Cumulus Association

19/10/2026

The 13th International Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T 2027) April 12 – 16, 2027
invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, designers, activists, and community organisers to contribute to this year’s theme: Communities of Hope.

Hope emerges in moments of fear and instability, yet unlike fear, it connects rather than isolates. It invites us to imagine alternative futures, our shared utopias and to ground those visions in collective action. Hope is not abstract. It is rooted in lived experience, in struggle, and in everyday practices. As Paulo Freire reminds us, hope is a human necessity, one that drives us to challenge injustice and enact change.

Positioned at the intersection of communities and technology, C&T 2027 moves beyond both techno-optimism and techno-pessimism. We critically engage with dominant narratives that frame technology as either solution or
threat, and instead centre community-led, situated, and hopeful engagements with technology.

We understand hope not only as a feeling, but as a collective practice of resistance, care, imagination, and action. Likewise, we approach community as “being in common”: shared practices, shared struggles, and shared futures.

Conference topics

1. Critical and Situated Perspectives on Technology
- Critical, feminist, q***r, and Black visions of hope in people and their ambivalent communities and technologies
- De/anti/post-colonial perspectives on communities and technologies
- De-centering anthropocentrism, multispecies communities, and including more-than-humans in and through technologies
- Community-driven counter‑mapping practices around/through/against technologies

2. Designing, Developing, and Appropriating Technologies for Hope
- Speculative design, futuring, transition design, systemic design, artistic research and other approaches that envision technology development as part of larger sociotechnical systems
- Participatory design, infrastructuring, design justice, public interest technology, civic labs, grassroots innovation, appropriate technology, participatory action research, living labs, transdisciplinary research, constructive technology assessment, and other community-based technology
design approaches
- Advances and challenges of human–computer interaction in community settings, including novel approaches in intelligence augmentation and artificial intelligence
- Digital sovereignty, platform cooperativism, data trusts, community networks, collaborative services, common pool resources, open source, and other technologies for sharing digital commons and community assets
- Open-source communities, including their organisational aspects, technologies, funding schemes, institutional embeddings and challenges

3. Socio-Technical Imaginaries, Applications and Pedagogies
- The role of technology in the (re)production and transformation of spaces across urban and rural settings
- Emerging debates in communities of practice for socially embedded technologies
- Collective organising and activism around/through/against technologies
- Turning citizen science, popular education, grassroots sensing, data feminism, critical making, hacklabs, and makerspaces into action through technology (i.e. interactive interfaces, data visualisation and analytic tools)
- Co- and participatory multi-modelling practices for urban development
- New pedagogies and didactics for critical and transformative learning at the intersection of technologies and education

We invite a diverse range of contributions in the following submission formats:

Full Paper with on-site presentation (8,000-12,000 words, excl. references)
Short Paper with on-site presentation (max. 5000 words, excl. references)
Exploratory Paper with on-site presentation (max. 10000 words, excl. references)
[Pilot] Full Paper with online presentation (8,000-12,000 words, excl. references)

Important Dates

All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

Paper deadline (Full, short & exploratory): November 9, 2026

Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2027

Conference: April 12 – 16, 2027

Organized by TU Delft in the Netherlands.

Check the full call for papers here:

The 13th International Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T 2027) invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, designers, activists, and community organisers to contribute to this year’s theme: Communities of Hope.

16/10/2026

Get ready for Monday October 19th! Mark in your calendar!

An online workshop 🔶 Supporting diversity across the PhD journey - resources and tools by the DesignMatters project team!

Online Workshop invitation: Supporting diversity across the PhD journey - resources and tools - DesignMatters EU Project
19 Oct 26 at 16h CEST

Who gets to do a PhD in design, and what helps them thrive once they do? These questions have guided our work for the past two years, and we would love to share what we have learned with you.

Date and time: Monday, 19 October · 16:00 (CEST time)
Online link: https://meet.google.com/nhc-edak-ugr

DesignMatters is an Erasmus+ project developed in partnership with Cumulus. It explores how doctoral education in design can become more inclusive and supportive for both candidates and supervisors. Along the way, we have shared our work and gathered many valuable perspectives at two dedicated DesignMatters conferences, in Rome and Barcelona, then this May at our Cumulus Athens workshop. As the project comes to a close, this online workshop brings it all together.

On 19 October 2026, we will introduce the two sets of resources that came out of this journey. The Handbook speaks to PhD students and supervisors. It includes modules that explore culture, gender, ableism, social class, epistemic diversity and soft skills, and offers journey maps of the research and supervision experience. The Guidelines speak to doctoral programmes and institutions. They cover models of the design PhD, cotutelle and joint programmes, institutional support, and continuous training for supervisors. Both come with free training materials, organised in thematic modules, so you can pick the topics that matter most to you.

Then it's your turn. You'll try some of the tools on your own research or supervision, such as the PhD Journey Map, and see what they reveal. No preparation or prior knowledge of the project is needed, only curiosity.

Whether you are a PhD student, a supervisor, a programme coordinator, or simply interested in where design research is heading, you are warmly welcome.

The DesignMatters team looks forward to seeing you there!

DesignMatters is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

https://www.designmattersproject.eu/

14/10/2026

CALL FOR PAPERS | Design Impact: PinkCity Design Confluence '26

We're delighted to announce the Call for Papers for Design Impact: PinkCity Design Confluence '26, themed "Design, Leadership & the Future."
📍 Jaipur, India
🗓️ 21-23 December 2026
Organised by ARCH College of Design & Business and funded by the European Union: Your gateway to the EU, News, Highlights through the Co-LIFE Project, this confluence brings together designers, researchers, educators, industry leaders, and changemakers to explore how design can shape leadership and drive meaningful impact.

Mark your calendar:
🔹 Abstract Submission: 30 October
🔹 Abstract Acceptance Notification: 10 November
🔹 Full Paper Submission: 30 November
🔹 Registration Closing: 5 December
🔹 Conference Dates: 21-23 December

We invite you to contribute your research, ideas, and perspectives to a conversation shaping the future of design.

👉 Scan the QR code on the poster or visit our website for the submission form and detailed guidelines.
📧 Queries: [email protected]

Join us in the Pink City this December. Let's design what's next, together.

Archana Surana Benoy Thoompunkal Pradyumna Vyas Eija Salmi FRSA
CII Design Association of Designers of India Cumulus Association World Design Organization

12/10/2026

Online Workshop invitation: Supporting diversity across the PhD journey - resources and tools - DesignMatters EU Project
19 Oct 26 at 16h CEST

Who gets to do a PhD in design, and what helps them thrive once they do? These questions have guided our work for the past two years, and we would love to share what we have learned with you.

Date and time: Monday, 19 October · 16:00 (CEST time)
Online link: https://meet.google.com/nhc-edak-ugr

DesignMatters is an Erasmus+ project developed in partnership with Cumulus. It explores how doctoral education in design can become more inclusive and supportive for both candidates and supervisors. Along the way, we have shared our work and gathered many valuable perspectives at two dedicated DesignMatters conferences, in Rome and Barcelona, then this May at our Cumulus Athens workshop. As the project comes to a close, this online workshop brings it all together.

On 19 October 2026, we will introduce the two sets of resources that came out of this journey. The Handbook speaks to PhD students and supervisors. It includes modules that explore culture, gender, ableism, social class, epistemic diversity and soft skills, and offers journey maps of the research and supervision experience. The Guidelines speak to doctoral programmes and institutions. They cover models of the design PhD, cotutelle and joint programmes, institutional support, and continuous training for supervisors. Both come with free training materials, organised in thematic modules, so you can pick the topics that matter most to you.

Then it's your turn. You'll try some of the tools on your own research or supervision, such as the PhD Journey Map, and see what they reveal. No preparation or prior knowledge of the project is needed, only curiosity.

Whether you are a PhD student, a supervisor, a programme coordinator, or simply interested in where design research is heading, you are warmly welcome.

The DesignMatters team looks forward to seeing you there!

DesignMatters is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

https://www.designmattersproject.eu/

09/10/2026

Life After Limits – Creative Practices for the 21st Century
Cumulus Glasgow 2027 conference calling for submissions!


The problems of today and the challenge of creating a viable future demands entirely new ways of living, thinking and making. A pluriversal world composed of multiple societal voices and cultural traditions - many of which have long prioritised balance, harmony, and reciprocity - may hold vital lessons as we consider alternative conceptions of tomorrow. The idea of equilibrium has shaped multiple cultures: equilibrium with the environment (regenerative practices), with the self (appetites, desires, psychological health) and with other inhabitants of the planet (ecology, animistic beliefs, and non-human existence). The question now is whether we have the humility to learn from such perspectives before it is too late – and what does this mean for the education of creative practitioners?

The practices, concepts, and theories that defined modern design, art, and architecture – emerging from the industrial revolution and consumer society – profoundly shaped the capitalist culture of the nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. However, these approaches may have now exhausted themselves.

The old rules no longer apply. Traditional forms of expertise, rooted in disciplinary specialisms, seem increasingly unable to explain or anticipate the transformations unfolding around us. Our era demands more than minor adjustments – it requires a fundamental reimagining of how we live, create, and co-exist on this planet. The question is no longer whether we need to change but rather how radically and how soon we are willing to do so? With this in mind, this gathering calls for critical dialogue(s) on the future of creative practices and creative education in a world undergoing transformation.

By engaging with historical legacies, emerging technologies, ecological imperatives, and alternative knowledge systems, the Life After Limits Cumulus Glasgow 2027 Conference aims to foster innovative, ethical, regenerative and planet-focused approaches to creative pedagogy, research and practice – to living. We invite scholars, practitioners, and educators to contribute to a discourse that will re-imagine the next generation of creative practices in response to an era of exceeding limits.

Cumulus Glasgow 2027 is a global forum for advancing knowledge, innovation and practice in creative education. You can submit your paper to one of the proposed tracks below.
Avenues of Exploration: Life After…?

The Biological Body – Prosthetics, augmentations, and bio-genetics challenge us to reimagine what the physical body is, how it functions or where its technological boundaries exist.

Disciplinary Expertise and Education – Are the creative disciplines and forms of academic expertise inherited from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries still relevant in an age of transdisciplinary collaboration and systemic complexity? Are the institutional structures of higher education relevant to contemporary or future challenges?

Nature – Ecological systems reveal the interdependence of humanity and nature. How can we move beyond the notion of the planet as a passive exploitable resource?

Nations, States and Cities – could communities, communes and neighbourhoods in “mega-cities” replace the inherited forms of metropolitan life? Do bio-regions, “pop-up cities” and “networked states” reveal emerging forms of “inhabitance” and political governance indicative of ecological and technological transformation?

The Human Mind – As Artificial General Intelligence advances, we must reconsider what it means to think, create, and collaborate alongside machines, algorithms and global digital systems. While code is embedded in designed artefacts and embodied in robots we are increasingly appreciating cognition as an embodied phenomenon that links creativity to context, people to place, subjectivity to technology.

Planet Earth – The Anthropocene forces us to abandon the outdated notion of the Earth as a passive, geological entity. Instead, our planet is a site of ecological transformation, technological ambition, orbital systems and political contestation – even as plans are made for extra-terrestrial technologies, travel, resource extraction and habitation.

The Future – Design has long been preoccupied with speculation and visions of the future, but should we instead focus on alternative models of inhabiting the global present and its alternative(s), rather than an endlessly deferred potential “future”?

Excess – Consumer capitalism has delivered luxury, disposability, and relentless growth. Should we instead explore degrowth and the role of designers, innovators, and creatives in shaping ecological economics?

Certainty – Complex systems resist easy modelling, requiring us to think probabilistically rather than deterministically. How should Design Research engage with uncertainty and material practices that anticipate possible futures?

Life – The “more-than-human” turn in design obliges us to rethink the very nature of life, relationships, and agency and the apparent centrality of the human to such debates. How should design proceed if we move beyond the anthropocentric focus on “users” and “stakeholders” to a post-human sensibility, where actants create relations, networks, systems and ecologies that enable and constitute phenomenal experience (life)?

Materiality – long a guiding tenet of creative practices the concept has been transformed by recent scientific and digital discoveries, increased ecological awareness and the “relational turn” of design culture and practice. How will creative practices use emergent, regenerative, cultural or informational “materials”?

Cumulus Glasgow 2027 Life After Limits will accept submissions in a range of recongised formats. These include Academic Papers, X-Formats and Poster Presentations.

Abstracts submission deadline: November 30, 2026

Check out the full text of the call and submission details at https://www.cumulusglasgow2027.com/call-for-papers.

08/10/2026

2026 TISDC Taiwan International Student Competition, Resilience, its Final Selection was a process filled with moments of close observation, thoughtful discussion, and the exchange of diverse perspectives.

Across the five competition categories, 35 professional jurors from Taiwan and around the world took part in the Final Selection, including representatives from 21 international design organizations (D21).

With the support of the Ministry of Education, iSee Taiwan Foundation, and Taiwan Printed Circuit Association Foundation, diverse perspectives from different fields and regions came together, fostering professional exchange and international dialogue. 🌏✨

Now, let’s look back at the highlights of the 2026 TISDC Final Selection through these moments captured on site!

TISDC is an honored parrner if Cumulus.

Check https://www.tisdc.org/en/home/

02/10/2026

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞!
What does care really mean in higher design education? And what do students and educators need to feel supported, included and able to learn creatively?

As part of Work Package 2, the EduCare project has explored these questions by bringing together the perspectives of students and educators through surveys, interviews and focus groups.

The findings highlight key issues in today’s design schools, including feedback, time pressure, assessment, belonging, inclusion and wellbeing support.

One key message emerges from the research: care should not depend only on the goodwill of individual educators. Instead, it should become part of a shared ecosystem of care, involving students, educators, support services and institutions.

The two WP2 reports are now available to read and download from the official EduCare website.

👉 Visit the link in bio to access the reports and learn more about the research project.

https://educareproject.eu/

02/10/2026

02/10/2026

Cumulus Student Talent Camp Ahmedabad 2027 – Present Tense calling for participation!
2-8 February 2027 .
Students and Faculty welcome.

Present Tense is a 3-credit hybrid international design studio built around Refresh: a shared inquiry into how existing materials, practices, systems, relationships and ways of seeing can be carried forward through design. Students begin online in their home contexts, meet in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar for a seven-day intensive Talent Camp, and complete the journey through peer sharing back at their home institutions.

Participants will have the opportunity to attend Ahmedabad Design Week as invited guests and engage with the design community.

Faculty Participation
Present Tense welcomes faculty from participating institutions into the international learning community. Faculty accompanying a cohort of five or more participating students receive complimentary programme registration.

For more information send us an email:
[email protected]

How to register, you find both also the Cumulus website:

Student Registration Form
Faculty Registration Form

Full eligibility, category and fee details:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html

Present Tense is an international design learning initiative hosted by the Unitedworld Institute of Design, Karnavati University, bringing together students, educators and practitioners for a week of immersive, place-based learning across Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Inspired by the values of the Cumulus Design Declaration and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Present Tense will be a lab for responsible, regenerative and context-responsive design practice.

Dates: 2–8 February 2027
Location: Ahmedabad–Gandhinagar, India
Host: Unitedworld Institute of Design, Karnavati University, India

Learn also more from the camp brochure PDF available at the Cumulus website;

https://cumulusassociation.org/calls-for-participation/cumulus-student-talent-camp-ahmedabad-2027-present-tense-calling-for-participation/

02/10/2026

OPPORTUNITY. Open Call: John Ruskin Prize 2026 - Not for Present Delight
The John Ruskin Prize 2026 invites artists, designers and makers from around the world to submit their creative artwork responding to this year’s theme, Not for Present Delight. Key grant recipients aimed at coming from Afrika.

Deadline: 17 November 2026
Funding amount: Up to £3K
Check;

The John Ruskin Prize 2026 invites artists, designers and makers from around the world to submit their creative artwork responding to this year’s theme, Not for Present Delight.