The Uncertainty of the Image

Conference: 19th April 2007
2.00pm - 5.30pm

Timetable:

Thursday 19th April 2.00pm - 5.30pm
Lecture Hall, Camberwell College of Arts Wilson Road Site ( on the corner
of Wilson Road & Peckham Road - a short walk from Camberwell Green), London
UK

1.40 Arrival

2.00 Welcome by Martin Newth - Subject Leader Photography Camberwell
College of Arts

2.05 Introduction by Helen Robertson - conference organiser

2.10 David Campany - writer, artist, Reader in Photography University of
Westminster

2.45 Helen Robertson - artist, Associate Lecturer in Photography and Fine
Art Camberwell College of Arts & Byam Shaw School of Art

3.20 Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield - philosopher, Reader in Theory & Philosophy
of Art University of Reading

3.50 Tea break

4.10 Joanna Lowry - writer, Reader in Visual Theory and Media arts at the
University College for the Creative Arts at Maidstone

4.45 - 5.30 Discussion chaired by Paul Tebbs - writer, Senior Lecturer in
Photography Camberwell College of Arts

No booking required

Information

The signifier "photographic image" has always been related to an unstable
signified, one dependent on the type of camera, film, processing and
printing used. Each decision made along the way of production effects the
quality and reading of the image. Now, traditional processes are being
replaced by new digital technology. Certain traditional processes such as
cibachrome have been phased out in this country; certain printing papers
and films are no longer made; others will be phased out in the near future.
Our time represents a unique situation, as many traditional technologies
still exist alongside the newer digital ones.

We are thus presented with an expanded and time-specific choice as to how a
photograph can be taken and displayed - each decision producing subtle
shifts in the appearance and materiality of the image. A theorisation of
the impact of these media on each other is yet to be developed. This
conference proposes a discussion of the conceptual implications that these
co-existing photographic processes give rise to in the contemporary moment.

This conference has been organised by Helen Robertson, and is supported by
Camberwell College of Arts and the Arts Council England.

Speakers

David Campany is an artist, writer and Reader in Photography at the
University of Westminster. He is the author of the books Art and
Photography (Phaidon 2003) and Photography and Cinema (Reaktion 2007). His
essays have appeared in numerous catalogues and anthologies as well as
journals such as Aperture, Tate, Engage and the Oxford Art Journal.
'Adventures in the Valley' his photographic collaboration with Polly Braden
was shown at the ICA London in 2005.

Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield is Reader in Theory and Philosophy of Art at the
University of Reading in the UK, and sits on the Executive Committee of the
Forum for European Philosophy at the London School of Economics. He has
published many articles in continental philosophy, in particular on art and
on ethics and on art's resistance to ethics. Currently he is working on two
books, Responsibility in contemporary French philosophy and Heidegger's
Philosophy of Art, and writing two screenplays, one for a film he is
directing on Heidegger's journey to Greece, Aufenthalte, the other for a
film of Derrida's La carte postale.

Joanna Lowry is Reader in Visual Theory and Media arts at the University
College for the Creative Arts at Maidstone. She was a co-founder with David
Campany and David Green of Photoforum, an organisation committed to the
promotion of debate on photographic theory and practice - and was co-editor
of 'Stillness and Time', Photoworks 2006, a book on the relationship
between the still and moving image based upon a conference held at UCCA in
2004. She has written widely on contemporary photographic and fine art
practices, both academically and in the art press. Current research
interests are the relationship between photography and painting and related
issues of medium specificity; the studio as a site of performance, work and
play; technology and the construction of space and subjectivity.

Helen Robertson is an artist working with photographic media, sculpture,
painting and installation. She is currently working on an Arts Council
funded project, developing a new body of figurative photographs (made using
a variety of traditional and digital photographic processes ) - the links
between the photographs are conceptual and pictorial rather than thematic
or technical. This work is part of a broader investigation into the
photographic image and materiality involving sculpture, painting and
installation. Solo exhibitions include Galerie Nei Liicht, Luxembourg 2002,
Fiedler Contemporary, Cologne 2001, Ausstellungsraum, Leipzig 2000, Matt's
Gallery London 1999. Group exhibitions include La Nuite Blanche, Paris
2006, "Size Matters", Arts Council Touring Exhibition 2005, Outvideo,
Russia 2004, "Abstractionen", Museum Ludwig Cologne 1999. She is an
Associate Lecturer in Photography and Fine Art at Camberwell College of
Arts and Byam Shaw School of Art, University of the Arts London.

--
Tim Gough
Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Landscape
part of the Faculty of Art Design and Music
Kingston University, Surrey, UK
tel 07966 377 609
tim.goughkingston.ac.uk
www.kingston.ac.uk/architecture