible, performable the entanglements we inhabit?

/// Submit

We welcome applications from postgraduate researchers engaged in artistic research that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and/or multimodal, highlighting the entangled nature of creation, production, distribution and consumption. 

Submissions are invited from individuals who meet the following criteria:

1. Current postgraduate students engaged in artistic research within visual and/or audio fields, who will remain enrolled as students at the time of the symposium (4–5 June 2026). Ongoing research does not need to align with the symposium theme.

1. Recent postgraduate graduates whose work aligns with this year’s symposium theme. (Must have graduated within the last two years)

Presentation formats are flexible to accommodate a variety of approaches: traditional papers, lecture-demonstrations, performances, screenings, installations, interventions and bespoke experiences. Collaborative submissions are also welcome. 

• All presentations must be 20min with an additional 10min for Q&A.
• Installations will run throughout the two days, with either a panel or 20+10min slot programmed for a presentation.
• Films should be no more than 20min in length, with either a panel or 20+10min slot programmed for a presentation.

The deadline for submissions is MONDAY 23 February, 17:00.

The symposium dates are Thursday 4–Friday 5 June 2026.

/// Attend

Admission to the symposium and all events are free. Sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram to receive announcements when tickets are live.

View the 2025 programme here.

/// Artistic research at Catalyst

At Catalyst, our master’s programmes in music and film are explicitly structured around a practice-based artistic research framework. But what does that really mean, and why is it important? How can research make our artistic work more developed, more powerful, more relevant and more alive?

Find out more about our postgraduate programmes:

Creative Production (Music) MA
Creative Production (Film) MA

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.