Welcome to the Third International Conference on the Image. The conference will be held at the Higher School of Humanities and Journalism, Poznań, Poland from 14-16 September 2012 and is organized in partnership with the Polish Mediations Biennale 3, The Unknown – Nieznane. The conference encompasses participation in Biennale Special Events including a Biennale Day on September 15 featuring curators Tomasz Wendland, Fumio Nanjo, Denise Carvalho, and Friedhelm Mennekes, as well as the opportunity to submit artistic work for consideration in a Special Exhibition at the Polish Mediations Biennale.
In conversation with the MEDIATIONS BIENNALE theme, ‘The Unknown – Nieznane’, The Image Conference will address the 2012 special conference theme – The Thread to the Unknown: Is the Unknown a construct? Can we hold the pretense that human hands and minds organize the realm of the Unknown? Are our constructions replicas of known things that hide the unknown from us?
The conference aims to shed light on the boundaries of language, culture, scientific research, artistic production, and visual communication in relation to the Unknown – Are there structural limits in science and human society that necessarily hide what is unknown from us? Or is the Unknown the complex and enormous form of existence that includes our knowledge and consciousness as one very small element?
The location of the city of Poznań in Poland and Europe creates a wonderful opportunity for it to become a mediator between Eastern and Western Europe, between Asia and Europe, and between the civilizations of the west and the east. The word MEDIATIONS also applies to the relationship between all fields of art, attitudes, outlooks on life, and generations. The Unknown – Nieznane: Works of art disclose areas which are incomprehensible and which cannot be expressed with the use of the words. We create knowledge of what is familiar to us and about the secret of our existence. Art awakens in us the sensibility and awareness of the presence of things that are unknown in our lives. During the MEDIATIONS BIENNALE, there will be works of ancient, modern and contemporary art presented and created by the artists from different cultural areas around the world.
Participants are invited to submit a proposal for an in-person paper presentation, workshop/interactive session, poster/exhibit session, or a jointly presented colloquium session; or a virtual session. We also encourage innovative presentation formats, such as round tables, staged dialogues, screenings and performances. Parallel sessions are loosely grouped into streams reflecting different perspectives or disciplines. Each stream forms a talking circle, an informal forum for focused discussion of issues and conference themes. Exhibiting participants and conference presenters are also invited to submit artistic work to be considered for the special exhibition, please review the deadlines and submission guidelines.
This conference is a means by which to interrogate the nature and functions of image-making and images. The conference is a cross-disciplinary forum bringing together researchers, teachers and practitioners from areas of interest including: architecture, art, cognitive science, communications, computer science, cultural studies, design, education, film studies, history, linguistics, management, marketing, media studies, museum studies, philosophy, photography, psychology, religious studies, semiotics, and more.
Participants may choose to submit written papers before or after the conference for possible publication in the peer reviewed The International Journal of the Image. Virtual participants also have the option to submit papers for consideration by the journal. All registered conference participants receive a complimentary online subscription to the journal when registration is finalized. This subscription is valid until one year after the conference end-date.
If you would like to know more about this conference, bookmark the The Image Conference website and return for further information and regular updates. You may also wish to subscribe to ‘The Image’, the Newsletter of the conference and journal.
For all inquiries, please contact the Conference Secretariat.
Background
International Conference on the Image
The Inaugural Image Conference was held at the University of California in Los Angeles, USA in 2010; and Kursaal Congress Palace, San Sebastian, Spain in 2011.
The Image Conference is a presenter’s conference, comprised of numerous parallel sessions.The Conference organizing committee is inviting proposals to present 30-minute papers, or 60-minute workshops or 90-minute colloquium sessions. These may be:
Academic or research papers, or
Presentations describing educational initiatives.
The International Journal of the Image
All registered participants (including virtual participants) have the option to submit papers to The International Journal of the Image. Papers submitted for publication will be fully refereed through a peer review process. The publication decision is based on the referees’ reports. For more information about the journal please visit the Publish Your Paper page.
