About the Symposium:
This two-day symposium reexamines democracy and citizenship by treating silence as an integral, rather than oppositional, feature of democratic culture. Silence can disrupt, slow down, knit communities together, reveal limits, and induce reflection. The symposium, part of the Democracy of Silence research project, reexamines logocentric concepts – voice, participation, freedom of speech – by attending to the political potential of silence (e.g. withdrawal, breaks, gaps, hesitations, disconnections, void, quitetude, disaffection) to interrupt the status quo, create openings and make new things sayable, or unsayable, together.
The symposium gathers researchers, artists, designers, and practitioners across disciplines to think with, and against, the regimes of voice, visibility, and engagement that have come to dominate contemporary democratic theory and digital culture alike. We are particularly interested in what silence does, refuses, holds, or opens in datafied societies: how silence fosters reflection, resists conformity, and influences decision-making at the edges and inside of platforms, states, institutions, communities. The purpose is to get one step closer to understading what a democracy of silence could look and feel like. That is, how can we reimagine the democratic potentials of silence in a society that hinges on vocal ideals of citizenship? What politics emerges by embracing silence as a democratic value, rather than a threat?
The symposium will place emphasis on discussions, interaction and experiences rather than conventional paper presentations. Accepted contributors will share a short pre-circulated contribution in advance, and the symposium itself will be devoted to working through these together, across panels, listening sessions, walks, and informal exchanges. Our hope is to leave with something held in common: a shared set of questions, a collective formulation, and the seeds of a longer trajectory (an edited volume or special issue is under consideration).
What contributions are we inviting?
We invite participation from anyone interested in the democratic potentials of silence. We also welcome alternative formats, such as artistic works, design concepts, or policy statements. Accepted submissions will be shared with all participants prior to the event.
While silence is the central theme, we invite contributions that consider silence in relation to one or more of the following sub-themes, and we welcome work that exceeds or rethinks these:
- The unsayable, the not-said, refusal of articulation, the limits of voice as a political idiom.
- The politics of withdrawal, opacity, disaffection, silence as protest and care work.
- Quiet, noise, listening, attention; sonic infrastructures of attention and inattention.
- Embodied silences, gestures and breath.
- Withholding, opting out, refusal of legibility; what computational systems cannot register.
Formats:
To ground the event across a range of disciplines and practices, we ask participants to submit a 1–2 page statement (500–800 words) on the democracy of silence in one of the following formats:
- Provocations and position papers: Provocations aim to unsettle comfortable paradigms and inspire reflection. Contributions may take the form of conceptual essays, speculative pieces, or critical commentaries that challenge, complicate, or expand how we understand silence in democratic culture.
- Works-in-progress (papers, projects, ideas): Unfinished ideas are welcome, including early-stage projects, half-formed arguments, or paper drafts that might benefit from collective discussion and attention.
- Design work, artistic research, sound pieces (incl. 2–3 images or links to documentation): Speculative, critical, or research-through-design contributions are encouraged.
Selection criteria:
- Serious engagement with silence as a site of inquiry in its own right, rather than as a metaphor lightly deployed.
- Generative of collective thinking. Proposals that open questions, frictions, or methods for the room will be prioritised over those that present closed findings.
- We will compose the programme to accommodate a range of disciplines, registers, geographies, and career stages. Submissions from outside the academy – for example, artists, designers, practitioners, community organisers – are warmly welcomed.
- Contributions that add an ‘x-factor’. Surprising and out of the box concepts that spark inspiration.
How to submit:
Submissions are made via our online form: https://nettskjema.no/a/629553.
Deadline 19 June, 2026.
You will be asked to provide:
- Name, affiliation (if any), contact email, pronouns (optional).
- Your 1-2 page statement/contribution.
- Two or three books, articles, or works – your own or others’ – that shape your thinking on silence and democracy. A sentence or two on what each does for you.
- Any technical or spatial requirements (especially for artistic, design, or workshop proposals) and any access needs.
Key dates:
Milestone Date: Submission deadline 19 June 2026 (23:59 CEST)
Notification of acceptance by 1 July 2026
Submission of revised contributions for circulation 12 August 2026
Circulation of accepted contributors 26 August 2026
Symposium 23–24 September 2026, Oslo
Practical information:
Dates and venue. 23–24 September 2026 in central Oslo [venue TBC]. We recommend arriving on 22 September; an informal welcome gathering is planned for the evening of 22 September.
Format: In-person only. Capacity is intentionally small (~35 contributors) to allow for sustained collective conversation across the two days.
Language: English.
Registration fee: None. Lunches, coffee, and one shared dinner are included.
Organisers and contact:
Convened by the Democracy of Silence project, University of Oslo.
Keynote speakers: [TBC]
Contact:
Prof. Taina Bucher: taina.bucher@media.uio.no ; for practical questions Tine Skjelstad: tine.skjelstad@media.uio.no