7th #nfcdab – Open Call

The best thing a child can do with his toys is to break them. – attributed to Hegel?!

We welcome you to the open call for the 7th edition of #nfcdab (Near-Field Communication Digital Art Biennale). It’s a show travelling through Europe every two years (formerly Amsterdam, Wroclaw, Warszaw, Gol, Valencía, Pedreguer, Berlin, Thessaloniki, Gardony, Dusseldorf, and others). The biennale uses NFC/QR-technology to exhibit online net art in physical, public places. As such it’s a bridge between the digital and the physical and makes it possible to create site-specific, contextual and multi-layered works.
#nfcdab keeps a DIY/DIWO (do it with others) open format and protocol: no jury, no fees, no return(!). The focus is on informal experiment with technology with much irreverence and humor.
Deadline for submission: 30.08.2026.

Submit here


This edition features two/three different platforms for exhibition. You might take part in all of these:

– The Amsterdam show –
The Amsterdam show will probably take place in and around the Rietveld Pavilion organised by browserbased.org. The call is open for all manners of online works: net- and code focused works, moving or still images, sound, zines, comic strips, etc.
how to submit:
graphics we ask for:
A4 vertical: 21cm x 29,7cm
sticker horizontal: 8,5cm x 4,1cm
Upload for both format: A qr code + text. Text can be title and author or whatever the author wants.
NFC TAG: short text or link – max 100 characters with spaces.


– The nfcdb initiative –
#nfcdb (NFC database) is one of the platforms in this biennale. If you want to participate, please place a QR- or NFC-tag with (link to) your online work, place it in your local, public environment, then upload the work to the database (see below) where it will be shown on a map and with extended info how and where to access it. We also welcome QR/NFC-works done in the past (preferably still existing). The intention is to provide a global show and register of current and former works of #nfcdab-related activities, i.e. using the technology to exhibit online art in public environments. We keep a DIY/DIWO (do it yourself/ do it with others) open format and protocol: no jury, no fees, no return(!). The focus is on informal experimenting with technology with much irreverence and humor, with a database to back it up and a mapping to show and for the public to explore both online and on the ground.
Link to nfcdb and submission to it: https://noemata.net/nfcdb/

– The tagdrop/ app – TagDrop turns small files – text, HTML pages, images, audio, SVGs – into self-contained QR codes that work completely offline. Print one on a sticker or sheet of paper and leave it somewhere; anyone with the TagDrop app (or any QR scanner that follows tagdrop: links) can scan it and view the content immediately, with no internet connection, server, or account required.
For more: https://github.com/mofosyne/tagdrop


#nfcdab channels:
-blog: https://nfcdab.org/
-fb/group: https://web.facebook.com/groups/1nfcdabiennale/
-fb/page: https://www.facebook.com/nfcdab/
-app: https://github.com/mofosyne/tagdrop
-data base: https://noemata.net/nfcdb/

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