About the ACI conference

The International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction is the leading venue in the rapidly expanding field of ACI. Initially held as a one-day affiliated event, since 2016 it has become a three- or four-day independent event, organised yearly in co-operation with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and has been attracting a growing number of participants and contributors from diverse backgrounds. 

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Emerged from the multidisciplinary milieu of the interaction design tradition, ACI’s roots are grounded in the theoretical, methodological and ethical foundations and values that have informed interaction design over the decades. Growing out of this fertile ground, ACI’s theoretical and methodological scope has since been expanding to include all forms of animals’ interaction with computing systems and all aspects of animal-centred computing, resulting in an increasing variety of applications. 

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Core aims for the discipline include: studying and theorizing the interaction between animals and technology, whether direct or indirect, dyadic or distributed, active or passive, synchronous or asynchronous; designing technology that improves animals’ wellbeing, supports animals’ activities and fosters intra- and inter-species relations (including between humans and animals); and, last but not least, developing methodologies that enable animals to participate in the design process as legitimate stakeholders and contributors. Overall, the shared ambition of ACI researchers and practitioners is the development of more inclusive societies and more - ethically, economically and environmentally - sustainable forms of technologically supported living.

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To address the theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges encountered in the pursuit of animal-centered design and computing, ACI brings together researchers and practitioners from fields as diverse as biology (e.g. animal ergonomics, cognition, behaviour and welfare science), technology (e.g. engineering, computing, informatics, design) and cultural studies (e.g. geography, anthropology, ethnography), making ACI a fundamentally interdisciplinary field. 

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The aim of the ACI Conference is, therefore, to provide a venue and a regular opportunity for the multidisciplinary cross-fertilisation that is essential to addressing the challenges faced by ACI as a discipline.

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We warmly invite you to join us to help us break new ground and make a difference in this challenging, exciting and innovative field.