Register for Making Futures conference

The 2024 Making Futures conference, on the theme ‘Beyond Objects, Materiality at the Edge of Making’, takes place at Arts University Plymouth in October 2024.

The event will explore craft encounters with current material innovations where artists, artisans, designers and others work across disciplines and communities toward a more equitable, sustainable and resilient world.

The conference will examine how these encounters begin to alter both the formal and conceptual expectations of craft, opening traditional techniques to the behavioural, biological and environmental dimensions of physical matter beyond object-making, to take a more holistic view of how materiality shapes and influences human experience.

The organisers state, “As with all forms of creative practice, the boundary of what is considered ‘craft’ is fugitive – adapting and transforming as we look with urgency at how the deep, historical knowledge and artisan traditions associated with craft might provide contemporary society with an alternative to our current habits of consumption and enable us to live more respectfully with each other, the natural world and our planet.”

Keynote speakers include Sherry Lassiter, President and CEO of The Fab Foundation, and Elissa Brunato, CEO and Founder of Radiant Matter.

The conference takes place from 17-19 October 2024 from 9:30am-5pm daily at Arts University Plymouth, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, PL4 8AT.

Making Futures is Arts University Plymouth’s research platform exploring contemporary craft and maker movements as ‘change agents’ in 21st-century society. It was first convened in 2009.

Find out more and book via this link. Please note that the conference schedule is subject to change while the programme is finalised.