News
Urban Creativity 2025 Lisbon Conference: 3, 4 and 5 of July
NEW Deadline for conference abstracts: MAY 15
We encountered several technical issues with the registration of new users. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. To ensure that everyone who intends to submit has the proper conditions to do so, we are extending the deadline.
Save the dates! It will be a hybrid event, we warmly welcome everyone who can join us in Lisbon. More information will be shared through our newsletter. The generic theme for the 2025 Urban Creativity initiative is "Territory".
Ideological, physical, disciplinary territories. Private and public territory. Territory of the arts, territory of the sciences. Borders as conventions, abstractions, personal or collective. Defining boundaries, overcoming boundaries, dilution of boundaries. Political territory, communal, liberal, democratic. Territorial absence, materialism, material nihilism. Graffiti territory: when ends historical graffiti and it starts "modern" graffiti? Were are the limits of the "urban" territory? What can be defined as "the territory of the user"? Art and Place isn't it in the same territory of Public Art?
As you know, Urban Creativity is represented by several publications.
Submissions are welcome trough the following links:
GSA - Graffiti and Street Art Journal
UXUC - User Experience and Urban Creativity Journal (co editorial issue)
VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies (new journal)
EGI – Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography (new journal - specific call)
Accepted abstracts will be invited both for presentation at the conference and for publication. Articles will be published on a rolling basis as they are received and approved by the scientific committee. Therefore, we encourage authors to submit their full papers as soon as possible.
However, there are two key deadlines for publication:
- For inclusion in the August edition, articles must be submitted by July 5.
- For inclusion in the November edition (the final edition of 2025), articles must be submitted by October 5.
Call for Papers
EGI – Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography
Script and Writing Systems Studies
Theme: Common Grounds
Under the theme “Common Grounds: Converging Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Graffiti,” this first issue of EGI – Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography seeks to explore how diverse forms of writing systems, graffiti, and iconography intersect as modes of expression, communication, and cultural documentation. By focusing on unofficial written material—historical and contemporary—our goal is to create a common ground for discussion, fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue between epigraphy, archaeology, manuscript studies, visual culture, and urban creativity research.
All info here
Urban Territories as Malleable Matter for Negotiating Urban Futures
Anchors, Assemblages, Antagonisms
Call for Abstracts – Urban Creativity Conference 2025, 3-5 July 2025, Lisbon
Philipp Schnell & Vera Penz, Co-Editors of UXUC – User Experience and Urban Creativity Scientific Journal
Territories have traditionally demarcated spheres of political influence and translated power relations into physical spaces. The delimitation of territories separated friends from foes and ensured that policy and polity infused the places of everyday life of citizens – consequently structuring individual lifeworlds and embodied environments. The states’ legal systems have been an indispensable building block of territorialized power systems that culminated in supranational entities such as the European Union. These vast organizations of supranational metagovernance changed the scales of mediated power relations and resulted in abstract political constructs, whose inner workings are often hard to grasp. Responsibilities and competencies at the level of nation states seem to have been diluted, as decision-making power moved away from national governments. At the same time grassroots organizations and political activists of all colors are gaining traction and are searching for answers to pressing issues and problems by re-posing a centuries-old question: Whose territory?
nature drawing nature
3 and 4 of April - online seminar
We have invited contributions that explore the interconnectedness of humans and nature through the lens of drawing. As part of nature, everything we create—every line, every mark—emerges from and interacts with the environment. This theme emphasizes drawing as a tool for reflection, care, and awareness, urging us to consider the impact of our actions on the delicate balance of ecosystems.
Inspired by ideas of biodiversity preservation as gestures of hope and responsibility, and considering drawing as an ecological act, we have received papers that address drawing as both a creative and ethical practice.
Seminar videos, program, and speakers details. All here.
Full papers will be published in:
BBDS - Black Book Drawing and Sketching journal
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2025 New formalities and journals
Many of you know that Urban Creativity has been a unipersonal initiative (supported by many friends and colleagues), with more or less part-time dedication since 2014. In 2025, my commitment to this initiative will become full-time. For bureaucratic reasons, the formal structure will remain unipersonal, and a new name has been introduced: "Wise Thorough" (WT). Under WT, alongside Urban Creativity, several non-urban-related journals and seminars will be organized, including:
- EGI – Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography
- VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies
- MVL - Medical Visual Language
- BBDS - Black Book Drawing and Sketching (renewed)
The generic theme for 2025 Wise Thorough (seminars and journals) is "Common Grounds" More information will be shared in upcoming newsletter.
2025 New publishing "mechanics"
Our indexation processes continue to grow and improve. AIS is now indexed in Scopus (quartile to be designated), and we anticipate more exciting updates during 2025. In principle, all articles will be made available online as soon as they are accepted for publishing. This change will enhance the visibility of researchers' work, while the official issue launch will still coincide with the publication's finalization.
The APC fee structure remains unchanged (ranging from waived to institutional fees), but the charge will shift from being per article to being per author (on indexed titles). We remain committed to fostering enduring collaborations with institutions to provide their staff, professors, researchers, and students the best opportunities to freely publish their work in our journals. Share this information with your University librarian.
2025 Editors (please contact)
All journals are open to receiving proposals for new issues. We are eager to include your ideas and encourage you to suggest themes or topics for our journals. While we will be reaching out to some of our contacts directly, we also welcome you to take the initiative and share your proposals with us.
