DIGITAL DUENDE

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Symposium Dates: December 3-4, 2025
Location: Hybrid (Stanford University/Online)
Organized by: FAI and Stanford University’s Flamenco Cardenal
Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2025
Acceptance notification: September 15, 2025

EVENT SCHEDULE & SIGN UP TO ATTEND WILL BE AVAILABLE IN SEPTEMBER

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Call For Papers

We invite proposals for the inaugural Digital Duende, a two-day bilingual (English and Spanish) and hybrid (virtual and in-person) symposium that will explore the dynamic intersection of flamenco and technology. This symposium examines how emerging technologies have influenced and continue to influence the creation, preservation, performance, and dissemination of flamenco throughout the art form’s history. The event, which will be held on December 3-4, 2025, will bring together an international group of artists, digital practitioners, and scholars around this year’s theme, transmisión flamenca. 

In Spanish, transmisión refers, among other things, to how information is passed on and emotion is conveyed. The word also strikes at the heart of the cultural, ethical, and practical questions underlying digital approaches to flamenco. What are the pedagogical, cultural, and historical implications of teaching and learning flamenco through recordings and videos? How is the capacity to convey deep emotion – a capacity that is highly valued in flamenco culture – mediated by technology? How and when does technology make flamenco more and less accessible? What are the ethics of digitizing an art form that for centuries has survived through oral tradition?
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Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Digital preservation and archives: 
  
  • Tools and strategies for documenting flamenco performances, oral histories, and subgenres/styles
  • The influence of various recording technologies on flamenco throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
  • Microhistories of specific flamenco recordings
  • Digitizing oral histories of flamenco
  • Digitizing printed histories of flamenco
  • Theorizing the intersection of oral tradition and technology in the transmisión of flamenco culture
• Digital and computational methods in flamenco research:
  
  • Reconstructing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pre-flamenco and flamenco performance via digital and computational methods
  • Revising histories of flamenco through digital and computational research
• Technology and creative practice:
  
  • How artificial intelligence is influencing flamenco composition, choreography, or collaborative performance
  • Applications of augmented reality, virtual reality, and extended reality technologies in flamenco performance
  • Innovations in sound design, lighting, and stagecraft that are reshaping flamenco experiences
  • Synthetic and electronic music technologies in flamenco musical production
  • The role of technology in facilitating or changing la transmisión de sentimiento (emotional communication) in flamenco performance
• Technology and flamenco pedagogy:
  
  • Incorporating and/or moderating the use of technology in flamenco pedagogy
  • Implications of technology for flamenco pedagogy, both present and future
  • Nineteenth- and twentieth-century histories of the influence of technology on the transmission of flamenco culture
• Globalization and access:
  
  • Environmental, cultural, and ethical considerations for digital approaches to flamenco performance and research
  • The role of digital platforms and social media in democratizing access to flamenco training and performance
  • Critical questions about cultural preservation, appropriation, and technological mediation in an art form that derives in large part from the history of the oppression and marginalization of Spanish Romani people

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts may be written in English or Spanish and should not exceed 300 words. Proposals for academic papers (15 minutes), artist talks (40 minutes), and multimedia demonstrations or workshops (25-40 minutes) are all welcome. Individuals are permitted to submit (and, if accepted, to present) up to two proposals each. Collaborative proposals are welcome. Please note that presenters must physically attend the symposium; all papers, artist talks, and multimedia demonstrations/workshops will be delivered in person.

Deadline for Submissions: September 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM PST

Notification of Acceptance: September 15, 2025

Join us as we investigate how digital innovation can serve flamenco’s enduring spirit and contribute to its vibrant future. Please share this call for proposals widely!

We hope to be able to offer a limited number of travel scholarships for symposium participants who do not have access to institutional research funds or who are traveling from outside the U.S. If you are able to contribute, please contact Isabel at isabel@flamencoartsinternational.org. 

For inquiries about the symposium, please contact Symposium Chair: Tania Arabelle Flores at taniaf@stanford.edu.