The interest in materiality within television studies has been reflected through various scholarly perspectives, from work on spaces and set designs, to heritage and costume, to product-placement and the role of material objects, popular culture, and merchandise, to the role of the television set itself as a material object.

However, these discourses on materiality within the context of television as object and medium have rarely been directly connected to the field of materiality studies and object-orientated philosophies. This conference aims to spark debate and explore the interplay between television, materiality, design, and identity, as well as the intertextual and intermedial dimensions of television and the relationships that are formed, through its material cultures, with audiences and environments.

This conference hopes to bring together papers on material culture and television and seeks to explore ways in which a focus on materiality can enhance our understanding of and connection with the medium. The intention is to provide an insight into how materiality impacts on the understanding of television today (its meanings and practices), and also in reverse, the ways in which television materiality contributes to the production and transformation of material cultures beyond the screen. 

The conference invites interdisciplinary perspectives and welcomes proposals from all disciplines and approaches, including (but not limited to) television studies, media studies, digital media, drama and performance, cultural studies, history, sociology, literary studies, critical theory, philosophy, art, etc. 

The conference will take place at the University of Hull on Monday and Tuesday, 21st – 22nd March 2016.

Please address abstracts or proposals of panels (of no more than 300 words) along with information about institutional affiliation and a short bio to Dr Iris Kleinecke-Bates at [log in to unmask] 

Website: CFP: Material cultures of television - University of Hull