{"id":2190,"date":"2025-09-22T10:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coda.letras.up.pt\/brkcode\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2026-03-23T10:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:12:49","slug":"conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coda.letras.up.pt\/brkcode\/conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms | International Conference \u2013 18\u201319 June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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CALL FOR PAPERS<\/b><\/h2>

Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms<\/b>
<\/b> International Conference \u2013 18\u201319 June 2026<\/b>
<\/b> Theme 2026: Error 403 \u2013 Critical Refusals<\/b><\/p>

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Porto, Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FLUP) + online<\/span>
<\/span> An output of the BRKCODE Project (DARIAH-EU), in partnership with the\u00a0Electronic Literature Organization<\/a><\/span><\/p>

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What does it mean to err \u2013 to glitch, to refuse efficiency, to disobey system logics?<\/span><\/p>

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The inaugural conference of <\/span>Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms <\/span><\/i>adopts the theme <\/span>Error 403 \u2013 Critical Refusals<\/span><\/i>, 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.<\/span><\/p>

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\u2019s performativity, Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw\u2019s intersectionality, and Donna Haraway\u2019s situated knowledges, in dialogue with Critical Code Studies (Marino, 2020; Montfort et al. 2013) and Creative Digital Humanities (<\/span>Rettberg and Saum-Pascual 2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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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 <\/span>Glitch Feminism Manifesto<\/span><\/i> (2020), \u201cto glitch is to embrace malfunction, and to embrace malfunction is in and of itself an expression that starts with \u2018no\u2019.\u201d Crucially, \u201cmalfunction\u201d here does not denote total breakdown but deviation from normative scripts: a \u201cnonperformance\u201d and a \u201crefusal\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>

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In doing so,<\/span> Error 403 \u2013 Critical Refusals<\/span><\/i> 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.<\/span><\/p>

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Topics of Interest<\/b><\/p>

We welcome contributions that respond to the theme through conceptual analysis, artistic intervention, or pedagogical experimentation. Areas of particular interest include:<\/span><\/p>