Society for the Scientific Study of Juggling (in formation)

First Announcement · Berlin, 15–16 April 2027

First International Conference on the Science of Juggling

Movement, Mathematics, Materials, History and Regulation

ICSJ 2027 is a two-day conference on juggling as an object of study. It brings together research in motor control and neuroscience, mathematics and robotics, materials and product regulation, insurance and law, history and philosophy.

Please noteICSJ 2027 is a strictly theoretical conference. Practical demonstrations do not form part of the programme, and juggling is not permitted on the premises.

Theme Constraint: Task, Environment and the Organisation of Skilled Action

Register interest The call for papers opens on 1 December 2026.
ball 1 ball 2 ball 3 PRN
Fig. 1. The three-ball cascade (siteswap 3) in four representations. (a) Kinematic model in motion-capture format, frontal plane, with projected elbow angles; pronasale reference marker (PRN), Ø 45 mm. (b) Path of ball 1 as a 15-term Fourier series; mean residual 7 mm. (c) Phase portrait of all three balls under the impulsive catch-and-throw idealisation; inset, ball phases on the unit circle and the Kuramoto order parameter r. Panels (a)–(c) at 0.5× playback. (d) Vertical motion as a gravitational quantum bouncer in rescaled units (ζ = z/ℓg, τ = t/tg): a Gaussian wavepacket in the first 16 Airy eigenstates against the classical trajectory (dashed). For a 120 g ball ℓg = 3.4 × 10−23 m, so a real cascade lies near n ≈ 3 × 1032.
Dates
Thursday 15 – Friday 16 April 2027
City
Berlin-Mitte, Germany
Format
Papers, posters, workshops, an Oxford-style debate and a conference dinner
Language
English
Call for papers
1 December 2026 – 31 January 2027

Programme

The programme is organised in eleven strands. The titles below are invited contributions; further papers will be selected from the open call. Speakers will be announced in the final programme on 31 March 2027.

  1. 01
    Motor Control and Biomechanics
    • Gaze-Through and Zenith Monitoring: Expertise-Related Differences in Visual Search During Three- and Five-Ball Cascades, With an Instructed-Fixation Exercise
    • Passive Stability in Rhythmic Ball Bouncing: Negative Racket Acceleration at Impact as a Strategy for Minimising Corrective Control
  2. 02
    Motor Learning and Neuroscience
    • Juggling and Brain Structure Since 2004: Transient Grey-Matter Change in hMT/V5, Posterior Parietal White Matter and the Replication Record
    • After Training Stops: The Time Course of Grey-Matter Renormalisation in hMT/V5 and the Posterior Intraparietal Sulcus Following Cessation of Juggling Practice
  3. 03
    Mathematics, Physics and Notation
    • Shannon’s Uniform Juggling Theorem Revisited: (F + D)H = (V + D)N, Its Assumptions and Its Boundary Cases
    • Juggling Under Altered Gravity: Internal Models of g, Flight-Time Scaling and Predicted Cascade Parameters at Lunar and Martian Surface Gravity
  4. 04
    Robotics and Computation
    • From Two Balls in 56 Minutes to N-Ball Cascades: Learning and Kinematic Planning for Robotic Toss Juggling, 2020–2026
    • Validity of Model-Generated Vanilla Siteswaps: A Benchmark of Large Language Models Under the Collision Criterion
  5. 05
    Materials, Manufacture and Sustainability
    • Millet, Birdseed, PVC Granulate and Polymer Microspheres: A Comparative Assessment of Beanbag Fillings for Durability, Shape Retention and End-of-Life Pathways
    • Synthetic Polymer Microparticles in Juggling Props Under REACH Annex XVII Entry 78: Article or Mixture, Containment by Technical Means and Impact-Related Release Pathways
  6. 06
    History and Historiography
    • Reading the Beni Hasan Jugglers: Practitioner Identification of Patterns in Middle Kingdom Wall Paintings from Tombs 15 and 17
    • Yiliao of Shinan and the End of a Conflict: Juggling as Diplomacy in Zhuangzi 24 and Its Later Elaborations
  7. 07
    Labour, Economics and Trade
    • When Does a Lecture Become a Performance? Withholding Tax under § 50a EStG on Non-Resident Speakers Who Demonstrate
    • The Internationale Artisten-Loge and Collective Bargaining for Variety and Circus Performers in Berlin, 1901–1933
  8. 08
    Liability, Insurance and Regulation
    • Pricing Liability Cover for Chainsaw Juggling: Poisson–Gamma Frequency Models and Bühlmann–Straub Credibility Weighting on a Very Small Portfolio
    • Fire Manipulation in Assembly Venues: The “Nature of the Event” Exception in the Berlin Betriebs-Verordnung and Comparable Länder Rules
  9. 09
    Public Space, Venues and the Law
    • Airborne but Not Aircraft: Kites, Sky Lanterns, Thrown Sports Objects and the Outer Boundary of “sonstige für die Benutzung des Luftraums bestimmte Geräte” in § 1(2) No. 11 LuftVG
    • Sixty Minutes per Pitch: The Regulation of Street Performance in Berlin’s Districts under § 11 BerlStrG and District Guidance
  10. 10
    Health, Safety and Research Ethics
    • Dropped-Object Consequence Classification Applied to Juggling Props: Mass, Fall Height and the 40-Joule Threshold
    • Object Manipulation in Circus Injury Epidemiology: What 18,336 Recorded Injuries in Professional Circus Artists Do and Do Not Tell Us About Jugglers
  11. 11
    Philosophy, Aesthetics and Performance
    • Juggling Is Not Playing: Seriousness, Repetition and the Contemporary Juggling Work
    • Siteswap as Score: Notation, Composition and Interpretation in Contemporary Juggling Choreography

Plenary sessions

Keynote lectures
Two keynote lectures, one on each day. Speakers will be announced in the Second Announcement.
Panel
Knowing How: Skill, Expertise and the Limits of Description
Oxford-style debate
This House Believes That Juggling Research Has Learned More from Jugglers Than Jugglers Have Learned from Juggling Research
Roundtable
Priorities for Juggling Research, 2027–2037
Closing plenary
Rapporteur’s synthesis and adoption of the Berlin Statement on Priorities for Juggling Research

Call for papers

Contributions are invited from any discipline that studies juggling, its practitioners, its objects or its regulation. Submissions that bring methods from one field to questions usually asked in another are particularly welcome.

Abstracts of up to 300 words, in English, may be submitted for papers (15 minutes plus 5 minutes’ discussion), posters (A0 portrait) and workshops (60 or 90 minutes). All abstracts are reviewed by the programme committee.

1 Dec 2026Submission opens
Jan 2027Second Announcement: keynotes, fees and registration
31 Jan 2027Deadline for abstracts
15 Feb 2027Notification of acceptance
31 Mar 2027Final programme published
15–16 Apr 2027Conference, Berlin

Practical information

  • Venue. Berlin-Mitte. The venue will be confirmed in the Second Announcement.†
  • Registration. Registration opens with the Second Announcement. The registration desk opens at 07:30 on both days.
  • Access. The venue will be step-free, with an induction loop and live captioning in the main hall and a quiet room on both days. Details follow in the Second Announcement.
  • Conference dinner. Thursday evening, on the premises. Places are limited.

Expression of interest

Register your interest to receive the call for papers and the Second Announcement. Registering interest is free and does not commit you to attend.

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