MOCO'26 Call for Papers

10th International Conference on Movement and Computing

Thursday 23 April - Saturday 25 April 2026, Montpellier, France

We are pleased to invite submissions for paper presentations, performances, workshops and more to the 10th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) which will be organized from Thursday 23 April to Sunday 25 April 202 by the EuroMov Digital Health in Motion research unit (University of Montpellier, IMT Mines Ales), at Cité des Arts, Montpellier, France.

On the conference theme: In the pink of Health

In the fields of neurocomputational and movement-based research, the concept of health is increasingly operationalized through data, including neural patterns, kinematic signatures, and recovery curves. Wearables and motion-tracking systems hold great promise in providing insights into physical and cognitive health. However, it should be noted that such systems also impose thresholds of inclusion, determining which bodies are measurable and whose movements are deemed expressive, curative, or valid. As neuroscience meets computer science and the arts, it is essential to question the role of these tools in shaping our understanding of what constitutes a healthy body or mind.

Considering this, a reframing of health as emergent, relational and performative is required, drawing upon critical post-humanist theory, embodied cognition, and artistic research. Applications in dance, interactive installations, and neuroaesthetic interfaces can model alternative health paradigms. By rethinking movement not merely as data but as a lived and expressive phenomenon, new interdisciplinary possibilities for designing systems that reflect diverse and situated ways of being in The Pink of Health can be opened.

This MOCO’26 conference proposes to critically examine how health, as both concept and computational output, participates in technocultural narratives that risk reinforcing normative, performance-driven ideals. Movement technologies, especially in arts-based applications, have the potential to open space for alternative modes of vitality or discomfort that challenge prevailing definitions of health. We invite you to share your reflections on how your research reimagines health in movement and data/computer science, or artistic practice, not as fixed optimisation, but as fluid, plural and performative.

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: 1^st November 2025
• Registration Opens: 12 January 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: 12 January 2026
• Camera-Ready papers Deadline: 2 February 2026
• Conference: Thursday 23 April - Saturday 25 April 2026

Submissions

MOCO is an interdisciplinary community where artistic and technical contributions are synergistic and equally valued. Thus, we invite submissions that span academic approaches, applied practices, and fields of study, unified by the concepts of movement and computing. We encourage submitters to carefully articulate the relationship of their work to this lens through both scientific and artistic methods of inquiry.

In order to support our interdisciplinary community, MOCO is open to a wide range of formats for presenting work. In addition to papers for oral and poster presentations, we invite submission of practice works such as demos, performances, games, artistic works and movement workshops. We are open to novel formats, and we encourage submitters to be creative in proposals for practice sessions. We anticipate being able to provide limited support for student travel for accepted work across all categories. Finally, we encourage three types of submissions:

• Research papers
• Practice works
• Doctoral consortium

Research papers

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Cultural movement practices and technology
• Dance and technology
• Entrainment and movement
• Embodied cognition and movement
• Embodied interaction
• Full body interaction
• Gesture and sound
• Individual and group movement capture
• Interactive, experiential performances and installations
• Learning detection through bodily movement
• Machine learning for movement
• Mechanisms of coordination dynamics
• Movement analysis and analytics
• Movement and sound interaction
• Movement as a proxy of human brain
• Movement in social interaction
• Movement computation in education
• Movement computation in ergonomics, sports, health and industry
• Movement expression in avatar, artificial agents, virtual humans or robots
• Movement notation systems
• Movement visualisation and sonification
• Music and movement
• Philosophical perspectives on movement and computing
• Sensory augmentation of movement
• Sensori-motor learning with audio/visual feedback
• Surveillance and biometrics
• Tangible interaction
• Technique analysis
• Theoretical approaches to movement understanding
• Telepresence and togetherness
• Wearable devices for movement tracking

Topics of special relevance in 2026:

• Rhythm, sound and synchronization
• Movement and computing for social and nervous disorders
• Tool for diagnosis
• Mobile Neuroscience
• Motion tracking
• AI and movement
• Art practice and health

Practice Works

We deliberately use a very open term – “practice work” – to encourage diverse ideas of what practice in movement and computing is – and could be – and how such practice can be presented. We suggest the following as examples of what a practice work might be, but also stress that the list is not exhaustive and other types of presentation can be considered, the only criteria being excellence of the work and appropriateness to the conference theme. Please note that MOCO has no financial means and limited practical means to present live work. Accepted Practice Works that require significant resources, time, and/or space will need to be presented in alternative formats, e.g. video, structured discussion, or at independent or remote venues that can be made accessible to MOCO attendees.

Suggested practice work formats:

        ARTWORKS

• Live performances
• Dance
•  Music
•  Theater
•  Performance art
•  Internet-based performance

        INSTALLATIONS

•   Interactive installations
•   Projections
•   Kinetic sculptures
•   Virtual reality and immersive video

        DEMOS

•     Games
•     Technology demonstrations
•     Movement tracking systems
•     Wearables
•     Robotics
•     Video presentations

        WORKSHOPS

•    Open-ended movement improvisations
•    Movement choirs
•    Physical practice sessions or tutorials

Specific event for MOCO26:

• Performance promenade is a performance route lasting 5 to 10 minutes, taking place in transitional and unusual spaces. These performances will occur in hallways, closets, staircases, and other spaces to be imagined, within and around the Cité des Arts. Each performance will be presented multiple times throughout the two-hour event.

Doctoral Consortium

The Doctoral Consortium is an opportunity for graduate students to present their work-in-progress on their advanced studies, especially their terminal degree, e.g., doctorate or MFA, to share and develop their research ideas in a supportive environment with participation from experts in the field. Students will have the opportunity to establish a community with other graduate students at a similar stage of their research.

We encourage students to submit a description of their doctoral work even if they are at an early stage. Videos and other supplementary materials are welcomed and encouraged. Students accepted to present their work at the Doctoral Consortium must plan to attend.

Submission procedure

In the MOCO conference, we give you the option to publish your work through one on our two different submission tracks.  In the ‘ACM publication track’, we give you the option to publish your paper in the conference proceedings that will be indexed and published in the ACM digital library. Besides, it is also possible to only submit an extended abstract of your presentation for review. In this case, your extended abstract will not be published in the ACM conference proceedings. We call this the ‘Open publication track’. All abstracts (ACM and Open publication tracks) will be submitted on the French Open-Access platform HAL as a book of abstracts with a DOI (obtained as a Zenodo upload).

Research papers and practice works can be either submitted in the ACM submission track or in the Open submission track. Abstracts from doctoral consortium must be submitted only in the Open submission track.

Research papers will be presented in an oral or poster session, according to the wishes of the authors and the choice of the organizers. Practice works will be presented in dedicated sessions or in the performance promenade. Accepted students from the doctoral consortium will give an oral presentation in a dedicated session.

Author Guidelines

MOCO’26 uses one single template format for all submissions.  Submissions (.pdf format) must use the ACM Article Template (https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template). Please use the template in traditional double-column format to prepare your submissions. For example, word users should use Word Interim Template, and LaTeX users should use sample-sigconf-authordraft template. Please remember to add Concepts and Keywords.

All submissions should be original and anonymized and will be peer-reviewed in a double-blind review process by members of the MOCO community.

Long research paper: Each long research paper should not be longer than 8 pages, plus additional pages for the list of references.

Short research paper: Each short research paper should not be longer than 4 pages, plus additional pages for the list of references.

Submissions in the Open publication track may be no longer than 2 pages. They can be abstracts (400 words minimum), or short papers including text, figures, and references.

The table below summarizes the different types of submission and possible tracks.

Research papers

Submissions of research papers must be as anonymous as possible, including references that may reveal the author(s).

Practice Works

The following options are available for submitting proposals for Practice Works:

1. The presentation of your work in the ACM publication track, or in the Open publication track, see above for details.
2. Supporting media (videos, pictures, audio) needed to explain the contribution of the work.
3. Detailed technical requirements and possible additional information. Accepted works will be required to fill out this information in a site-specific technical rider that will be emailed to authors following acceptance.

Doctoral consortium

Submissions consist of:

• An abstract describing the graduate work towards an advanced degree, in the format of the Open submission track (see above for details). Accepted abstracts will appear in the conference program. Optional: Supporting media (videos, pictures, audio) that help explain the contribution of the work.

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact the organizing committee at conference-moco2026@umontpellier.fr

Conference Committee

Conference co-chairs:

Patrice Guyot and Gregoire Bosselut  (EuroMov DHM, France)

Scientific and artistic program

Heads: Stéphane Perrey (EuroMov DHM, France), Patrice Guyot (EuroMov DHM, France) and Leonardo Montecchia (compagnie La Mentira, France)

• Oussama Ben-Ammar (EuroMov DHM)
• Frédéric Bevilacqua (IRCAM-STMS, France)
• Cumhur Erkut (Aalborg University, Denmark)
• Kate Ladenheim (UCLA, USA)
• Jacky Montmain (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Pierre Slangen (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Kate Sicchio (VCU School of the Arts, USA)
• Andon Tchechmedjiev (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Kim Vincs (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)
• Gualtiero Volpe (University of Genova, Italy

Finances

Head: Julie Boiché (EuroMov DHM, France)

• Kristin Carlson (Illinois State University, USA)

Logistics

Head: Grégoire Bosselut (EuroMov DHM, France)

Communication

Head: Gérard Dray (EuroMov DHM, France)

• Jules Françoise (CNRS, Université Paris Saclay, France)

Doctoral symposium

• Rémy Dadier (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Martin Le Guennec (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Nouha Taleb Salah (EuroMov DHM, France)
• Théo Velletaz (EuroMov DHM, France)