Seventeenth International Conference on The Image, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
1st to 2nd October 2026
Singapore
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CALL FOR PAPERS
Place: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore + Online
Format: In-Person (Location) and Online (Asynchronous Content)
Dates: 1-2 October 2026
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PLENARY SPEAKERS
Yu Jin Seng, Director (Curatorial, Research & Exhibitions) and Senior Curator, National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore
Jesvin Yeo, Deputy Associate Provost (Strategy), Acting Chair (School of Art, Design and Media), Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Jackson Tan, Co-founder and Creative Director, BLACK Design, Singapore
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SPECIAL FOCUS: The Image as Advocate: Shaping Cultural Conversations
This year's special focus examines how visual media serve as agents of cultural dialogue, activism, and change, particularly within complex and pluralistic societies. Images do more than reflect the world; they intervene in it. Whether mobilised to document injustice, amplify marginalised voices, reframe dominant narratives, or inspire solidarity, images hold or possess the capacity to advocate. As technologies evolve and the circulation of images intensifies, so too does the need to critically assess how they shape public consciousness and cultural meaning. This conference invites an exploration of how visual forms, across analogue, digital, and emerging mediums, operate as tools of advocacy within their own cultural contexts and in dialogue with others, placing an emphasis on practices that are situated, responsive, and ethically engaged. We ask: What are the possibilities and limits of the image as advocate? How does visual advocacy operate across linguistic, societal and cultural thresholds? And what pedagogies, platforms, or ethics are needed to support such work? In gathering diverse voices, we aim to cultivate a conversation on how images not only represent but also actively shape the cultures from which they emerge.
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CONFERENCE THEMES
Theme 1: The Form of The Image
Theme 2: Image Work
Theme 3: The Image in Society
Theme 4: Creative and Cultural Technologies
Theme 5: Ordinary Practice and Collective Behaviors
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JOURNAL
The International Journal of the Image is a cross-disciplinary forum for interrogating the nature of the image and the processes of image-making in all their empirical, normative, and imaginative dimensions.
Serial Founded: 2011
ISSN: 2154-8560 (Print) ISSN: 2154-8579 (Online)
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/2010200191
Publication Frequency: Biannually
Indexing: Art Abstracts (EBSCO), Art Full Text (EBSCO), Art Index (EBSCO), Art Source (EBSCO), Arts & Humanities Full Text (ProQuest), Psychology (Cabell's), The Australian Research Council (ARC)
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ABOUT US
Founded in 2010, The Image Research Network is brought together around a shared interest in the nature and function of image making and images. We seek to build an epistemic community where we can make linkages across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries. As a Research Network, we are defined by our scope and concerns and motivated to build strategies for action framed by our shared themes and tensions.
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RELATED CONFERENCES
We also offer related thematic events in our other Research Networks that you might be able to attend in-person. This way we build for our Research Network Members flexible, and at the same time resilient, spaces for communication, engagement, and participation.
View other Common Ground Research Networks conferences:
Enquiries: support@cgnetworks.org
Web address: https://ontheimage.com/2026-conference
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