2006 Garry B Fritz Imagemaker Award Winner Jawshing Arthur Liou Blasts (installation shot), 2003 high-definition video, stereo sound, 10 min loop

Society for Photographic Education
43rd National Conference in Chicago

Chicago Ahead
Windy City promises diverse programming on issues of pluralism

Make your plans now to be in Chicago for the 43rd National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education. The 2005 conference theme is “A New Pluralism: Photography’s Future” and it is shaping up to be one of the best ever. Carlos Diaz and Richard Gray, the conference co-chairs have asked: “How is photographic practice redefined as a result of the inclusion of digital technologies? Can we eliminate barriers between the various arts and humanities departments in our schools allowing for a cross-pollination of crafts and philosophies?” The schedule is packed with exciting speakers who will address these challenging questions.

FEATURED SPEAKERS
Henry Jenkins, the de Florez Professor of the Humanities and Director of the Comp-arative Media Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will give the Keynote Address on Thursday evening. His presentation will center on his book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, published by New York University Press. Jenkins writes: “Media convergence is more than simply a technological shift. Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences. Convergence alters the logic by which media industries operate and by which media consumers process news and entertainment.” Jenkins urges us to: “Keep this in mind. Convergence refers to a process, but not an endpoint. There will be no single black box that controls the flow of media into our homes. Thanks to the proliferation of channels and the portability of new computing and telecommunications technologies, we are entering an era where media will be everywhere. Convergence isn’t something that is going to happen one day when we have enough bandwidth or figure out the correct configuration of appliances. Ready or not, we are already living within a convergence culture.”

This year’s Honored Educator Carl Toth, Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, will present Friday evening. In the Fall issue of exposure, Nathan Lyons asked Carl Toth: “From what perspective do you think the application of new technology will guide the development of photographic education in the future?” Carl Toth responded with: “I believe that new technology has been very important to my own work as well as that of many of my students … I feel, however, that technology must be in the service of ideas, and that, for example, the influence of digital technology on our culture as a whole is as important as that technology’s physical manifestations in terms of manipulations and printing by artists.”

Barbara Stafford, the William B. Ogden Professor of Art History at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, is the Featured Speaker. On Saturday afternoon, she will present a lecture titled “Beyond the Atomistic Aperture: The Spiritual History of Apparatus.” The lecture will center on her Devices of Wonder exhibition that was held at the Getty Museum. The exhibition put a new spin on “multimedia” and “virtual reality” by showing that interest in sense-enhancing and image-making technology dates back to the Renaissance and before. Barbara Stafford stated, “You could as easily date hyper-reality to ancient Egyptian temple magic as to the ’80s.” But, she said, “it goes far beyond a premonition of computers, movies or other familiar modern technologies.”

The real question, she said, is why “in different parts of the world and in various epochs, people insert a lens, mirror or monitor between themselves and their environment.” Stafford argues that the desire to extend our senses and intensify reality has a long history that puts current issues in a new light. “It’s important to realize the deep linkages between old and new media: from the 17th-century sunspot-tracing machine to NASA photomontages of the moon done by the artist Michael Light. There’s a continuing desire that runs through this history, a desire to bring what is elusive and above us down to earth,” said Stafford. “We’re still here looking up, wondering about what’s beyond. The bottom line is that reality has long had a competitor. There were religious, social, intellectual and scientific reasons for the adoption and allure of these technologies that are still active today. We need to understand them.”

INVITED SPEAKERS
John Paul Caponigro, a well respected artist working in digital media has been invited to give a pre-conference talk on Wednesday, March 22 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. MacArthur Foundation Fellow Kerry James Marshall, an exciting and dynamic painter, photographer, printmaker, sculptor and installation artist, has also been invited to speak at the national conference and will present on Friday, March 24 from 9:00 to 10:45 am. (Preregistration required. Details on main conference page)

UPDATES
The 2006 Garry B Fritz Imagemaker has been selected. Congratulations are extended to this year’s recipient of the award, Jawshing Arthur Liou. The award was established in 2004 in honor and in memory of Garry B Fritz, an SPE member with a long-time interest in photography. Funded by a gift through the Oregon Community Foundation, the award consists of a $1,000 honorarium. The award is presented to an imagemaker, who is presenting at SPE for the first time and who received the highest ranking through the peer review process. Liou received the 2004 Rising Star Award at the Fotofusion conference for his series Pictures(s) and Blood Work. His work is in private and public collections nationally. He has exhibited in New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Sweden, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Liou received his MFA in electronic intermedia and photography from the University of Florida. He is currently the area head and assistant professor of digital art at Indiana University.

Back by popular demand are the Academic Practicum Workshops (APW). Liz Lee, Stephen Dybas and Libby Rowe are coordinating the Academic Practicum Workshops this year. The APW will have two tracks: one devoted to academic career development and one to pedagogical concerns. The first career track workshop titled “Educating the Next Generation of Photo Educators” will be presented by Glenn Rand with Beth Linn, Jane Alden Stevens and Richard Zakia on Thursday, March 23 from 10:00 to 11:45 am. Also, on the career track of the APW, the workshop “Part Time Pay/Full Time Responsibility” will be presented by Colette Copeland with Cate Fallon, Brian Moss and Amanda Tinker. A Dossier building workshop will be presented by Libby Rowe on Thursday, March 23 from 1:00 to 2:45 pm. In the pedagogical concerns track, Richard Newman with Dennis Keeley and Ed Myers will present “Photographic Education Today.” Calla Thompson will present “Chasing the Monkey: Digital Photography and the State Institution” on Thursday, March 23 from 1:00 to 2:45 pm. “Critique as a Method of Critical Engagement” will be presented by Mariah Doren on Thursday, March 23 from 1:00 to 2:45 pm.

REMINDERS
The ever popular Exhibits Fair, showcasing equipment manufacturers, photo suppliers, and book publishers, will take place Friday and Saturday. The portfolio review program is back as well. Review sessions will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Review session space is limited, so register early for the conference and sign-up for a review. There will also be open portfolio sharing on Sunday morning.
Additionally, many pre-conference workshops are scheduled, including an intensive, two-day Digital Workflow Workshop with leading practitioner Patricia Russotti. Space is limited for this workshop, so make your reservation today! Darius Himes and colleagues will present a seminar on publishing a photography book.

The conference offers a number of opportunities for college students. By volunteering, students pay a reduced conference registration fee of $25, they are eligible to attend the half-day Student Seminar and they have the opportunity to network with fellow students from across the country. The deadline to sign up as student volunteer is Feb. 14 (postmark).

Please remember to make your hotel reservation early as the hotel room block frequently sells out before the reservation deadline, Feb. 18. Also, the early bird postmark deadline for conference registration with SPE is Feb. 14. Please visit website at www.spenational.org for regularly updated information about SPE’s 43rd National Conference including registration forms, conference schedule, presenters, portfolio reviewers, bios, scholarship recipients, hotel updates and more.

See you in Chicago!

from the SPE Members' Newsletter, Winter 2005