PIKSEL

An international festival for society, electronic art and open-source code and technological freedom. This year festival focus on the vital connections between ecology, technology and art. We’re presenting special programs, exhibitions, and happenings that move between soil regeneration, digital ecologies, sonic experimentation and much more.

Sign up here

Join us in bringing this vibrant event to life by volunteering in one of the following areas:

Rigging
Camera/Documentation
Exhibition Hosts
Kitchen (simple serving)
Runners/Tech Support

If you’re ready to dive in and be part of something special, we’d love to have you on board!

PIKSEL25
20-23 Nov – Bergen – Norway

Piksel is an international festival for electronic art and technological freedom and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances, and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free technologies.

You will receive a festival pass with full access to all our events, a festival t-shirt and poster, a work certificate, and an experience for life!

Sign up here

Or send an email to prod (AT) piksel.no with the subject line “Volunteer Piksel Festival 25.”

Looking forward to hear back from you!

SEMINAR.EXHIBITION.HAPPENING.

Perma/Soils invites you to discover how communities from Asia, Latin America, and the North (un)save their soils — through a vibrant program including a seminar, an exhibition, and a happening at the Piksel Festival.

What can the taste of an oyster possibly tell us about the health of a forest? Why on earth do we call it “data mining” — and what is it really mining at all? So, how are other cultures actually healing their soils — and what can we learn from them?

Developed in collaboration with the University of Oslo and based on the Anthropogenic Soils research project, this seminar brings together artists, architects, and researchers to explore how soils—living, stratified, and deeply interconnected—link ecology, technology, and culture.

Soils are archives of care and pollution, witnesses to both human damage and resilience. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, our speakers reveal how the infrastructures that underpin our digital lives are built on the same extractive logics that deplete our land.

Seminar

From agricultural runoff and algae blooms (Ewen Chardronnet) to migration and belonging in Punjab’s soils (Dr. Davina Kaur Patel); from fermentation as ecological healing (Maya Minder) to the architectures of data extraction and storage (Marina Otero Verzier), adding the Nordic perspective on how we engage with permafrost physically and emotionally (Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith), Perma/Soils maps the porous boundaries between soil and system, nature and network.

The seminar also pays tribute to Shigeatsu Hatakeyama (1943–2024) — oyster farmer, environmentalist, and author of “The Forest in Love with the Sea.” His life’s work reminds us that the vitality of marine life begins inland, in the forests and rivers that feed the sea.

Happening

A seaweed & oyster bar after the session continues this reflection through taste — celebrating the symbiosis between ecosystems, species, and sensibilities from the hands of Maya Minder and Ewen Chardronnet.

Exhibition

At Studio 207, the Perma/Soils exhibition brings together works that explore the entanglements of soil, ecosystems, and technology: Cecilia Jonsson investigates the historic Litlabø pyrite mines and their severe water contamination; Solar4Rain (NSA Collective, Maite Cajaraville & Gisle Frøysland) connects two distant ecological systems in a solar-powered sci-fi narrative of renewable energy exchange; Marina Otero Verzier presents the film from her installation Compost Computacional, recently awarded a Special Mention at the S+T+ARTS Prize 2025, critically examining the environmental cost of digital infrastructures; A feeling of longing that freezes and thaws by the artist Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith exploring the poetics of permafrost; and the Norwegian premiere of Umi No Oya (ウミノヲヤ) – The Mother of the Sea by Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet traces the legacy of British phycologist Kathleen Drew-Baker and her discovery of red algae life cycles, which transformed nori cultivation in postwar Japan.

Perma/Soils places living soil at the heart of our ecological and digital imagination, asking us how we can restore balance, from the soil to the sea, from matter to data. Join us in Bergen. Let’s get to work! Let’s reflect on our roots.

25.piksel.no | November 20–23 | PIKSEL 25 – Perma/Soils

Piksel25
November 20-23 2025
Bergen, Norway

Dear friends,

We are excited to announce the call for projects for the 23nd edition of the Piksel Festival!

Piksel will again go hybrid this year, so we welcome ideas for both online and physical collaborative activities. We are also interested in projects that involve the virtual gallery IDLE. If you are a 3D artist, live coder, or feel inspired by the virtual environment IDLE (Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art), we would love to hear your ideas. IDLE includes a virtual gallery that mimics the physical Piksel Studio 207 and is connected to the IDLE IoT system, with lights, screens, and a sound system controlled by the internet (Internet of Things system). Learn more at https://idle.piksel.no/.

To make the most of our resources and create a more sustainable event, we are extending the exhibition period from the festival dates until mid-December. We encourage you to present art installations that can be built in Bergen to minimize international transport, aligning with our green strategy. Due to limited resources, we will prioritize projects from individual artists or artist collectives that can explore a specific theme through multiple artworks and workshops. We warmly encourage artists to apply to different open tracks, as this will help us better understand the full scope of your work.

Please feel free to submit your projects to any of the open tracks: presentations, workshops, concerts, installations, and PikselSavers.

Piksel offers travel to Norway, accommodation, and meals during the festival and the setup days in advance to help you realize your project.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

!!!!!!!!!! Deadline — October 31st 2025 !!!!!!!!!!

Please use the online submit form at: https://pretalx.com/piksel25/

More info: https://piksel.no/

open CALL for PROJECTS

For the exhibition and other parts of the program we currently seek projects in the following categories:

1. Installations
Projects to be included in the exhibitions. The works must be realized by the use of free and open source technologies.
For Piksel25 we specially encourage projects in the field of DIY BIOart and renewable/sustainable technologies to apply.

2. Audiovisual performance
Live art realized by the use of free software and/or open/DIY hardware.
If you are a 3D artist/live coder or feel inspired by the virtual environment IDLE, Inclusive Digital Laboratory for Experimental Art, we would like to hear your ideas. IDLE consists of a virtual gallery, mimicking the physical Piksel Studio 207 and the IDLE IoT system, lights, screen and sound system controlled by internet (Internet of Things).
https://idle.piksel.no/

3. Presentations
Innovative DIY/open hardware and audiovisual software tools or software art released under a free/open license. (Also includes presentations of artistic projects realized using free/open technologies.)
For Piksel25 we specially encourage projects in the field of DIY BIOart and renewable/sustainable technologies to apply.

4. Workshops
Hands on workshops utilizing free software and/or open/DIY hardware for artistic use.
For Piksel25 we specially encourage projects in the field of DIY BIOart and renewable/sustainable technologies to apply.

5. PikselSavers
Video and software art based on the screensaver format – short audiovisual (non)narratives made for endless looping. Possible thematic fields includes but are not limited to: sustainable resource allocation, renewable technologies, energy harvesting, fair trade hardware, free content, open access, open data, DIY economy, shared development. The works must be realized by the use of free/open source technologies.

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Piksel is an international festival for electronic art and technological freedom. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of art and free technologies.
Piksel25 is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Vestland Fylkeskommune and others.