Working towards environmental sustainability in NIME

The 2020 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) was special for many reasons. Personally, it marked my first active participation in the conference, with two accepted papers [1, 2]. For everyone, the conference was unique in that it was held entirely online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The organizers did an incredible job putting the conference together in this alternate format on the fly, for which I would like to extend my deep thanks.

The extraordinary time in which we live, and the circumstances around which the conference was held contributed to spirited discussions throughout the conference and after on a number of topics including accessibility, ethics, diversity and the environment, and led to the recruitment of a number of officers to address these issues, both in the planning of future NIME conferences and in the collective research practices of the NIME community.

I am happy to be serving as one of three NIME environmental officers, alongside colleagues Adam Pultz Melbye and Raul Masu, and we have drafted an environmental statement for the NIME conference that lays out our goals.

Every action we perform, including research, has an impact on our ecosystem. NIME is committed to environmental sustainability and conservation in both the delivery of the annual conference and in our day to day research and artistic practices.

Read our complete statement here.