The Photographic Universe: A Conference in New York

The Moon, Lunar Orbiter 1, NASA, 1966

Aperture Foundation, Parsons the New School for Design, The Shpilman Institute For Photography and The Vera List Center For Art And Politics March 2-3, 2011

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The Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, The Aperture Foundation, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, and The Shpilman Institute for Photography have joined forces to organize The Photographic Universe: A Conference, a unique two-day symposium that will bring together a range of leading practitioners, scientists, theo¬reticians, historians, and philosophers, drawing from the faculty at Parsons, professionals in the science and technology fields, as well as prominent experts from external institutions, to consider and reflect on current discussions in photog¬raphy at a pivotal moment in its history. This unprecedented conference will take place at the Theresa Lang Student and Community Center at The New School located at 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor in New York. The field of photography is constantly changing. Technologies, theories, and what consti¬tutes a 'photographer' or a 'photograph' are prone to unending developments. In the last decade, this rapid transformation has only accelerated due to pervasive digitization. Paradoxically, one might say that photography is now in a simi¬lar place to where it was during the first few decades of its invention––a time when its emerging cultural significance quickly expanded due to innovative technological developments. Similarly, in the last two decades, we have seen an expanding definition of photography through the digital revolution, the Internet, and the accelerated stream of interest in new photographic processes and applications. Thus, it is impor¬tant to reflect on this current moment – with the rapidly increasing permeation of photography throughout contemporary life – on what is the importance of photography as a specific medium or discipline from the perspective of a pr actitioner, user, pedagogue, technologist, historian, among others. Furthermore, how can we evaluate contemporary culture within the expanding photographic field while speculating the future of images? The Photographic Universe: A Conference will attempt to answer these questions through broad artistic, scientific, cultural, sociopolitical arcs to examine the implications of images in contemporary life. The unique format of the conference will consist of one-on-one conversations between two individuals from disparate professional and research backgrounds. Admission is free and open to the public. Wednesday, March 2 – Art & Philosophy Coffee and Bagels 9:00 AM-10:00 AM Charlotte Cotton with David Reinfurt 10:00 AM-11:15 AM Andrea Geyer with Susie Linfield 11:15 AM-12:15 PM Walter Benn Michaels with James Welling 1:45 PM-2:45 PM Penelope Umbrico with Anne Collins Goodyear 2:45 PM-3:45 PM Susan Meiselas with Chris Boot 3:45 PM-4:45 PM Thursday, March 3 – Science & Technology Coffee and Bagels 9:00 AM -10:00 AM Richard Benson with Frank Cost 10:00 AM-10:15 AM Simone Douglas with Michael T. Jones 11:15 AM-12:15 PM Anthony Aziz with Douglas Lanman 1:45 PM-2:45 PM Wafaa Bilal with Virginia Rutledge 2:45 PM-3:45 PM Trevor Paglen with Julia Bryan Wilson 3:45 PM-4:45 PM Additional conference details and bios are available at http://photographicuniverse.parsons.edu