2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageMateriality and Response-ability
Mona Bozorgi: Jamie Ho, Justin A. Carney
Friday, March 20 - 9:00AM to 11:00AM
Georgia 7
Our response to a photograph is not merely visual; it's an experience of connection to the image, the material substances with which it is entangled, and to other beings. Photographs are not passive objects; they convey meaning beyond mere representation and are affected by their encounters with material and beholder. This session invites a reconsideration of photography as a medium that facilitates a continuous exchange between image, substance, and bodies, asking questions such as:
What do photographs do? How do they act upon us, as much as we act upon them? How might we understand the photograph not only as image, but also as a vibrant matter entangled in sensory, spatial, and discursive elements?
We invite image-makers, art theorists, and art historians to explore the creative, theoretical, and historical aspects of these photographic exchanges by examining the entanglement of materiality, discourse, and sensory experience within the medium of photography. Submissions may address creative processes, photographic installations, material histories, or theoretical perspectives that center the photograph as a vibrant matter, intra-acting with bodies, environment, and social and political contexts. Materiality may be understood expansively, encompassing both physical and digital forms, from prints and archives to code, metadata, and screen-based formats. By rethinking photography through its material and affective dimensions, this session aims to expand the ways in which we produce, encounter, and theorize images today.
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