Diverse Views
The Quick and the Dead: Painting, Treachery and Materiality in the Post-medium, Post-digital Condition
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Lee Wiebe
While the perception of the image appears to be in the eye, the apprehension of the image occurs in the mind. The modern apparatus of the image, including painting and photography, has evolved concurrently since the mid-1800s, with emergent digital technologies and affordances for the sharing of images - our “new normal” - only possible since the mid-1990s. Oil painting has long been declared dead as a medium of image creation. Yet, painting persists even as we have entered a post-medium and post-digital era of image creation and consumption. This paper explores the contemporary paradigm of perceiving oil painting through the digital image - the thumbnail on Instagram, for example, as perceived by the viewer on their iPhone. This simulacrum is utterly divorced from the painting's medium, scale and materiality yet functions as the pharmakon upon which our apprehension of the image is often predicated. This practice-based research seeks to apprehend painting as a medium-specific embodied practice grounded in materiality to situate painting, the painted image and the lens of photography in the larger post-digital and post-medium context where the painted image is often consumed, shared, and discussed. This phenomenological research locates the democratic aesthetics of painting in a contemporary and historical consideration of the apparatus of the image. Findings from this research contribute to the discussion of materiality in image creation in this post-medium, post-digital moment, at the nascent of the AI-generated image.
Image-ining Hope: Purposeful Representations of Nature and Culture on Analog and Digital Platforms
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellen Moll
This paper analyzes common visual tropes depicting themes of hope found in book covers, videos, and memes, such as those on platforms such as TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram. While hope-centered social media are not directed campaigns, they nevertheless intervene and spread “virally” within communities contributing valuable insights into how hope–and conceptualizations, images, and imaginations of hope–disperse. We consider how these forms of visual image-making deliver a conception of hope as distinct from optimism; in a distinction made famous by Vaclav Havel, hope is not empty or idle optimism or the assurance that all will be fine, but rather a commitment to working toward purposeful and sometimes radical goals regardless of the chance of success. Drawing on this distinction, we argue that scholars such as Donna Haraway, Paolo Freire, Kevin Gannon, and Lauren Berlant theorize hope as an intellectual practice with particular epistemological tools for enhancing connection, community, and compassion. Analyzing the visual images through the lens of these theorists reveals a wide set of implicit popular understandings of the role of hope, particularly in their use of botanical visual metaphors and their portrayal of individualism or community. Our analysis develops insights into how visual and digital cultures can impede or promote sustainable intellectual and ethical practices of hope and collaboration.
Pivotal Images in Museums and Their Role in Shaping National Identity: Transformations of Visual Narratives in Ukrainian Museum Exhibitions Following Russia’s Military Invasion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Svitlana Tymkiv
Since the beginning of the Russian military aggression in 2014, and especially after the full-scale invasion in 2022, there has been a growing demand in Ukraine for the redefinition of national identity as a form of cultural resistance. Museums have become active participants in this transformation, responding to urgent societal needs and reshaping their narratives under the pressure of war. This paper explores how visual elements in Ukrainian museum exhibitions contribute to the formation and perception of national identity. The focus lies on the images that greet visitors upon entering museum spaces: what do they depict, and how do they correlate with contemporary understandings of Ukrainian identity? Based on an analysis of museum projects from the past six years and visitor surveys, this research investigates how visual content in exhibitions influences collective memory and self-identification. Are the dominant images rooted in ethnographic heritage, or do they reflect more complex and evolving forms of identity? How do visitors interpret these visual messages in the context of ongoing war? This paper seeks to examine the evolving function of images in Ukrainian museums and their role in shaping cultural consciousness during a time of national crisis.
