Xenopoetics is a compositional method concerned with the production of volatile form. It destabilizes the human as the fixed center of meaning, generating symbolic pressure that unsettles cognition and reshapes perception.
Xenopoetics investigates how language, image, sound, and systems reorganize experience when released from familiar coordinates, engaging non-human cognition, symbolic mutation, and semiotic drift. Rather than transmitting concrete messages, the xenopoem induces structural mutation within the observer.
“Poem” does not designate a literary genre but a concentrated unit of form. It may manifest in any medium or event where perception reorganizes through contact.
Scope of Work
We seek work that suspends pre-formed coordinates.
Submissions structured around identity positions, sexuality, gender discourse, political advocacy, or social issue commentary will not be considered. The current cultural field provides extensive space for those forms of engagement. This conference is dedicated to another register.
We are interested in what emerges when discourse, the self, and the known are no longer the primary engine.
Media
Work must demonstrate conceptual development. All forms are welcome, including:
Writing
Visual and moving image work
Performance
Sound
Installation
Computational and technobiotic practices
Hybrid research formats
When thinking about your presentation, please keep in mind that this conference will be primarily hosted online, likely over Zoom, with discussion overflow held on Discord, where you can also see last year’s efforts, starting with the beginning of #text-channel.
Submission Requirements
Submissions may be sent to zoetica@gmail.com with the subject line, “Xenopoem Conference 2026”. Please include:
• A proposal of 500 to 700 words
• Documentation where relevant
• A brief statement describing how the work operates through xenopoetic method
This conference gathers works that enact structural mutation.
Zoetica Ebb, March 3, 2026