Making Futures 2021: Call for Contributions

Making Futures is Plymouth College of Art’s (@plymouthart) international research platform, exploring how contemporary crafts are practised, consisting of an international biennial conference, staff research groups, an online open-access journal and more…

Making Futures is Plymouth College of Art’s international research platform that explores contemporary art, craft, design-to-make and other forms of artisanal production. It investigates and promotes sustainable and socially-engaged forms of practices and maps the emerging trend towards locally-embedded and environmentally responsible production and distribution. Making Futures brings together creative practitioners in ways that enrich cross-disciplinary dialogue and facilitate knowledge exchange. It highlights ways in which these practitioners enrich our societies by constructing resilient communities capable of embracing social and environmental justice alongside purposeful economic regeneration.

Participants at Making Futures 2017

Making Futures consists of a range of interlinked activities including the Biennial conferences and events, an online journal, a staff research group, and a number of linked research projects and activities. Curated by Malcolm Ferris since 2009, the Biennial conference has become acknowledged as one of the leaders in its field, with invited editions taking place in China, South Korea and the Philippines.

The ninth Making Futures Biennial will take place online on 16th September 2021. It will consist of three thematically linked sessions, each of two hours’ duration. Each session will be led by a facilitator and a keynote speaker.

The overall theme of the event is Re-crafting the Local-Global Maker Relationship.

Making Futures 2019, hosted by Plymouth College of Art

We are now calling for contributions that address the following themes:

Session One:

Re-crafting the Local-Global Maker Relationship

Contributions may address:

• Ways in which small-scale, locally-embedded producers are engaging in place-making and identity and community building

• Expressions of a cosmopolitan localism

• Concrete engagement by makers with the global plane of action and its effects

• The role of digital communications and technologies in crafting local-global relationships.

Session Two:

Life Cycles of Material Worlds

Contributions may address environmental sustainability through:

• Exploring new materials research and the promotion of low carbon production and consumption footprints, especially in small-scale, locally-embedded enterprises

• Steps towards a fully decarbonised economy

• Explorations by makers of life cycles of material worlds that might enable them to bring the human and non-human into equitable and sustainable relationships.

Session Three:

Resilience Through Leadership and Organisational Form

Contributions may address economic sustainability through:

• Exploring innovative forms of leadership and organisation that address challenges faced by small-scale creative producers

• Leadership and organisational forms that can give voice and power to marginalised groups and communities

• Bringing about ethically-grounded value chains from source to supply, to design and production, to marketing and consumer use, to re-use and recycling.

We are seeking contributions of no more than ten minutes in duration. Reflecting the online format, contributions that include visual presentations are encouraged, and the inclusion of moving image/ audio-visual content is welcome. Alongside contributions delivered “live” at the event we are able to accept recorded contributions that will be made available on our social media before and after the event. The next edition of the Making Futures online journal will be based on the event and selected contributors may be asked to develop a journal article from their contribution.

If you wish to contribute, please provide an abstract of not more than 350 words outlining your contribution, together with:

• A short biographical statement (5-6 lines)

• Your email contact details

• Institutional affiliation (if any)

Also, please tell us if your contribution will be live or recorded and whether you wish to include moving image or audio-visual content.