CfP | From Tacit to Tokenised: Critical Perspectives on AI Text-to-Audio I

Registration Now Open – deadline 9 June AoE

From Tacit to Tokenised: Critical Perspectives on AI Text-to-Audio Interfaces

We invite participation in a NIME 2026 workshop exploring the functionalising of language in semantic cues for AI audio engines.

**Tuesday 23 June 2026, 9am-1pm

**LUL Here East Campus in London’s Olympic Park

**NIME full or workshop day only registration is required

In AI text-to-audio interfaces, forms of tacit musical knowledge traditionally developed through embodied interaction are translated into tokenised linguistic descriptors that condition generative models. These models assume that language can serve as a proxy for structuring latent representations and producing musically meaningful outputs. However, musicians and researchers have long argued that music resists containment through verbal description, that it does not operate like a language and exceeds the limits of pure structure.

This half-day workshop will explore, through hands-on activities and collective discussion, how text-to-sound systems attempt to fix relations between words and sound, and how these mappings intersect with the diverse sonic cultures, languages, pedagogies, and histories that shape musical practice. In doing so, we will reflect on how we talk about music, how we negotiate audio representations, and the values we can construct in AI systems, considering the global implications and hegemonies being introduced by multi-national AI giants in shaping the way we conceptualise sound.

We foreground first- and second-person methodologies, inviting musicians, researchers, artists, designers, educators, and creative practitioners from NIME and off-NIME communities to examine musical interaction design and AI practices from within, positioning their own experiences and creative processes as sites of critical artistic inquiry.

As part of the workshop, the organisers will conduct an ethnographic study of participants’ experiences and reflections, including observational notes, contributions to a shared ideation canvas, photographs of the workshop process, and recordings of short performances with generated audio. Participation in data collection will be voluntary and subject to informed consent.

Important dates:

• Expression of interest / Registration deadline: 9 June AoE
• Notification of acceptance: 12 June AoE
• Workshop: 23 June, 09:00–13:00
• Conference: 24–26 June

Register here!

https://comma.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/critical-text-audio-interfaces

https://nime2026.org

Organisers: 

Charalampos Saitis (Queen Mary University of London)

Fabio Morreale (Sony AI)

Landon Morrison (University of Rochester)

Ashley Noel-Hirst (Queen Mary University of London)

Rebecca Fiebrink (University of the Arts London)

Joseph Meyer (University of the Arts London)

Courtney N. Reed (Loughborough University London)