About the Journal
Making Futures® is Arts University Plymouth’s research platform exploring contemporary craft and material-led creative practices as ‘change agents’ in 21st-century society. The highlight of Making Futures® is an international conference bringing together scholars, makers, artists, designers and educators to explore the frontier of material practices in the context of sustainability, community regeneration and technical innovation.
First convened in 2009, the conference is focused on the transformative potential of material and fabrication practices, whose tacit and traditional ways of making contribute to new, progressive futures where people and the planet live together more harmoniously.
Making Futures seeks to situate material cultures and material knowledge at the centre of the many critical issues facing global consumer society, including how we might move beyond mass consumption towards an inclusive, regenerative economy capable of supporting social well-being and enabling more resilient communities.
As a platform for challenging the material status quo and inviting speculation on how traditional approaches to makign and production might inform emerging technologies and economies, Making Futures advocates for the importance of shared human heritage, social making, and the significance of place in the value of creative form.
Each edition of the Making Futures Journal brings together the submissions from an international community of scholars, artists, makers and curators worldwide, representing a spectrum of responses to the corresponding Making Futures biennial conference through its thematic tracks, panel sessions, and workshops.