Call | Haptics for the Arts

Special Issue on “Haptics for the Arts”

IEEE Transactions on Haptics

Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2025

Haptics for the Arts

Aims and Scope

In the last two decades, we have witnessed the development of many innovative devices and original techniques for providing haptic sensations in artistic settings. This includes the tactile enrichment of music listening and performance experiences, haptic soundscapes, interactive installations leveraging tactile interfaces, immersive multimedia experiences exploring the nuances of touch, or the haptic enhancement of digital musical instruments. There is a growing interest in the haptics community in investigating interfaces and perceptual phenomena at the confluence of art and haptics, as demonstrated by the Art & Design Track at the 2024 Eurohaptics conference.

New system perspectives are needed to develop the next generation of haptic interfaces for artistic contexts, which pose significant challenges at the technical and perceptual levels. Overcoming these challenges requires a transdisciplinary approach, involving engineering, human-computer interaction, performance studies, and the arts in general. Generating a dialogue between these research fields will be beneficial for obtaining innovative results in constructing future haptic interfaces for artistic usages.

The intent of this special issue is to define a promising road-map for the development of future haptic interfaces for artistic contexts, pushing the boundaries of haptic exploration and offering unique perspectives that blend technological innovation with sensory engagement. We invite technically rigorous submissions that challenge, provoke, and expand these frontiers. Submissions that neglect to rigorously explore the links between the arts and at least one of the fields of engineering, computer science, or human-computer interaction will not be considered.

Topics of interest include and are not limited to:

Haptic modeling, rendering, algorithms, and systems for the arts
Haptic interaction techniques and methods for the arts
Haptic hardware for the arts, including XR and multimodal/wearable displays
Perceptual, behavioral, and cognitive studies on haptics in arts
Data-driven approaches for haptic artistic representations
AI applications for haptics in the arts, including use of explainable or generative AI
Perceptual, behavioral, and cognitive studies that demonstrate user impact of haptics in the arts
Empirical studies that demonstrate the roles and effects of haptics in interaction with artwork
Installation art with haptic technologies, including haptic soundscapes
Musical haptics for performers and/or audiences
Haptic technology for creativity support
Affective haptics for the arts

If you are unsure whether your research topic fits the scope of this special issue, please contact the Guest Editors.

Submission instructions

We welcome top-quality original (unpublished) articles. Each submission will be peer-reviewed, and papers will be selected based on their impact, originality, and relevance to the special issue’s aims and scope.

All submissions should be formatted following the IEEE ToH journal instructions for authors and submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toh. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for evaluation for the Special Issue, please select “Special Issue: Haptics for the Arts” in the submission process.

Important dates

Submission deadline: September 1, 2025
First decision sent to authors: approximately three months after submission
Final decision sent to authors: approximately six months after submission
Final publication material due from authors: approximately seven months after submission

Guest editors

Luca Turchet – Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, Italy
Jeremy Cooperstock – Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, McGill University, Canada
Mounia Ziat – Experience Design, Bentley University, USA
Yongjae Yoo – Department of Artificial Intelligence, Hanyang University, Republic of Korea

Source and more information: https://www.ieee-ras.org/publications/toh/special-issues