New Initiative SIGGRAPH for Peace Leads the Global Community in Celebrating Digital Innovation to Build a Better World With Technology

The 51st annual conference places a special emphasis on providing new forms of sustainable impact for society and business across all channels with a special event for attendees on 29 July featuring an amazing lineup of guests and contributors — as well as an International Pavilion.

For the past 50 years, SIGGRAPH has brought together the global computer graphics community. This year, the conference, which will take place in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center from Sunday, 28 July, to Thursday, 1 August, 2024, will focus on a new initiative featuring graphics’ global impact.

For the first time since its inception, SIGGRAPH for Peace welcomes an amazing lineup of guests and contributors for a unique, one-hour session to discuss new perspectives, meet with world-leading personalities, and learn from real-life cases. Taking place on Monday, 29 July, this event is dedicated to all SIGGRAPH participants, in addition to the International Pavilion, with the hopes of inspiring attendees to enhance their potential and get involved in new projects to build a better world.

“Computer graphics and interactive techniques reveals major perspectives of impact on citizens, business, and the planet. SIGGRAPH opens a new opportunity to rethink digital innovation frameworks to reach this impact,” Nicolas Henchoz, SIGGRAPH 2024 Global Diplomat and Director of EPFL+ECAL Lab in Switzerland, said. “Overspecialization has led to tech-driven innovation, addressing the identified problems and business opportunities next door. It’s time to think more about the field of application with large and sustainable needs, like environment, health, and peace, and also to include human perception and cultural dimension to foster adoption,” he added.

SIGGRAPH for Peace is a unique event open to all SIGGRAPH participants, including engineers, exhibitors, artists, and visitors. Attendees will discover how the world of computer graphics can foster new solutions for a better future with a panel discussion featuring a wide range of prestigious panelists. These panelists include Yves Daccord, CEO of the International Red Cross (2010-2020) and current chairman of Principles for Peace; Yannis Ioannidis, ACM President and professor of informatics and telecom at University of Athens; Andres Burbano, SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Chair; and Dr. Béatrice Harlev (Hasler), XR researcher and pioneer in VR-based conflict resolution. In addition to panelists, SIGGRAPH for Peace features exclusive audiovisual contributions from experts, including Moon Ribas, artist and co-founder of the Cyborg.org Foundation, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Columbia University faculty, former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations, President of the International Crisis Group.

“It’s a new initiative. We hope to create awareness about the amazing potential and induce a movement with new ambassadors and actors. We introduce SIGGRAPH for health, SIGGRAPH for environment, and SIGGRAPH for Peace. We have decided to focus on peace because it’s an urgent need. Also, many people barely imagine what is possible here with our disciplines. Let’s foster business for peace. We will show some very pragmatic examples and actors on the ground to emphasize this potential,” Henchoz said of the hope and impact SIGGRAPH for Peace will instill in attendees, which hailed from 78 countries on six continents in 2023.

In addition to SIGGRAPH for Peace, there is an International Pavilion in the SIGGRAPH 2024 Exhibition, where guests will discover a welcoming environment inclusive of representatives from several countries. At the center of this pavilion, attendees will discover and interact with the Open Books Installation from the EPFL+ECAL Lab, the design research center of the EPFL and the Photo Elysée Museum in Switzerland. They can delve into exceptional photobook collections and jump between books and visual sequences thanks to interaction design research and AI tools. This installation features a special book selection curated specifically for SIGGRAPH 2024 by the museum’s curator, covering peace, conflict, health, and environment — all core topics of the Global Diplomat’s initiative. The project is the result of a two-year research collaboration involving designers, engineers, curators, and psychologists.

“SIGGRAPH has been very effective in the scientific, technological, and artistic dimensions. It’s an international reference. It’s confirmed this year with a spectacular increase in contributions. That said, the overspecialization of science, art, and technology has simultaneously created silos. Some other disciplines, in health or the environment, may not be aware of how SIGGRAPH can help them more easily share their stories and advancements with computer graphics and interactive techniques,” Henchoz noted. “SIGGRAPH has a responsibility to bring its leading expertise and competencies to other domains and simultaneously understand how it can support these domains. When you think about the potential in health, environment, and peace, it’s so exciting! It combines benefits for all of us,” he concluded.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a Virtual Access option.

SOURCE SIGGRAPH