Date and location

from January 14, 2026 until January 16, 2026
Orpheus Instituut, Korte Meer 12, 9000 Ghent

Call for presentations - Electronic Luthérie

Callfrom January 14, 2026 until January 16, 2026

Instruments, users and creators

The event aims to generate a critical discourse around the creative interaction with hardware tools, such as standalone electronic instruments, modular synthesisers, interfaces, noise machines and gizmos, vintage test equipment and other non-standard and experimental devices. It also includes dedicated software applications, for example, those hosted on embedded DSPs, iPads, phones, etc.

Electronic Luthérie: instruments, users and creators is a three-day international event organised by the Orpheus Instituut (Ghent), in collaboration with Catalyst Institute for Arts and Technology (Berlin), and taking place at Orpheus Instituut.

In addition, we wonder how such instruments may bear the stamp of their creators, i.e., how explicitly the intentions and aesthetics of designers may be reflected in their instruments, and in turn, suggest potential musical purposes.

Topic

The last decade has witnessed a resurgence of the adoption of modular synthesisers, and boutique hardware. Interest in obsolete technologies, test equipment, tape machines, and vintage electronic music studios is also increasing. Taken together, along with new dedicated software tools, these have transformed the palette available to contemporary musicians on stage and in the studio.

We ask,

How do such tools influence artistic practice?
What are the consequences of unusual, unique, and obsolete synthesis technologies for individual creative practices, including composition, improvisation, installation, and other performative practices?
How are contemporary composition and improvisation strategies impacted by such tools?
What specific potentials do such resources bring to the table, and what creative possibilities do they afford that may supplant or supplement those available via more traditional routes?
Are there specific agencies and autonomies that appear to emerge from creative interaction with such tools, or the nature of the tools themselves, and how might these influence artistic practices and outcomes?
How do instrument designers, hardware hackers, app builders, and electronic luthiers understand the specific creative potentials afforded by their work, and how far are these reflected in that work?

Application

This call welcomes contributions from practitioners and interested parties to question the tools themselves, their inventors, and their impact on creative practice. This three-day international event aims to generate a critical discourse around creative interaction with hardware tools, such as standalone electronic instruments, modular synthesisers, interfaces, noise machines and gizmos, vintage test equipment, and other non-standard and experimental devices. It also includes dedicated software applications, for example, those hosted on embedded DSPs, iPads, phones, etc.

Artists-scholars engaging with one or more of the questions outlined above are invited to propose presentations in the form of lecture-recitals, papers, or demonstrations. Other forms can be considered. The conference language is English.

Please submit a title, abstract of around 250 words, and a bio of no more than 100 words via the application form by 15 October 2025. Graduate students, artist-scholars, and non-academics working on transdisciplinary, underrepresented, or non-Western case studies are particularly encouraged to apply.

Contributions will be chosen by the programme committee to prepare a publication on our ECHO journal in late 2026. Participants will be notified by 5 November 2025 at the latest. The full program will be announced mid-November 2025.

Programme committee:

Richard Scott (Catalyst Institute for Arts and Technology, Berlin), Juan Parra Cancino (Orpheus Instituut, Ghent), Andrea Parkins (Catalyst), Chonglian Yu (Orpheus Instituut).