Making Ecologies – Call for Contributions
Interdisciplinary symposium, at V&A Storehouse, funded by the LAHP Student-, Staff- and Alumni-led Activities Fund.
Submission deadline: Monday 16th March 2026
Date of symposium: Wednesday 20th May 2026
CRAFT, MATERIAL, AND SITUATED PRACTICE
From raw materials to finished objects, making is shaped by the environments, traditions, and knowledge systems that surround it. Making Ecologies: Craft, Material, and Situated Practice is a one-day interdisciplinary symposium that invites participants to reflect on how craft and material practices engage with ecological, cultural, and situated ways of making.
Contributions are invited to unpack how craft practices, both historical and contemporary, engage with material and technological innovation, meaning-making, and embodied knowledge. Collectively we will explore making as a relational and situated process, where knowledge emerges through connection and embodied experience.
Donna Haraway’s call to “stay with the trouble” and Gregory Bateson’s ecology of mind are offered as starting points to probe how materials, ancient and living practices, and knowledge can inform what we make, framed through interaction, care, and context.
Submission details
Please email a single PDF with the following information to h.auerbachgeorge@vam.ac.uk with the subject line Making Ecologies Proposal:
• Project title
• Five keywords
• A 250-300 word proposal
• 100 word presenter bio
• Your preference for a 10 or 30 minute
presentation slot
Format
Contributions may take the form of short presentations, practice-based reflections, case studies, or methodological discussions. There are two options for presentation length, 10 minute project overview or 30 minute deep dive. Please indicate if you have a preference and we will try to accommodate. Sessions will be organised thematically.
Key Dates
16 Feb 26 Call opens
16 Mar 26 Submission Deadline
27 Mar 26 Notification of acceptance
20 Apr 26 Accepted proposals finalised
20 May 26 Symposium
Read the full details here: MakingEcologiesSymposium_CallforContributions_20May (PDF)