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2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange

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Materiality and Response-ability

Mona Bozorgi: Jamie Ho, Justin A. Carney, Lauren Cesiro

Friday, March 20 - 9:00AM to 11:00AM
Agusta

Our response to a photograph is not merely visual; it's an experience of connection to the image, to other beings, and the material substances with which it is entangled. Photographs are also not passive objects; they convey meaning beyond mere representation and are affected by their encounters with material and beholder. This session explores 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? How do we act upon them? How might we understand the photograph not only as image, but as a vibrant matter entangled in sensory, spatial, and discursive elements?

Bringing together artists and scholars in image-making, art theory, and art history, this session explores photography through its material and affective dimensions, aiming to expand the ways in which we produce, encounter, and theorize images today.