IFM2027 • CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Frictions
9th Interactive Film and Media International Conference
June 8–11, 2027 • Online via Zoom
Submission deadline • Friday, January 15, 2027
Friction occurs when two entities interact and resist each other. Friction produces transformation and differentiation; it produces novelty. Energies transform: opening a squeaky door propagates an abrasive sound; a river’s flow rounds rocks and reshapes the landscape; two hands rub against each other to produce heat.
But what happens when more than one friction comes into play? What possibilities for thinking otherwise emerge when we turn to the plural, frictions? Rather than naming a general principle of physics, the plural foregrounds encounters that are multiple, uneven, and sometimes contradictory.
Frictions operate across bodies, technologies, infrastructures, and institutions; they activate new affective and cognitive registers, opening up new temporalities and scales of engagement. They may interrupt, stall, or irritate; they might provoke, generate, or change. Ultimately, they expose how interactions take place. Frictions reveal the politics of contact itself.
This year’s IFM conference invites scholars, researchers, artists, activists, filmmakers, and practitioners to explore frictions as sites of exchange, struggle, reconfiguration, and possibility. Rather than approaching interaction in terms of seamlessness, transparency, or optimization, this year’s conference asks what it means to attend to the resistances, interruptions, incompatibilities, and possibilities for contact that animate interactive media and its cultures. How intentionally can we bring frictions into design, ethics, or practice?
We welcome proposals that examine frictions among environments, histories, temporalities, and forms of knowledge; work that experiments with friction as a method, intentional design, aesthetic politics or mode of practice; and meditations on the ways interactive media can navigate, intervene, or change the rules of engagement in states of friction.
Topics and approaches
Proposals may engage with, but are not limited to, the following constellations of frictions:
Discomfort, agitation; Serendipities, play;
Glitches, bugs, breakdowns
Resisting pervasive capture;
Ambiguity, opacity, uncertainty; Asynchrony
Vulnerabilities; Disruptions; Slowness, delay, drag
Entanglements; Polyphony, dissensus; Opacities, static
Miscommunication, misunderstandings, misalignments;
Fault lines, abrasions; Turbulence
Conference information and contact
Website: IFM2027 International Conference
Email: ifmjournal@torontomu.ca | interactivefilmconference@gmail.com
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Contributions and submission
We invite scholars and researchers, including faculty and doctoral students, from media, communication, film, digital studies, visual arts, and related disciplines, alongside filmmakers, artists, activists, VR and game designers, and media producers. Proposals addressing Frictions are encouraged; we also welcome topics relevant to the broader IFM community.
Paper presentations
Submit a 350–500-word abstract outlining the argument, research objectives, theoretical framework, methodology, and hypotheses where applicable, together with a biography of approximately 150 words for each presenter.
Application form: IFM2027 Paper Presentation Proposal
Select the “conference paper abstract” section in the submission system.
Research creation presentations
Submit a 500-word project description outlining the research objectives, theoretical framework, methodology, and key achievements; a statement of at least 200 words on its relation to the conference theme; and a biography of approximately 150 words for each presenter. Artist and collective projects are welcome.
Application form: IFM2027 Research Creation Presentation Proposal
Select the “research creation presentation” section in the submission system.
New book presentations
Present a new book and participate in a session on its content and the writing and publishing journey. Submit a book description of no more than 500 words, a reflection on the publishing journey, a theme statement of at least 100 words, and a biography of approximately 150 words for each presenter. Consult the form for eligibility and session details.
Application form: IFM2027 New Book Presentation Proposal.
Select the “book presentation” section in the submission system.
Complete the appropriate form in English, save it as DOCX, and upload it through the IFM Journal submission system by Friday, January 15, 2027. Applicants will be notified by the end of February 2027.
Free participation and inclusive access
There are no fees for presenting, attending the conference, or publishing in the IFM Journal. IFM is committed to an inclusive, equitable, and accessible environment, with attention to accessibility, gender parity, ethnic diversity, and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Read Our Commitments for details.
Organizing and scientific committee
Hudson Moura, Chair • Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Heidi Rae Cooley • The University of Texas at Dallas, USA
Stefano Odorico • Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland
Dale Hudson • New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Leah Shafer • Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA
Marta Fiolic • NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Il Sun Moon • Kingston University, UK
Logan Acton • The University of Texas at Dallas, USA
Sonali Sharma • Jamia Millia Islamia University, India
