Report 2016

ECREA TWG Visual Cultures, Report 2016

The ECREA TWG Visual Cultures was approved by the ECREA Bureau on 16 June 2015, and the
TWG chairs were informed of approval on 14 September 2015, after which the TWG became
operational. 2016 was the TWG’s first full year of existence.

The main activities included:

– A panel organized at Helsinki Photomedia 2016 on 30 March, at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, titled ”Empirical Studies on Material Visual Practices in the Domain of Digital Photography.” The panel discussed and explored relations between digital photography and materiality and seeked for new ways of studying digital photography. Speakers included Stella Baraklianou (University of Huddersfield, UK), Paolo Favero (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Edgar Gómez Cruz (RMIT Melbourne, Australia), Zeynep Gürsel (Macalaster College, USA), Asko Lehmuskallio (chair, University of Siegen/Tampere, Germany/Finland) and Elisa Serafinelli (University of Hull, UK).

– A panel organized at ECREA 2016 on 10 November, at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, titled ”Visual Cultures and Material Practices.” The panel presented the TWG as a forum for discussing and developing work on visual cultures in dialogue between different disciplinary approaches. It addressed particularly practice-based approaches which focus on the intersection between visuality and materiality. The aim is to deepen theoretical and empirical understandings of the multiple ways in which visual cultures and material practices intertwine. Speakers included Karin Becker (University of Stockholm, Sweden), Paolo Favero (chair, University of Antwerp, Belgium), Edgar Gómez Cruz (chair, RMIT Melbourne, Australia), Joanna Kedra (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Katharina Lobinger (Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland), Patricia Prieto Blanco (University of Brighton, UK), and Maria Schreiber (University of Wien, Austria).

– The ECREA Routledges Series book ”Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies in Material Visual Practices” (Gómez Cruz & Lehmuskallio (eds), Routledge) was launched in Melbourne, Australia on 8 September at the Brunswick Street Bookstore, in cooperation with the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (RMIT), in Helsinki, Finland on 26 October at the Finnish Museum of Photography, and in Prague, Czech Republic, at the ECREA Conference on 11 November, organized by Routledge. Speakers in the events included Karin Becker (University of Stockholm, Sweden), Paolo Favero (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Edgar Gómez Cruz (RMIT Melbourne, Australia), Elina Heikka (Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland), Sheni Kruger (Routledge, UK), Asko Lehmuskallio (University of Tampere, Finland), Daniel Palmer (Monash University, Australia) and Mikko Villi (University of Jyväskylä, Finland).

– A website was launched for the ECREA TWG Visual Cultures, link here.

– As well as a Facebook group, link here.

For 2017, the ECREA TWG Visual Cultures board has decided to start expanding the steering group, to continue organizing events along major conferences, and to invite further interested colleagues to the TWG’s various activities. Asko Lehmuskallio (chair), Paolo Favero and Edgar Gómez Cruz (vice-chairs).