This conference asks 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 deals across aesthetic and material forms, unpacking and investigating the contingencies and commitments of gesture.

The programme includes art historians, art practitioners, musicologists, musicians, choreographers, cultural theorists, and literary scholars. The conference runs alongside an exhibition of work by Mark Rowan-Hull at St John’s College, and will feature a performance by the artist as part of the conference.