Beta Programme
Technology is shaping how we live, work and understand the world, but much of this change happens outside of public cultural spaces.
Beta creates opportunities for people to encounter these technologies differently, through art, through experience, and through collective reflection.
Artist open calls
Throughout the year, Beta launches open calls for commissions, residencies and collaborative projects, inviting artists to explore emerging technologies through ambitious, research-led practice and present new work as part of the wider Beta programme.
Exhibitions
From immersive installations to interactive experiences and hybrid media, our exhibitions create space for audiences to encounter technology through creativity, curiosity and critical engagement.
Events, installations and talks
Through talks, workshops, conferences and public discussions, we bring together artists, researchers, technologists and cultural leaders to explore the opportunities, challenges and ethical questions shaping our digital future. These events are designed to make complex ideas accessible while encouraging participation, debate and shared learning.
Beta Festival
Every November, Beta Festival transforms Dublin into a meeting place for art, technology and society. Across two weeks of exhibitions, performances, installations, talks and public events, the festival brings together Irish and international artists, researchers and audiences to experience, question and imagine the technologies shaping our world.
In 2026 the programme will take place from 6-22 November across The Digital Hub campus (The Bank, Digital Depot and The Tower), Project Arts Centre, IMMA Living Canvas.
The Other Audience
Beta Festival is launching a new strand of programming in 2026 for non-human audiences.
For 2026, we begin with our most immediate non-human companions: our pets. Supported by Dublin City Council and The Digital Hub artist Gabriela Waclawska is developing a new work that takes animals seriously as audiences, participants, and co-creators.
The F Word
The F Word programme brings together artists, researchers and young people across Ireland, Germany and France to ask urgent questions about facts, freedom, fragmentation and friction.
It is an initiative supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund 2026, the Embassy of France in Ireland, Alliance Française Dublin, The Digital Hub, Embassy of Germany in Dublin and Goethe-Institut Ireland.
When disinformation, authoritarian narratives, and reactionary ideologies are spreading faster than the facts, and when both climate signals and democratic norms are routinely ignored or deliberately undermined this programme brings people together to examine how truth, authority, and belonging are shaped in an increasingly polarised digital landscape.
In July 2026 as part of the programme we hosted our first Summer School with talks from Angelika Sharygina on Al literacy and Elaine Burke on media literacy in the era of Al and a workshop and game from Vlad Glaveanu on misinformation. We also had presentations from Tactical Tech on The RePlaybook: A Field Guide to the Climate and Information Crisis as well as their new project The Toxic Triangle which provides an over-the-shoulder look into the experience of young people using Al and social media.
The 2026 F Word artists are: Carys D Coburn, Maureen Beguin and Samuel Julian Grace, all of whom will develop new works for this years festival in November.
The 2026 Youth Advisory from across Ireland, Germany and France are: Jennifer O’Brien, Marie Renaud, Ndakhté Diouf, Martin Gruber, Juan Pedro Díaz Martínez and Alessa Eggeling.
Force Quit
A strand of Beta programming and research exploring digital sovereignty, technological self-reliance and divestment from mainstream platforms, devices and infrastructures.
Through hands-on workshops in cyberdeck building, mesh networking and permacomputing, Force Quit invites participants to reconsider their relationship with their technological tools. From building and modifying our own devices to experimenting with decentralised networks, reused hardware and lower-impact computing, the programme asks: what alternatives become possible when we stop accepting technology on the terms it is given to us?
International Programmes
Connecting Ireland to Global Conversations in Art and Technology
Beta's work extends far beyond Ireland, through international partnerships, Creative Europe programmes, artist exchanges and collaborative commissions, Beta connects Irish artists, researchers and audiences with leading cultural organisations across Europe and beyond.
These partnerships create opportunities for artistic development, public engagement and knowledge exchange while positioning Ireland within a wider international conversation about art, technology and society.
Events
BETA Festival
November 6 to November 22, 2026
Event Dates
Dublin, Ireland
Location
Ticketed event
Price