CFP: Complexhibit 2026

Complexhibit 2026 will be held on 30 June through 2 July 2026 in Málaga, Spain, under the theme, “Cultural Complexity and Computational Approaches: Toward a Systemic and Critical Understanding of Cultural Ecosystems.” Registration is free. The transdisciplinary event explores multiple themes, including cultural dynamic and historical change; cultural infrastructures, knowledge and evidence; and, responsibility, data governance and sustainability. From the announcement:

The conference is situated within a consolidated research landscape spanning (i) systems-oriented cultural theory and cultural sociology; (ii) the methodological and epistemic debates of Digital Humanities around scale, evidence, and interpretation; (iii) complexity science and network-based approaches to cultural history; and (iv) Semantic Web traditions in knowledge organization and cultural interoperability.

Computational approaches are central not as an end in themselves, but as a means to theorize, model, and evaluate cultural complexity with explicit assumptions and interpretive accountability. Therefore, “computational” designates more than a toolkit; it signals a methodological and epistemic orientation that foregrounds:

• Formal representation of cultural knowledge: conceptual modeling, ontologies, knowledge graphs, explicit source traceability (provenance), and qualified claims (uncertainty, disagreement, approximation).
• Computational modeling and analysis: network science, temporal dynamics, simulation, statistical inference, and—where appropriate—causal or counterfactual reasoning.
• NLP for cultural discourse: from criticism and catalogues to archives and platform communication, emphasizing rhetoric, valuation, and contestation.
• Cultural data science: grounded in evaluation, interpretability, bias analysis, and epistemic accountability.
• Reproducibility and governance: documentation, FAIR principles, licensing constraints, and infrastructural sustainability.

Proposals for paper presentations (20 minutes), panels/roundtables, and workshops, are currently being accepted through 15 May 2026 (23:59 CET), via email (digitalarthistory[at]uma.es).