Gesture: a three-day investigation
Visual arts – Music – Dance – Literature – Film
25–27 January 2024
Auditorium, Garden Quad

This conference aims to take the term ‘gesture’ to task – asking what it means across art forms to make, trace, think, or perform gestures. Notions of the ‘gestural’ are at the heart of expression, but the assumptions on which the agency of the gesture is based are often overlooked. Arguably, the gesture or gestural sits at a strange intersection between the material and immaterial. As such, it is open to historical, philosophical, aesthetic, affective, and descriptive interrogation. The conference focuses on work that deliberately deals across aesthetic and material forms, unpacking and investigating the contingencies and commitments of gesture.

For the full schedule please visit: https://www.gestureconference.com/schedule.

This conference is in conjunction with an exhibition of work by Mark Rowan-Hull, at St John’s College, Oxford, and will feature a performance by the artist as part of the conference.

The conference is convened by Dr Jennifer Johnson, Mark Rowan-Hull, Dr Rachel Coombes and Dr Tim Coombes.