CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Esther Monzó-Nebot (Universitat Jaume I)
In her keynote, “Hacktivating Translation and Interpreting: Lucidity in Technofeudal Culture Wars”, Monzó-Nebot critically examines how machine translation and language technologies are framed as neutral solutions and how this neutrality masks new forms of power, extraction, and exclusion.
Drawing on language rights, translation activism, and feminist and postmonolingual perspectives, her work powerfully resonates with the conference theme Error 403 – Critical Refusals.
Tatiana Bazzichelli (Disruption Network Lab, Berlin)
Founder and director of the Disruption Network Lab, Bazzichelli has been a central voice in debates around whistleblowing, networked disruption, art, and activism. Her work critically examines how power operates across digital cultures, and how artistic and activist practices can intervene in technological systems from within.
This keynote speaks directly to the conference’s focus on refusal, disobedience, and non-normative algorithmic practices.
Miguel Carvalhais (FBAUP)
Professor of Design and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Porto, Carvalhais works at the intersection of computation, sound, and artistic practice. His research and artistic work approach computation as a cultural and aesthetic condition, shaping how form, process, and perception emerge in contemporary art.
His keynote will combine critical reflection with practice-based insights, drawing from his ongoing work in computational and sound art.
Mark Amerika (University of Boulder, Colorado)
Mark Amerika has exhibited his art in many venues including the Whitney Biennial, the Denver Art Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, ZKM, the Walker Art Center, the Marlborough Gallery in Barcelona, and Casa Comum at the University of Porto.
In 2009-2010, The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece, featured Amerika’s comprehensive retrospective exhibition entitled UNREALTIME including his groundbreaking works of Internet art GRAMMATRON and FILMTEXT as well as his feature-length work of mobile cinema, Immobilité. In 2012, Amerika released his transmedia narrative, Museum of Glitch Aesthetics (MOGA), a multi-platform net artwork commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices in conjunction with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The MOGA project has since been remixed for Amerika’s solo exhibition “Glitch. Click. Thunk” at the University of Hawaii Art Galleries and “Glitch Mix: not an error,” which took place in Havana, Cuba, at the Estudio Figueroa-Vives and the Norwegian Embassy to Cuba.
About Dream Factory:
Dream Factory is Mark Amerika’s newest artwork, made in collaboration with Will Luers and Chad Mossholder. In this 30-minute AI-driven cinema work, the artists use poetic and theoretical language in real-time call-and-response sessions with AI systems to coax artificial figures into being. Unfolding across five movements, the work traces these figures as they evolve from ghostly apparitions into entities that speak directly to viewers in modulated human voices, raising urgent questions about creativity and human expression in the age of machine intelligence.
Accommodation suggestions
Tuela Porto Hotel (3-star, 50 rooms) – 5 minutes
Rua Arq. Marques Da Silva, 200 – 4150-483 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 22 6194100 – Landline: (+351) 22 6194160
Email: porto@hoteisfenix.com
Boavista Guest House (3-star) – 10 minutes
Rua da Boavista, 667 – 4050-110 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 92 40 41 500 – Landline: (+351) 22 202 60 86
Email: info@boavistaguesthouse.com
Hotel Vice-Rei (2-star) – 5 minutes
Rua de Júlio Dinis, 779 – 4050-326 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 22 543 0120
Email: geral@hotelvicerei.com
HF Fénix Porto Hotel (4-star, 100 rooms) – 5 minutes
Rua Gonçalo Sampaio, 282 – 4150-365 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 22 6194100 – Fax: (+351) 22 6194160
Email: porto@hoteisfenix.com
HF Ipanema Porto Hotel (4-star, 100 rooms) – 5 minutes
Rua do Campo Alegre, 156/172 – 4150-169 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 22 6194100 – Fax: (+351) 22 6194160
Email: porto@hoteisfenix.com
HF Ipanema Park Hotel (5-star, 50 rooms) – 20 minutes
Rua de Serralves, 124 – 4150-702 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 22 6194100 – Fax: (+351) 22 6194160
Email: porto@hoteisfenix.com
Other hotels near the Faculty
Hotel Douro (3-star)
Rua da Meditação, 71 – 4150-487 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 226 001 122 – Fax: (+351) 226 001 090
Quality Hotel Portus Cale Porto (3-star)
Avenida da Boavista, 1060 – 4100-113 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 226 083 900 – Fax: (+351) 226 083 906
Porto Palácio Hotel (5-star)
Av. da Boavista, 1269 – 4100-130 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 226 086 600 – Fax: (+351) 226 091 467
Email: reservaspph@sonae.pt | portopalaciohotel@sonae.pt
Website: www.hotelportopalacio.com
Sheraton Porto Hotel & Spa (5-star)
Rua Tenente Valadim, 146 – 4100-476 Porto – Portugal
Phone: (+351) 220 404 000
Email: sheraton.porto@sheraton.com
Website: www.sheratonporto.com
CALL FOR PAPERS
Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms
International Conference – 18–19 June 2026
Theme 2026: Error 403 – Critical Refusals
Porto, Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FLUP) + online
An output of the BRKCODE Project (DARIAH-EU), in partnership with the Electronic Literature Organization
What does it mean to err – to glitch, to refuse efficiency, to disobey system logics?
The inaugural conference of Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms adopts the theme Error 403 – Critical Refusals, inviting scholars, artists, and those working across research and artistic practice to treat error as a critical condition, to read glitch as resistant gesture, and to approach refusal and deviation as an opening to new epistemologies and creative forms.
We proceed from the recognition that algorithms, often presented as neutral and universal, operate as normative structures that shape and constrain identities. They codify and reproduce biases linked to gender, race, class, and sexuality while masking these operations through appeals to efficiency and objectivity. To address these dynamics, we draw on Judith Butler’s performativity, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality, and Donna Haraway’s situated knowledges, in dialogue with Critical Code Studies (Marino, 2020; Montfort et al. 2013) and Creative Digital Humanities (Rettberg and Saum-Pascual 2020).
Within this frame, error becomes method. Glitch practices, acts of critical hacking, and algorithmic disruptions, such as livecoded improvisations, are not accidents to correct but practices that surface and expose what systems obscure. As Legacy Russell notes in the Glitch Feminism Manifesto (2020), “to glitch is to embrace malfunction, and to embrace malfunction is in and of itself an expression that starts with ‘no’.” Crucially, “malfunction” here does not denote total breakdown but deviation from normative scripts: a “nonperformance” and a “refusal” that resists the demand for seamless operability. In that spirit, the conference foregrounds artistic and scholarly interventions that make visible algorithmic exclusions, challenge normative frameworks, and reimagine alternative futures for digital culture.
In doing so, Error 403 – Critical Refusals seeks to establish a critical platform linking intersectional research with creative disobedience, while advancing explorations of algorithmic glitch aesthetics and pedagogies. Through this platform, the conference positions itself at the crossroads of theory and practice, inviting dialogue across critical analysis and experimental making.
Topics of Interest
We welcome contributions that respond to the theme through conceptual analysis, artistic intervention, or pedagogical experimentation. Areas of particular interest include:
- Intersectional perspectives on algorithmic systems: analyses of how identity categories such as gender, race, class, and sexuality are encoded, erased, or reshaped by computational processes.
- Creative disobedience and critical hacking: artistic tactics of refusal and disruption, ranging from glitching and livecoding to performance-based or speculative approaches.
- Glitch aesthetics as critical method: practices that foreground error as a site of resistance, identity work, or ontological dissidence.
- Pedagogies of error: teaching and learning approaches that use mistakes, deviations, and creative misuse as tools for understanding and reconfiguring algorithmic systems.
- Histories and counter-histories: recovering the contributions of women and gender minorities in computing and digital art, while rewriting narratives of technological progress from feminist and queer standpoints.
- Critical Code Studies and beyond: treating code as cultural, ideological, and poetic text, with attention to its exclusions, performativities, and possibilities for reimagining.
- Cyberliterary and cyberartistic interventions: works that unsettle algorithmic normativity through writing, visual culture, performance, or hybrid media practices.
- Care, inclusivity, and infrastructures: rethinking digital systems through the lenses of accessibility, relationality, and techno-feminist futures.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Esther Monzó-Nebot (Universitat Jaume I)
Tatiana Bazzichelli (Disruption Network Lab, Berlin)
Miguel Carvalhais (FBAUP, i2ADS)
Mark Amerika (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Formats
We invite proposals for:
- Academic papers (20 min presentations)
- Artistic presentations / performances (20 min)
- Work-in-progress discussions (10 min short talks with collective feedback)
- Workshops
Proposals should indicate the chosen format and any technical or spatial requirements.
Submission Guidelines
Abstract: max. 300 words
Short bio: max. 100 words
Indicate format: paper / artistic presentation / performance / work-in-progress / workshop
Language: English
Submission deadline: 15 January 2026
The Call for Papers remains open until 31 January 2026
Notification of acceptance: 28 February 2026 [due to the volume of submissions and the ongoing review process, decisions will be communicated slightly later than planned. We kindly ask for your patience and will be in touch as soon as the evaluations are finalised. Thank you for your understanding.]
All proposals must be submitted via the Microsoft Conference Management Toolkit (CMT) platform at https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/BRKCODE2026/
Venue and Dates
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto (FLUP) + Online
18–19 June 2026
Registration Fee
€130 (early bird – from 1 Oct. 2025 to 31 Mar. 2026) | €160 (regular – from 1 Apr. to 15 Apr. 2026)
For students: €80 (early bird – from 1 Oct. 2025 to 31 Mar. 2026) | €100 (regular – from 1 Apr. to 15 Apr. 2026)
Registration can be completed through the University of Porto’s official platform: https://www.letras.up.pt/si/subscriptions?event=129
Organizing Committee
Coordinated by Diogo Marques (CODA + ILCML/University of Porto), Ana Cunha (ILCML/University of Porto), Marinela Freitas (ILCML/University of Porto), Rui Torres (ICNOVA, Fernando Pessoa University), Luís Trigo (CODA + CLUP/University of Porto) within the framework of the project Breaking the Code: Algorithmic Non-Normativity in Creative Digital Humanities (BRKCODE, DARIAH ERIC 2024–26).
Scientific Committee
Alex Mitchell (National University of Singapore)
Alex Saum-Pascual (U. Berkeley)
Amira Hanafi (Susquehanna University)
Ana Carvalho (UMAIA; CIAC)
Ana Cunha (ILCML/University of Porto)
Ana Marques da Silva (University of Coimbra, MATLIT LAB)
Anna Nacher (Jagiellonian University)
André Rangel (FBAUP)
Bruno Ministro (Independent Researcher)
Cristina Sá (UCP)
David Ciccoricco (University of Otago)
David Thomas Henry Wright (Nagoya University)
Diego Gimenez (Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Élika Ortega-Guzman (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Esther Monzó-Nebot (Universitat Jaume I)
Inês Cardoso (University of Porto, ILCML)
Joana Chicau (University of the Arts London)
José Ramom Pichel (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Luís Lucas Pereira (University of Coimbra, FCTUC)
Lyle Skains (Bournemouth University)
Manuel Portela (University of Coimbra, MATLIT LAB)
Mark Amerika (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Mark Marino (University of Southern California)
Miguel Carvalhais (University of Porto, i2ADS)
Nuno Miguel Neves (University of Belgrade)
Patrícia Gouveia (ITI/LARSyS)
Pedro Alves da Veiga (CIAC, UaB)
Pedro Cardoso (University of Porto, i2ADS)
Pedro Ferreira (independent artist)
Philipp Teuchmann (ICNOVA)
Rosemary Lee (University of Porto, i2ADS)
Sofia Ponte (IADE, ID+)
Terhi Martilla (ITI/LARSyS)
Thomas Ballhausen (University Mozarteum Salzburg)
Tiago Assis (University of Porto, i2ADS)
Tina Escaja (The University of Vermont)
Vera Moitinho de Almeida (University of Porto, CODA)
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
For more info, please contact: dmarques@letras.up.pt
The Breaking the Code Conference are committed to the ELO Code of Conduct, and will conduct all activities in alignment with these values.