The Uncertain Image
A day-long symposium on the expanded and uncertain field of photography.
László Moholy-Nagy, Plexiglas-mobile in motion (1943), gelatin silver print.
Bringing together scholars, artists, HDR candidates, and early-career researchers, this symposium will explore the photographic in its most expanded sense. The event will consider how uncertainty operates within photographic images, practices, histories, theories, and systems of circulation.
From its earliest experiments, photography has raised questions about evidence, visibility, memory, representation and the instability of images. From synthetic and degraded images to archival loss and extractive practices, and from restorative justice and media manipulation to memory and decolonial fugitivity, the photographic image remains entangled in uncertainty. These questions have gained new urgency as photography expands across computational systems, generative technologies, the moving image, installation, archives, performance, and other material and networked forms.
As a cross-disciplinary forum for research on the photographic image across the School, and in dialogue with scholars from the field of photography, the day will support research development through shared discussion, mentoring, networking, and exchange across disciplines and career stages.
The symposium will include a lecture by Elisa deCourcy, and panel presentations by Rebecca Beardmore, Edwina Biggs, Danica Chappell, Harley Ives, Aiden Magro, Isobel Markus-Dunworth, Remi Siciliano, India Urwin and Tamara Voninski.
Convened by Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton, and presented by Photographic Cultures, The Power Institute, Art History, the Sydney College of the Arts, and the Chau Chak Wing Museum, as part of the SACE Research Event series.
Morning Session
9:15 – 9:30am Welcome
Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton
9:30 – 10:30am Lecture
Elisa DeCourcy
10:30 – 10:45am Morning tea
10:45 – 11:45am Panel 1
Rebecca Beardmore, Harley Ives, Edwina Biggs
11:45 – 1:15pm Panel 2
Aiden Magro, Danica Chappell, India Urwin
Afternoon Session
2:00 – 2:30pm Exhibition Tour: Tracey Moffatt Sorted
Lead by exhibition curator Katrina Liberiou
2:30 – 2.50pm Collection tour: Photographic media in the Historic Photography Collection
Lead by collections curator Rebecca Conway
3:00 – 4:00pm Panel 3
Tamara Voninski, Remi Siciliano, Isobel Markus-Dunworth
4:00 – 4:15pm Closing remarks
Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton