Registeration: https://forms.gle/T74vYn3cQLKPTMLNA

Please R.S.V.P by 12 October 2026, 5:00 pm.

Abstract

For two centuries, photography has shaped how we see, record, remember, and understand the world. What began as a light-sensitive chemical process has evolved into a diverse field of image-making that now includes digital manipulation, computer-generated imagery, virtual environments, simulation, and AI-generated images.

Accompanying the workshop programme 200 Years of Photography: Images, Representation and AI, this symposium invites artists, scholars, curators, photojournalists, and researchers to reflect on the changing role of images in contemporary culture.

The symposium unfolds across three thematic sessions. From Photography to Synthography traces the evolution of image-making from analogue photographic processes and experimental camera systems to synthography: the creation of images through synthetic means, including computer-generated imagery, 3D modelling, virtual environments, simulation, and artificial intelligence. Image and Archive explores how images shape memory, construct histories, and enable speculative engagements with the past in an age of ecological and technological transformation. The Faithful Image examines photography’s enduring role as witness, addressing questions of authenticity, credibility, and trust in contemporary documentary and journalistic practice.

Through contributions from international keynote speakers and Hong Kong-based artists, researchers, and practitioners, Imagining Photography reflects on the transformations of the image across two centuries. Spanning analogue photography, synthography, archives, and documentary practice, the symposium explores how evolving image technologies continue to shape the ways we document, remember, and imagine the world.

Programme & Schedule

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/scm/imagine/200/programme/

Welcome Address

- Mr Oliver Bräuner, German Deputy Consul General in Hong Kong
- Ms. Johanna Bouyé, Consul for Education, Science and Culture Consulate General of France in Hong Kong
- Prof. Espen Aarseth, Dean of the School of Creative Media, SCM, CityUHK

Session 1

From Photography to Synthography

10:30 am - 12:45 pm
Moderated by Shaiana Po, Research assistant at SCM, CityUHK

Keynote Speaker
Andreas Müller-Pohle: From Niépce to Robots: Datagraphy as Artistic Practice

Presenters
XUANYANG Huang: Synthetic Punktum: The De/Reconstruction of the Personal Memory
Prof. Tamas Waliczky: Imaginary cameras
Chan Hoi Tat: Re-imagiming Cyanotype: From Representational Image to Material Surface

Session 2

Image and Archive

1:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Moderated by LI Jiaqi, PhD candidate, SCM, CityUHK

Keynote Speaker
Prof. Gwenola Wagon: From Anarchives to Speculative Fictions

Presenters
Dr. LAI Chui-han Linda: Images as Objectile
Dr. Vennes CHENG: Archive as Detour: Rethinking and Remapping Relationships Between Human, Machine, and Technology in Arts

Session 3

The faithful image

4:15 pm - 6:15 pm
Moderated by Dr. Ann Mak, Independent Curator, Writer and Researcher, Hong Kong

Keynote Speaker
Jake SORIANO: How digital investigation and photojournalism work together to combat harmful AI-powered falsehoods

Presenters
May James
Phil Shek
Prf. LAM Miu Ling: Erased Murmurs