Paper
Research, reflections, and critical writing on creative visualization practice. Technical descriptions, philosophical meditations, design case studies, and interpretations of visualization approaches. Up to 10 pages, IEEE Conference format.
Visualizations as instruments that make the quiet legible and the overlooked visible. What does it mean to turn up the signal on data, stories, and communities that the world tends not to hear?
Data surrounds all life on Earth. From the smallest signal to vast planetary systems, we gather, process, and visualize traces of the world around us. Yet not all signals are heard equally. Some data becomes visible, operative, and powerful, while other stories remain quiet, obscured, fragmented, or deliberately ignored.
In this context, visualization is not only a method of representation. It is also an instrument of amplification. It can make the quiet legible, the overlooked visible, and the unheard more present. It can reveal hidden structures, suppressed histories, fragile ecologies, minor gestures, and forms of community knowledge that conventional systems fail to recognize.
As data becomes increasingly entangled with social, cultural, political, and environmental life, urgent questions emerge about what is amplified, who is given visibility, and whose experiences remain outside the frame. New technologies have granted us unprecedented access to data streams, but they have also intensified systems of extraction, surveillance, bias, and exclusion. Against this backdrop, we recognize a pressing need for critical, poetic, and equitable approaches to visualization that can turn up the signal on marginalized voices, overlooked communities, and hidden relations.
How might amplification serve humanity? What does data make louder, and what does it silence? Who builds the systems behind our datasets, and who is accountable for them? How can artistic and critical practices expand the role of visualization resistance, speculation, and social imagination and expose the socio-technical architecture behind AI? How can visualization help shape new narratives, new solidarities, and new modes of perception?
Together, we will explore innovative ways to generate, interpret, and create through amplification. Moving across concepts and contexts, VISAP 2026: Amplification seeks original research work exploring critical methods, algorithmic visual forms, and emerging narratives in data visualization art and design practices. We welcome research papers, artwork submissions, and pictorials for presentation across two interrelated tracks, paper/pictorials and exhibition, running alongside the IEEE VIS conference. We invite innovative and original contributions to the fields of data visualization, aesthetics, and process, including but not limited to:
- Original creative work using generative technologies to amplify data, stories, signals, and their aesthetic manifestations;
- Experimental and analog processes that reveal overlooked patterns, quiet gestures, or hidden relations within data;
- Advanced prototypes for eco-critical and sustainable technology in visualization contexts;
- Critical data interactions that explore amplification from social, cultural, political, or environmental standpoints;
- Creative work that questions what counts as signal, noise, evidence, or visibility;
- Experimental prototypes that visualize information through AR, XR, VR, immersive media, and spatial computing;
- Visualizations of invisible, marginalized, suppressed, or more-than-human worlds;
- Contributions to the understanding of planetary ecology, climate change, and environmental justice;
- Projects that build telematic co-presence and amplify connection across physically remote environments;
- Culturally safe and inclusive practices supporting social movements, community memory, Indigenous futures, Black Lives Matter, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, migrant justice, disability justice, and beyond;
- Work that challenges the digital divide and amplifies perspectives from the Global South;
- Contributions that imagine visualization as a force for building a more equitable world.
About VISAP
The IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP) is a dedicated venue for visualization researchers, designers, and artists exploring innovative approaches at the intersection of visualization and the arts.
VISAP brings together practitioners who push the boundaries of what data visualization can be — from scientific rigor to artistic expression, from community storytelling to critical speculation.
Held annually as part of IEEE VIS, the premier forum for visualization and visual analytics, VISAP provides a unique platform where technical and artistic communities meet.
Call for Submissions
We welcome contributions across three tracks, all engaging with the theme of Amplification. All submissions are made via the IEEE VGTC Electronic Conference System (PCS). VISAP uses a single-blind review process.
Pictorial
Visual descriptions and reflections on the design process of visualization works. Pictorials and annotated portfolios that communicate practice in rich, heavily visual ways. Up to 16 pages, VISAP Pictorial format.
Artwork
Data-driven artworks in any medium — interactive projections, sculptures, digital prints, video, VR/AR, sonification, and more. Free-form 2-page proposal with supporting images or video.
- Call Opens
- Submission Deadline
- Notifications
- Camera Ready
All deadlines at 11:59pm AoE.
Detailed submission guidelines will be published when the call
opens.
Organizers
Dario Rodighiero
University of Groningen
Assistant Professor of STS at Campus Fryslân, Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center and Principal at metaLAB (at) Harvard / Berlin / Basel. His research investigates how complex information can be revealed through the combination of computational techniques and design, with a focus on the mapping of science and digital cultural archives. He is the author of Mapping Affinities: Democratizing Data Visualization (Métis Presses, 2021), holds a PhD from EPFL, and has held research positions at MIT, Sciences Po, and the European Commission.
Sarah Williams
MIT
Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning at MIT. Her research uses data collection, mapping, and visualization to address issues of equity and urban development in cities around the world. She has led projects across sub-Saharan Africa, China, and the Americas, developing open-source tools that put data analysis in the hands of communities and policymakers. Her work bridges design and policy, and has been recognized for its impact on urban planning practice and civic technology.
Weidi Zhang
Arizona State University
Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Immersive Experience Design at the MIX Center, Arizona State University. Her research explores a speculative assemblage of artificial memories and language at the intersection of immersive media design, experimental data visualization, and interactive AI art. Her work has earned distinctions including Best in Show at ACM SIGGRAPH and Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica. She holds a PhD from UC Santa Barbara and has exhibited at CCCB, V2_ Lab, Artechouse NYC, and festivals across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Design Chair
Ginevra Terenghi
SUPSI
Design collaborator at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), she recently completed her PhD at Brunel University London. Her work explores participatory approaches to data physicalization to improve self-awareness, collective meaning-making, and critical reflection. While her PhD focused on healthcare, examining how physical variables can support the perception and communication of symptoms, her broader research considers materiality for interpretation.
Contact
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art@ieeevis.org
For questions about submissions, sponsorship, or the program.
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ieeevis.org
The premier forum for advances in visualization and visual analytics.
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@visapnet
Updates on the program, accepted works, and the annual event.
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VISAP Program
Connect with the VISAP community and stay informed on open calls.