Material Language | Language Material is an interdisciplinary conference that investigates the relationship between materiality and language. We are interested in how language takes form as matter and how matter shapes and/or functions as language. Language is expressed through sounds, marks, images, textiles, codes, bodies, movements, and it is circulated, stored, archived and transformed through matter. At the same time, materials “speak”: they take part in meaning-making by shaping perception, affecting, effecting and recording experiences and histories, and communicating across human and nonhuman contexts.

As important as the resulting artefacts are the processes in which language is produced through materials. Creative practice – working with material, painting, writing, editing, translating, printing, performing, dancing, etc. – develops language and knowledge. Hands-on work gives rise to “material thinking” which happens in the agency of encounter between person and object (tools, texts, fabric, media, etc.). This dialogue between maker and material can be extended into a conversation with the viewer/ reader/ listener/ recipient of cultural artefacts, which become a site of thinking, translating and meaning-making.

We invite contributions from practitioners and researchers in art and design (e.g. painting, drawing, performance, illustration, audiovisual and digital arts, creative curation etc.), the humanities and social sciences (e.g. linguistics, philosophy, literary studies, translation studies, cultural studies, media studies, anthropology, museum and curatorial studies, art history; including writers and publishers, curators and archivists), as well as those working across art–science contexts.

Some of the questions we would like to explore include: is language always material? Do materials have language or ways of speaking? Is there always a tangible language when working with objects and materials? How does creative practice shape thinking, knowledge and communication? Can the experience of art facilitate an encounter with the world?

Possible Topics:

We welcome proposals for contributions aligning with the following (non-exhaustive) themes:

• materials as languages (bodies, textiles, surfaces, etc.)
• language of material practice (the maker, the tools, the material, the craft)
• material as co-producer
• language as semiotic material (e.g. typing, coding, drawing, writing, printing, sculpting, painting, performing, dancing, etc.)
• translation across materials and media
• the materiality of language in the age of AI
• AI as a linguistic body or tool
• material memory of language (recordings, videos, archives, AI generated voice, theatre performance, etc.)
• materiality of cultural dissemination (print, online, public spaces, etc.)
• material dimensions of literature
• working with the agency of material to develop thought
• material language in art practice
• cultural sites and events as thinking places (art exhibitions, festivals, museums)
• artwork (book, theatre performance, song, dance, sculpture, painting, etc.) as a site of thinking, translating or meaning-making

Submission Guidelines

Deadline: 1st March 2027

We invite both theoretical and practice-based perspectives in any of the following formats:

• short presentation (15-minute paper, followed by 20-minute group panel discussion)
• long presentation (30 minutes)
• workshop (60 mins)
• performance or reading

Please submit:

• a 300 word abstract describing your proposed contribution and indicating the format
• a short bio (100 words)
• up to five keywords

Submissions should be sent to: email address

We welcome proposals from students and early-career researchers.

Conference fees:

• CLRN Standard Members: £90
• CLRN Student Members: £40
• Standard: £120
• Student / Unwaged: 50

Competitive Bursaries are available to CLRN Members

Organising Committee:

• Andrew Bick, University of Gloucestershire
• Harriet Carter, University of Gloucestershire
• Madeleine Campbell, University of Edinburgh
• Krzysztof Gajewski, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Joanna Kosmalska, University of Łódź
• Marion Schmid, University of Edinburgh
• Estrella Sendra, King’s College London
• Ricarda Vidal, King’s College London