Winter Substrates 2026
What does it take for people to be able to adapt the computer systems they use? This question gives rise to many interesting challenges that have been researched in academia and practice for decades. Under the term "substrates", this workshop brings together past and present research directions that explore and realise the vision of systems people truly own.
Our values are aligned with the Malleable Systems community who consider that software should be as easy to change as it is to use – a well-received essay on malleable software coincided with our 2025 workshop. Another alignment is with the local-first community who declare that you own your own data, in spite of the cloud.
Substrates are not limited to interactive systems with a user interface. Kell’s (2009) concept of an integration domain stretches the domain of substrates to link-time transformations of executable binaries and the lowest levels of the operating system (should there be one?). This leads us on to the core role of a substrate in establishing a relationship between the inside and outside of a running system. The notions of addressability and externalisability from Basman et al (2018) explain how to refer to and transmit the contents of a substrate from place to place, and open authorship which compiles substrate contents from an ecology of authors rather than insisting one author’s expression has authority over another. This notion of compilation derives from the data feminism framework of D’Ignazio and Klein (2020) which challenges differentials of power in data ecologies.
The common theme amongst all of these alignments of the substrates movement is that the full capabilities of the system, whether these relate to visibility, adaptation or transmission, should be placed at the disposal of the user rather than hidden behind abstraction or implementation boundaries, which positions substrates as a political project. The framework of Ecofeminism (Shiva & Mies, 1993) provides a clear feminist lens with which to see the importance of promoting local agency and user creativity in an ecology of artefacts:
Dominant economics is unable to take [self-provision] into account because it counts as production only that in which the producer and consumer are different, that means that only commodity production is production, and self-provisioning is non-productive work. This is the viewpoint that counts women’s heavy work-load as non-work.
Our workshop seeks to broaden participation beyond those who might traditionally identify as academic researchers. It is a perennial problem in our communities that work continues in separated self-citing silos who remain unaware of each other’s work over long timescales. It is our aim to create a forgiving, welcoming venue where workers with greatly divergent backgrounds can encounter and enrich each other.
We welcome participation from workers from academia, industry, independent scholars, and others, from any of the communities named above, and from any others who can see their goals reflected in the substrate agenda.
To foster fertile communications and give time for the composting of our thought, we encourage people who would like to talk or demonstrate to submit their work in advance. Please submit material for a talk/demo of up to 20 minutes, although shorter presentations are preferable.
The committee will evaluate each submission and give considered, constructive feedback contributing towards a sustained conversation. Please consult the work from previous workshops at https://software-substrates.github.io/proceedings/ before submitting.
If you don't have a submission, please send an email of a couple of sentences introducing yourself and your interest in the substrates community to the organisers when you apply for your ticket.
Important dates:
November 12th: Please have your contributions sent in to the workshop EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=substrates2026b
November 26th: Feedback will be sent by the committee and running order allocated
Submission Info:
For textual submissions, please keep to a length of approximately 8 pages of A4 equivalent, bearing in mind the reviewers' capacity for attention. Interactive submissions, perhaps embedded in your own substrate, are also hugely welcome but please do bear in mind archival considerations and it is recommended you deliver as much as possible in a statically hosted form, e.g. in GitHub pages. Remote participants should strongly consider sending a pre-recorded video of their talk to avoid technical issues on the day.
In addition to the reviewed track there will be a small number of slots available on the day for short lightning talks/demos of up to 5 minutes. Remote participation will be supported.
Looking forward to a lively event with thought-provoking discussion and great camaraderie!