<p>Building on the success of its three previous editions, Making Futures invites proposals for papers and presentations that address the main conference topic, thematic fields and workshops.<br /></p> <p>Making Futures seeks to be broad and inclusive, and invites a diverse range of response, from artists, craftspeople, designer-makers, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/resources/fab-lab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fab Lab </a> and maker-movement enthusiasts, campaigners and activists, curators, historians and theorists.</p> <p>Making Futures investigates contemporary craft and maker movements as ‘change agents’ within 21st century society, particularly in relation to global sustainability agendas, social entrepreneurialism and community regeneration.</p> <p>Embracing contemporary craft and making as instances of thought in action, and convinced of their transformative potential at individual and social levels, Making Futures IV envisages the “(re)turn of the maker” as part of a radically open project capable of generating new progressive possibilities – of contributing to new social and economic futures.</p> <p>Shifting between the individual and the social, the personal and the collective, the conference will investigate what it means ‘to make’ and its future significations: personally, artistically, economically, politically, its relation to new materials and technologies, its impact on sustainable agendas, its contribution to community and 'place-making', its subversion of mass consumption and the possible emergence of new political economies.</p> <p>In attendance this year will be keynote speakers Rebecca Burgess: Founder of '<a href="http://www.fibershed.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fibershed</a>', Northern California, artist-maker <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/keith-harrison/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Keith Harrison</a>, <a href="http://www.markmiodownik.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mark Miodownik</a> from <a href="http://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Institute of Making</a>, UCL and <a href="http://design.cmu.edu/people/faculty/cameron-tonkinwise" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cameron Tonkinwise</a> from The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University.</p> <p>There will also be two conference exhibitions running alongside Making Futures 2015; <a href="https://www.craftcourses.com/blog/acts-of-making-festival" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Acts of Making</a>, a two week festival of artist-makers exploring process, audience interaction and engagement. As well as the 2015 <a href="http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jerwood Makers Open</a>.</p> <p>We are also calling for submissions to three workshops aligned to the “(re)turn of the maker” theme:</p><ul><li>A Western Jugaad? Frugal Innovation in collaboration with the <a href="http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Judge Business School</a>, University of Cambridge, and <a href="http://www.fablabbcn.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fab Lab Barcelona</a>.</li><li>Place-Making-Space: tools and methods for ‘crafting communities’ and ‘making places’ in the post-global era in collaboration with the <a href="http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/inheritable-futures-laboratory-iflab/community-21-toolbox-for-sustainable-communities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Community21 Sustainable Design Research Group</a> at the University of Brighton.</li><li>Digital Crafting – Defining the Field in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.rca.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">School of Materials</a>, The Royal College of Art.</li></ul><p><br />The call for abstracts is now open and the closing date for receipt is <strong>18 May 2015</strong>.</p> <p>Making Futures will be held on <strong>Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September 2015</strong> within the magnificently sited Mount Edgcumbe estate on the River Tamar opposite the city of Plymouth, Devon, UK.</p>