From Democratic Aesthetics to Digital Culture
The special focus of this conference explores Photography and the Photographic Image and the relationship these forms have with language. Photography began by bringing together two descriptive forms, writing and light, and through language we describe its process and the value placed on its creation.
Now that new forms of image emerge through generative Ai and computational photography prompted language, the conference asks the question, does the relationship between light, photography and language need to be re-examined? The words photography and photograph[er] may also need to be redefined as the scope of these terms expands beyond their original boundaries.
These terms are important in establishing the transactional value of their product and the value placed on the skillset of each discrete professional area of production and its pedagogy. The future of image production through conventional analogue or digital means requires that the language that describes each area is more exacting and less fluid than is now the case. Language has also undergone such a transformation establishing differences between its function and as communication and a creative medium.