Zoe Laughlin

Public Talks & Performances
(2005 - ongoing)

A lot of my work manifests itself in the form of performance lectures that take place in theatres and galleries across the world. Originally conceived for a performance at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, one such piece is The Performativity of Matter. Most recently, this work has becoming The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings. In 2012, a version of this was performed on stage at The Centre for Fine Arts, Belgium, as part of TEDx Brussels.

2019

• Materials & Making / Spaces & Places, Sheffield, Sept 2019.

• Crazy Materials Golf, Institute of Making, London, June 2019.

• Become a Materials Farmer, Radical Thinking Congress, London, May 2019.

• Performing Matter Objecting Stuff, Royal College of Art, April 2019.

• Delight & Disgust, Institute of Making, London, March 2019.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Cork, Ireland, March 2019.

• What a Waste, Excel Centre London, March 2019.

2018

• Keynote address at Engineering Your Future: A Celebration of A Year in Engineering, Milton Keynes, Oct 2018.

• Adventures in Materials & Making, Inspirational Women by Triangirls, London, Oct 2018.

• Performing Materials, New Scientist Live, London, Sept 2018.

• Material Matters, Creative Fuse North East, Newcastle, July 2018.

• Performing Matter Objecting Stuff, UAL Chelsea College of Arts, June 2018.

• Becoming a Materials Farmer, Future Foundry, June 2018.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, May 2018.

• Material Matters, Shape to Fabrication Conference, London, April 2018.

• Radical Matter, The Design Museum, March 2018.

2017

• The Altar of Destruction, Tate Modern, 2017.

• KAPUTT: The Academy of Destruction, Tate Modern, 2017.

• A Museum of Modern Nature, Wellcome Collection, London, 2017.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2017.

• Materials, Collaboration and Competitive Competence, Women of Steel, Sheffield, 2017.

• The Institute of Making and Matters of Material, Google, London, 2017.

2016

• Performing Matter, Blue Ribbon Studio, Nike, Portland, USA, 2016.

• Collaboration & Interdisciplinarity: 11 Traps & Tips, Wellcome Collection, 2016.

• Performing Matter, The Royal Institution, London, 2016.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, UCL, London, 2016.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Institute of Making, London, 2016.

• Performing Matter: Objecting Stuff, St Mary's College, 2016.

• Performing Matter: Objecting Stuff, London College of Communication, UAL, London, 2016.

• Materials: Delight and Tyranny, Derby Silk Mill, Derby, 2016.

2015

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Architecture Association, London, 2015.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, The Bartlett, London, 2015.

• Copper and Other Capers, Wellcome Collection, London, 2015.

• The Performativity of Matter, Wellcome Collection, London, 2015.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Thomas Heatherwick Studio, London, 2015.

• Material Memory, Wellcome Collection, London, 2015.

• Wonderstuff, Northland Glass, Scotland, 2015.

• Wonderstuff, Soho House, London, 2015.

• Sound and Materials, Royal College of Art, London, 2015.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, The Royal Institution, London, 2015.

2014

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2014.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, EU Commission, Brussels, 2014.

• Wonderstuff, Science Showoff, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, February 2014.

• Invisibility, Camden arts Centre, London, February 2014.

• A Maker Movement, MadLab, Manchester, 2014.

• Materials/Form/Function, Engineering Design Innovation, Birmingham, 2014.

• Materials & Making, Product Innovation Congress, Berlin, Germany, March 2014.

• Sound and Materials, London Design Week, 2014.

• Makerspaces, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), HM Government, London, 2014.

• The Performativity of Matter: Greatest Hits & New Findings, Dartmoor Arts, 2014.

• Demo Challenge, Cheltenham Science Festival, 2014.

• The Performativity of Matter: Behind the Scenes, Royal College of Art, London, 2014.

2013

• Matter & Measurement, The Research of All, Hamburg, Germany, 2013.

• Wonderstuff, The Danish Design Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2013.

• Future Materials & Making, V&A, London, 2013.

• The Performativity of Matter, BBC Broadcasting House, London, 2013.

• Materials & Making, BBC Bush House, London, 2013.

• Demo Challenge, Cheltenham Science Festival, 2013.

• Time Based Materials, Petri Museum, 2013.

• Taste of Materials, Design Biennale, France, 2013.

• Copper Smelt, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2013.

• Measuring The Impossible, Kampnagle, Hamburg, Germany, 2013.

• The Performativity of Matter, The Royal Institute of British Architects, London, 2013.

2012

• The Performativity of Matter, The Barbican Centre, London, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, Berlin, London, 2012.

• Materials Futures, RCA, London, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, Thomas Heatherwick Studio, London, 2012.

• Materials and Making, Somerset House, London, 2012.

• Matter of Fact, Museums Showoff, London, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, TEDx Brussels, 2012.

• Hearing Shapes, Bethnal Green Library, 2012.

• Material Matters, Black Dog Gallery, London, 2012.

• Make, The National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, The Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, Prague, 2012.

• The Performativity of Matter, The National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland, 2012.

2011

• Materials Matters, Work Gallery, London, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, The Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, The Barbican Centre, London, 2011.

• Liquids, Fundus Theater, Hamburg, Germany, May and June 2011.

• Biscuits, Cheltenham Science Festival, 2011.

• Performing Matter, Undead, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, Sheffield University, 2011.

• Material Matters, Soho House, London 2011.

• Materialise, London College of Fashion, London, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, Beursschouwburg Theatre, Brussels, 2011.

• The Performativity of Matter, The Maxwell Lecture, King's College London, 2011.

• The Sensoaesthetics of Materials, Shefield Hallam University, Shefield, 2011.

2010

• Liquids, Fundus Theater, Hamburg, Germany, September and December, 2010.

• The Performativity of Matter, The School of Life, London, 2010.

• The Performativity of Matter, Kampnagel Summer Festival, Hamburg, Germany, 2010.

• The Taste of Materials, 100% Design, London, 2010.

• The Senso-Aesthetics of Materials: Testing Liquidity, Fundus Theater, Hamburg, Germany, June and August 2010.

• The Sensoaesthetics of Objects, Craft Rally, Chelsea College of Art, University of The Arts, London 2010.

• How Objects Perform How Materials Behave, Queen Mary’s, University of London, London 2010.

• The Taste of Materials, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London 2010.

2009

• The Taste of Materials, Talk, 100% Materials, 100% Design, London, 2009.

• The Wonders of Stuff, Talk, Women in Science, Science Museum, London, 2009.

• The Sound of Materials, Performance and Talk, STUK Arts Centre, Leaven, Belgium, 2009.

• Material Landscapes, opening and closing addresses as Invited Interlocutor, Living Landscapes, UWA, Wales, 2009.

• The Wonders of Stuff, South Bank University, London, 2009.

• Towards a Materials Library, Architecture Association, London, 2009.

• Materiality and Parkour, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 2009.

• The Taste of Inedible Materials, Pangborn, Italy, 2009.

• Imagining Matter, Zaha Haidid Architects, London. 2009.

• Towards a Materials Library, Slade School of Fine Art, London, 2009.

2008

• Materials, 176 Gallery, London, 2008.

• Material Matters, Kenetica, London, 2008.

• Micro, Macro and Smelting Melting Casting, Royal College of Art, 2008.

• Materials Matter, 100% Materials, 100% Design, London, 2008.

• The Performativity of Matter, Performance Lecture, ICA, London 2008.

• The Materials Library, LCACE, London, 2008.

• What Materials Get Up To, Nottingham Cinema Arts Centre, 2008.

• What Can The Matter Be? II Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, London, 2008.

• The Performativity of Matter, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2008.

• Materials for the Advancement of Conceptualisation, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, London 2008.

• Investigating the Acoustic Properties of Materials with Tuning Forks, Materials Sensation, Pau, France 2008.

• Building a Materials Library using an Isomorphic Methodology, Materials Sensation, Pau, France 2008.

2007

• The Sound of Materials, Performance and Talk, Tate Modern, London, 2007.

• The Wonders of Stuff, South Bank University, London, 2007.

• The Wonders of Stuff, University of The Arts, London, 2007.

• The Sound of Materials, 100% Materials, 100% Design, London, 2007.

• The Materials Library, King’s College London, London, 2007.

• What Can the Matter Be? Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, London, 2007.

• The Materials Library, Department of Materials, Sheffield University, Sheffield, 2007.

• Landscapes Within Liquids, Royal Geographical Society’s annual conference, London, 2007.

• A Sound Forecast, Prognosen uber Bewegungen, University of Berlin, 2007.

2006

• Sugar, The Universe and Nothing, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, 2006.

• Sugar, The Universe and Nothing, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London, 2006.

• Materials of Invention: A Construction Materials Library for London, The Building Centre, London, 2006.

• Materials Library Presents given at the Science in The Making conference at King’s College London, 2006.

• Materials For The Advancement of Conceptualisation, South Bank University, London, 2006.

• The Role of Materials Libraries, TMS conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 2006.

• The Essence of Fluorescence, Artist talks at the Hayward Gallery, 2006.

2005

• Impermanence & Materials, Impermanence, Tate Modern, London, 2005.

• Material Matters, Materials Library, Kings College London, London, 2005.

• Sugar, The Universe and Nothing, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, 2005.

• Materials for The Advancement of Conceptualisation, at the Rules of Engagement conference, York University, 2005.

• Sugar, The Universe and Nothing. A performance lecture given as part of The Articulate Practitioner conference of The Magdalena Project, 2005.

• Presented as part of the panel The Digital in Art at the Practice As Research In Performance (PARIP) conference, Leeds University, 2005.

• Sugar, The Universe and Nothing, at the Towards Tomorrow conference, The Centre for Performance Research, Wales, 2005.