Material is an independent cultural publishing project based in Glasgow, Scotland. We produce a magazine and public events. Some of us worked with Variant magazine previously. We provide space for artwork and incisive, pugnacious and in-depth articles on political and cultural matters—in recognition of their deep imbrication. We publish work that is non-academic but scholarly and probing; in conditions of cultural and educational degradation we validate intellectuality in its broadest sense.
Material is regionally rooted but non-parochial. We examine and critique contemporary conditions of existence, and affirm processes of radical transformation, but crucially in an open and reflexive manner.
A typical Material article is investigative: we want to discover something we don’t know and highlight hitherto unknown or under-acknowledged practices and trajectories. We publish thorough, challenging and untimely work. By untimely, we mean that we are less concerned with current trends or reactive interpretations of contemporary phenomena, rather we are concerned with situating events within a broader historical material framework of analysis. The work we publish is against-the grain and often provides a synoptic overview of contemporary issues.
Primarily, the work we publish is commissioned, however we are always open to proposals for submissions. We are particularly keen to encourage new writers, especially working-class writers or those from otherwise marginalised backgrounds. Please consider the remit here and look at back issues to consider whether your proposal is appropriate.
Material editorial collective
Benjamin Fallon
Ruth Gilbert
Neil Gray
Paul Pieroni
Hannah Proctor
Joey Simons