🚀 Peckham Digital Festival 2026

We’re excited to launch our open calls for the next Peckham Digital Festival happening in October 2026.

This year’s programme will continue to highlight emerging voices alongside established practitioners, with a shared interest in how technology can be used critically, creatively, and collaboratively.

A note on our journey: This year’s festival is currently dependent on funding. We are currently awaiting the outcome of a few funding applications; if unsuccessful, the festival may not be able to go ahead in its planned format.

Because of this, we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign very soon. Support from our community, whether through applying, attending, or donating, plays a huge role in making Peckham Digital a reality. Any contribution you can make will directly benefit our ability to make our annual festival happen!

Please feel free to donate here at our PayPal:

🎨 Artwork Open Call

We’re looking for projects from artists working at the intersection of art and technology. We are particularly interested in interactive computational artworks, video game–based works, and moving image pieces, though we welcome other formats. This can include, installations, generative or AI-based projects, sound and AV works, or web-based art.

We’re especially drawn to work that invites participation, challenges conventional formats, or critically reflects on the role of technology in contemporary culture. Selected works will form part of a wider programme that brings audiences into direct engagement with digital art practices.

All artworks should be engaging and accessible to a general audience. Moving image works must include subtitles where speech is present.

Full Details: Artwork Open Call Guidelines

Payment

Selected artists will be paid in line with Artist Union England rates (subject to funding).

Network Terminal

Additionally, Network Terminal is a dedicated market space within the festival, showcasing digital and creative computing–based artworks available for sale. Positioned alongside the main exhibition, it offers artists a platform to present collectible works while engaging new audiences.

Artists selected for Network Terminal will not receive an exhibition fee, but will retain 70% of each sale, with the remaining 30% contributing to the curation of the space and the future development of the festival.

🧠 Programme Open Call

We’re inviting artists, creative technologists, and creative coders to contribute to our 2026 programme.

We’re looking for proposals across workshops, talks, demos, and performances that explore creative computing in thoughtful, engaging, and accessible ways. Whether you’re introducing a tool, sharing a process, or presenting a new idea, we’re interested in approaches that open up technology to others.

Full Details: Programme Open Call Guidelines

• Workshops
These can range from beginner-friendly introductions to more advanced sessions, but should be clearly structured and accessible. We’re especially interested in hands-on workshops where participants create something of their own — such as a digital artwork, interactive piece, or collective outcome. All workshops must use open-source software to ensure accessibility and remove financial barriers.

• Talks & Demos
We’re looking for engaging perspectives on the relationship between art and technology, including AI, digital culture, accessibility, sustainability, and experimental tools. Demos should be interactive or hands-on where possible, with a drop-in format that encourages audience participation.

• Performances
We welcome audio-visual work, live coding, movement-based practices, and hybrid formats that incorporate technology in unexpected ways. We are particularly interested in performances that utilise wearable technology.

Payment

Selected facilitators/speakers/performers will be paid £161.07.

🌱 Who Should Apply

For both the artist and programme open call, we welcome applications from anyone with a creative idea or vision, regardless of experience or background. You don’t need extensive experience or a huge artist background, what matters is having a clear idea, a thoughtful approach, and a willingness to share your practice with others.

We are committed to supporting artists from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to help build a more inclusive and representative creative community.

We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as:

• Working class or those who have experienced economic precarity or social exclusion
• Part of the Global Majority
• Disabled, D/deaf, neurodiverse, or living with long-term health conditions
• Under the age of 30
• LGBTQIA+, especially transgender and non-binary people

🔓 Our Open-Source Commitment

To ensure knowledge shared during the festival remains accessible, all projects, tools, and workshops must utilise open-source software.

We are looking for contributors who champion tools that others can freely use, modify, and build upon long after the festival ends.