The Material Imagination from Antiquity to Modernity 5-6 November 2010 School of Art History, University of St Andrews, Scotland Deadline for proposals: 10 September 2020 As the term materiality gains ever more currency, its critical meaning continues to recede. The purpose of this conference is to investigate an engagement with materials that goes beyond such familiar tropes as ‘conspicuous consumption’ or ‘truth to materials’. One valuable approach was provided by the philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962), who coined the term ‘the material imagination’ to mean an insight into substance…