A special track at ISEA2026 Dubai organized by the Land Art Generator Initiative & Zayed University
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: February 2, 2026
EVENT DATES: April 10–12, 2026
The Ecological Futures Lab: Navigating by New Stars is a living environment inside ISEA2026 — part open studio, part observatory, part commons for ecological imagination.
Across three days, artists, designers, architects, researchers, technologists, and community practitioners are invited to sketch, prototype, and debate pathways toward regenerative futures.
Instead of formal paper sessions, the Lab is an evolving space where dialogues, drawings, models, and data experiments accumulate over time. Participants “navigate by new stars”: connecting place, data, and identity to explore how creative practice can transform energy systems, material cultures, and regenerative futures.
The Ecological Futures Lab is a special track aligned with the ISEA2026 theme ELYAH: Constellating Place, Data, and Identity, and the subtheme Eco-Tech Futures – Ecologies of Place.
Participants orient themselves within overlapping crises of climate change, energy transition, environmental challenges, and social transformation.
The Lab will also serve as a pilot for the Zayed Centre for Imagination and Ecological Futures, a UAE-based hub for transdisciplinary research in art, design, and sustainability currently being conceptualized. Insights from the Lab will inform the Centre’s roadmap and future programming.
We invite proposals from practitioners and researchers who wish to co-shape this space at ISEA2026.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
We welcome proposals from individuals and small teams whose work sits at the intersection of art, design, architecture, technology, and regeneration.
Concepts for site-specific ecological artworks
- regenerative or biomimetic design
- speculative and critical design practices
- environmental solutions as public art experiences and design objects
Technology, data, and computation
- sensing ecologies; environmental monitoring
- machine learning for ecological progress data visualization
- data aesthetics tied to local ecologies
Ecology, climate, and energy transition
- climate adaptation and mitigation practices
- circular material systems, ecological economics, and LCA-informed work
- community-scale energy and water infrastructures
- electrostate roadmap and the material benefits of a regenerative economy
Social practice and community co-creation
- participatory design, indigenous knowledge, and local governance
- design process grounded in specific places, climates, and communities
- storytelling methods that bridge lived experience and data
MODES OF PARTICIPATION
Process & Prototypes
Bring an existing or in-progress project that can be activated in the Lab through:
- small-scale prototypes or models
- process demonstrations
- ongoing “live” work sessions (drawing, coding, building, mapping)
Ecological Methods & Tools
Share methods that others can try in the Lab, such as:
- sensing and data-gathering protocols
- participatory mapping, systems-diagramming, or speculative scenario tools
- frameworks for regenerative design, circularity, ecological accounting or currency
Listening Sessions & Conversational Constellations
Host a listening session or facilitated conversation that:
- gathers stories from other delegates and local communities
- surfaces tensions and blind spots in ecological futures work
- is oriented toward deep listening
Regenerative Materials Library Contributions
Propose a contribution to the Regenerative Materials Library, that will be permanently housed at Zayed University after ISEA2026. This could include:
- samples of materials, components, or assemblies
- detailed case studies documenting regenerative material systems
- speculative or prototypical materials framed with clear ecological rationale
Data & Story Experiments
Propose a small experiment that explores “Data as Ecology”:
- translating environmental data into sound, image, movement, or narrative
- rethinking big data and AI systems as part of biospheric information flows
- applying lessons from natural information systems (e.g. mycelial networks) to human systems
