TEI

Welcome to ACM TEI2021, the 15th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, from the 14th to the 19th of February 2021, hosted online due to the special circumstances of the Covid-19 crisis. The TEI conference features top-tier work that addresses issues of human-computer interaction, novel tools and technologies, interactive art, and user experience. The work presented at TEI has a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems.

The theme for TEI2021 is The Art of Interaction, inviting all participants and in particular artists to speculate on a vision of how art impacts, inspires and shapes our research practice. We consider art and the artistic method an important aspect for tangible interaction design, ranging from physical to digital works across all genres, such as interactive installations, performance art, and tangible sculptures. TEI2021 therefore focused on the further development of the art exhibition & performance track and intended to foster the artistic method through a dedicated artist residency program in Linz and Salzburg. But unfortunately the ongoing quarantine restrictions did not allow such local activities.

The intimate size of this annual single-track conference provides a unique forum for exchanging ideas and presenting innovative work usually through talks and discussions, interactive exhibits such as demos and posters, hands-on studios, art installations and performances. The exceptional online edition of TEI2021 intended to maintain these qualities within adequate online formats based on a combination of Zoom presentation and more interactive Discord discussions. All presentations are distributed in time-zone friendly sessions around a central daily community panel event. Presenters can choose freely on how to use their dedicated time for talk, demonstrations or audience interaction.

TEI2021 provided an extended six-day program, starting on Sunday, February 14th with the Graduate Student Consortium and a series of six Studios that engage participants in the concrete making of novel interfaces and interactions. The main conference program started on Monday, February 15th with an opening panel discussing the current challenge of virtualisation for our community. A special Diversity and Inclusion Panel took place on Tuesday, February 16th, the third event of its kind at TEI expanding on the previous lunch meetings. This event aims to build and strengthen the diverse networks of our attendees and support mentorships across academia, research, and industry for those with traditionally marginalized backgrounds.

The third panel on Wednesday, February 17th was dedicated to the Art Exhibition presentation, which was originally planned to take place at the Art Space 5020 in Salzburg, who we collaborated with in the curatorial process. A total of six curated artworks were selected for online presentation. The Art panel is preceded by the presentation of the results of the Student Design Challenge in the form of the TEI2021 swatchbook.

In order to foster the discussion culture during the times of crisis the fourth panel on Thursday, February 18th stages a Townhall Meeting allowing to address upcoming topics from within the community. The conference concludes with a closing keynote by Sile O'Modhrain with a focus on haptics and accessibility. TEI2021 concludes with the announcement of the best paper awards, a diversity & inclusion award as well as a special long-term contribution award.

This year we received 136 submissions to the Papers track. A total of 40 papers were selected after a double-blind peer review process of at least three reviewers and a meta-reviewer, resulting in an acceptance rate of 29%. All accepted papers were presented as long talks during the online conference.

For the Pictorials track we received 55 submissions, which were subjected to a double-blind peer review process of at least three reviewers and a meta-reviewer each. This resulted in 15 accepted submissions, leading to an acceptance rate of 27%. All accepted pictorials were presented as long talks during the online conference.

For the Work-in-Progress track we received 61 submissions, which were subjected to a doubleblind peer review process of at least two reviewers and one meta-reviewer each. This resulted in 23 accepted submissions, resulting in an acceptance rate of 38%. All accepted submissions were presented as short talks during the online conference.

For the Art and Performance track we received 36 submissions, which were subjected to a curatorial process by the extended group of art, performance, residency and the general chairs, who performed the selection based on the artistic merits of the work and their engagement with issues relevant to the field of tangible, embedded and embodied interactive art. Six artworks were exhibited and presented at the online conference.

For the Graduate Student Consortium we received 8 submissions. These were reviewed by the three Chairs and selected in terms of the appropriate level of demonstrated maturity as well as scope. This has resulted in 6 students who participated in the online consortium.