Making Futures™ 2026

International Research Conference

Thursday 29 - Saturday 31 October 2026, 8.30am - 5pm

£100 - £275

Venue: Arts University Plymouth, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, PL4 9AT

Book your tickets: makingfutures.org.uk

Credit: Zena Holloway, 2026, Astrea coral collar.

Credit: Lisa McEleny, 2025, Electroformed copper root.

Making Futures™ 2026: Care, Reciprocity & Responsive Matter

Making Futures™ is Arts University Plymouth’s research platform exploring contemporary craft and maker movements 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 material production might inform emerging technologies and economies, Making Futures™ advocates for the importance of our shared human heritage, social making, and the significance of place in the value of creative form.

A speculative ontology of crafted living systems.

The 2026 Making Futures™ conference explores the relationship between objects, material intelligence, and the emotional encounters which shape the use, substance and physical form of the interfaces we design with and through the world around us.

The exploration follows a materials ontology approach to artefacts, open to both a reflection on the characteristics of human design and making, as well as the ‘more than human’ understanding of materials within craft, materials science and engineering, biotechnology, critical ecology and environmental advocacy.

Featuring a cross-disciplinary programme of speakers and specialists, the 3-day event will examine how we encounter our cultural materiality through care and reciprocity to reframe the notion of matter as having agency within a larger sphere of thought that lends ‘voice’ to the natural and living world as co-authors in materially-led creative endeavour.

NOTE: MAKE Southwest are advertising this event on behalf of Arts University Plymouth which is taking place at their campus in Plymouth (not at MAKE Southwest).
MAKE Southwest and our Green Maker Initiative will have a presence at the Making Futures™ conference this year - Katie Treggiden will be leading a panel discussion about the importance of sustainable materials and choices in the world of craft and design.