[Commlist] Creative Technology and Transformative Storytelling Symposium 2026 (CT&TSS ‘26)

Creative Technology and Transformative Storytelling Symposium 2026 
(CT&TSS ‘26)

Presented by
Centre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of 
Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Virtual Creative Design Research Centre, AUT University, Auckland, New 
Zealand/Aotearoa

In collaboration with

Swinburne Documentary Research Group, Swinburne University of Technology
Diversifying and Decentralising Creative Practice Research Group, 
Journal of Media Practice and Education (JMPE)
International Journal of Creative Media Research (IJCMR)

The theme for the 2nd edition of the CT&TSS is Embodied AI.

In the wake of the waning industrial momentum behind the Metaverse, 
embodied AI marks a shift from speculative, totalising virtual worlds 
toward situated, task-oriented intelligence, embedded within existing 
media ecologies. Rather than pursuing platform enclosure and immersive 
universality, current state-of-the-art systems—such as multimodal 
robotics, vision-language-action models, and real-time generative 
pipelines—demonstrate a maturing integration of AI within production 
workflows (e.g. virtual production, XR, automated robotics). 
Simultaneously one can observe a proliferation of GenAI film festivals 
and the integration into storytelling workflows and production processes.

Date:
Symposium   19th November 2026 | HYBRID (online and in person)
Showcase     20th November 2026 | (morning till early afternoon | 
evening MINA Screening at ACMI).

Call for submissions via
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/fpRH54TV4T

Deadline for abstracts: 1st July
Acceptance notification: 17th August
Announcement program: 1st September

Symposium Leads
A/Prof. Max Schleser – Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Prof. John McCormick – Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
 
A/Prof. DafyddSill -Jones – AUT University, New Zealand/Aotearoa
Mr Gregory Bennett, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New 
Zealand/Aotearoa

Symposium Committee
Dr Peter Brace, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Dr Chen Chen, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand/Aotearoa
Yang Guo, PhD Candidate, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New 
Zealand/Aotearoa
Soyun Jang, PhD Candidate, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Katy Morrison, Deakin University, Australia
Associate Professor Angelique Nairn, Auckland University of Technology 
(AUT), New Zealand/Aotearoa
Associate Professor Predrag K. Nikolic, Swinburne University of 
Technology Sarawak, Malaysia
Assistant Professor Onur Birol, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Türkiye
Lucky Umang Singh,PhD Candidate, Auckland University of Technology 
(AUT), New Zealand/Aotearoa
Dr Awnili Shabnam, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Hadis Salehi Gahrizsangi, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of 
Technology, Australia
Dr Kien Tran, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand/Aotearoa
Dr Denby Weller, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Dr Yara El Turk, Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), Sydney, 
Australia ; MA Candidate, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Hanna Zhu, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Dr Ruohan Tang, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK

SYMPOSIUM VENUES
CTMT – Hawthorn, Melbourne
VCDRC – Auckland CBD

www:
https://transformativemedia.swinburne.edu.au/event/creative-technology-and-transformative-storytelling-symposium-2026-cttss-26/
https://vcdrc.aut.ac.nz/news-and-events/creative-technology-and-transformative-storytelling-symposium-2026/_nocache

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