Photographic Epistemologies Seminar

In the contemporary media society an implicit idea of ‘the photographic’ seems still to guide us: Visuals endowed with a photographic look are experienced and dealt with as if they would testify of a presence in front of a camera even though they may be result of computational processes. Paradoxically, if you see an image as a photograph, it is a photograph – for you. This circular paradox – seeing images as photographs through the lens of photography – constitutes the starting point of the Paradoxes of Photography exhibition. 

Photographic Epistemologies seminar continues to elaborate on the theme of the exhibition by offering three key-note presentations rooted in three different disciplines (visual arts, social sciences, philosophy). These presentations and the accompanying discussions aim to address photographic epistemologies from perspectives relevant to the understanding of photography and photographic practices within the post-digital condition. 

Programme

9:30        Opening words (Elina Heikka and Janne Seppänen) 

10:00      Stephen Cornford: “Inverting resolution” 

10:40      Discussion (moderated by Tuula Närhinen) 

11:00      Panel with the artists of the exhibition (moderated by Mika Elo) 

12:00      Lunch break 

13:30      Patricia Prieto-Blanco: “Affective Epistemologies” 

14:10      Discussion (moderated by Jenni Niemelä-Nyrhinen) 

14:30      Coffee break 

15:00      Bence Nanay: “The power of photographs: Not just – and not primarily – epistemic” 

15:40      Discussion (moderated by Jukka Häkkinen) 

16:00      Closing words (Mika Elo, Janne Seppänen, Jukka Häkkinen) 

16:30      End 

Presentators

Patricia Prieto-Blanco is a Lecturer in Digital Media Practice at Lancaster University. Her areas of expertise are visual methods of research and photographic practices. She has worked ethnographically with transnational families and explored how they incorporate photography in everyday routines, addressing media practices in the contexts of migration, kinship and intimacy. Her latest research inquires into the performativity of images in the context of activism, online and offline. She is an advocate of interdisciplinary, participatory and practice-based research. 

Stephen Cornford is a media artist and a researcher whose current work is concerned with the toxicity of digital media, the complex metallurgical materiality of ubiquitous technologies, and the relationships between planetary and photographic space. Since 2015 he works as Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Oxford Brookes University. In 2018 he completed PhD Fine Art affiliated to the Archaeologies of Media & Technology Research Group at Winchester School of Art. 

Bence Nanay is a philosopher working in the area of sensory research and philosophical psychology. He is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and has worked as a film critic. He is co-director of the Centre for Philosophical Psychology at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge University. 

Museum website; info on exhibition

About the PEPI project

The Seminar is organized by the Academy of Finland research project Post-Digital Epistemologies of the Photographic Image (PEPI, 2019–2022)

PEPI combines psychology, visual studies and artistic research. Professor Janne Seppänen from Tampere University is the Principal Investigator of the consortium. At the University of Helsinki, the team is led by Docent Jukka Häkkinen. At the University of the Arts Helsinki, the research is led by Professor Mika Elo. Tuula Närhinen (University of the Arts Helsinki), Tuomas Leisti (University of Helsinki), Jenni Niemelä-Nyrhinen (Tampere University) and Niina Uusitalo (Tampere University) work as postdoctoral researchers in the project. 

Time

11.6.2022 at 9:30 – 16:30

Location

The Finnish Museum of Photography

Tallberginkatu 1

00180 Helsinki

Location on map

See directions