PRESS RELEASE: AI: The End of the Lens? – Belgian artist and iconoclast Miska Henner to present at AI Symposium in Melbourne this month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AI: The End of the Lens? – Belgian artist and iconoclast Miska Henner to present at AI Symposium in Melbourne this month

[South Melbourne Australia | 5 March 2024]

A new Symposium on Sunday 17 March 2024, 11am-2.30pm, hosted by Australia’ s only specialist educational institution in photography and digital image will be held during
PHOTO 2024 an International Festival of Photography held in Melbourne throughout March.

The Symposium will debate the hard questions about AI and the impact of the emergence of a constructed image that does not need a camera or a lens.

In 1840, when French painter Paul Delaroche saw his first photograph, he declared: “From today, painting is dead!”

And now in 2024, AI and images generated from text prompts raise similar cries of “Photography is dead!”

AI has arrived as a controversial technology just at the time when we have entered ‘The Age of The Image’ where visual images dominate human communication and social media.

The provocative Symposium explores whether photography IS dead? With AI developing a rate none of us can keep up with, is it the end of the lens?

Symposium keynote Miska Henner is no stranger to what authorship means in the visual arts. He has long explored all forms of imaging platforms, reconstructing found online imagery to subvert the viewers perception, the idea of ‘the author’ and to question ‘the value of photography in today’s media saturated world’. [1]

Ironically, the images emerging from the artificial intelligence visual generators (such as Midjourney, DALLE-E2 etc) are all drawn from immense data banks of photographic images and emerge at the mere suggestion of a human prompt.

But is it as simple as all that?

Is it the end – or another beginning?

What does AI mean for education in the visual arts and photography?

A panel of PSC staff and alumni photographers will address these questions. Workshops in using AI in photography and digital image generation form part of the symposium.

Join us face to face on campus at Photography Studies College, 37-47 Thistlethwaite Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 for a provocative keynote at 11am Sunday 17 March 2024 followed by presentations and a lively debate by photography educators, students and industry protagonists.

Live streaming available. To register for the event please follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ai-the-end-of-the-lens-symposium-on-campus-and-webinar-tickets-850602834977

Enquiries to Nic Kocher [email protected] or 0402 319 931 or Julie Moss [email protected] or 0408 324163.

[1] source: https://mischkahenner.com

QUOTES FOR MEDIA USE.

PSC Emerging Technologies Convenor, Nic Kocher says: AI represents the most revolutionary advancement in image-making since the invention of the camera itself.

PSC Managing Director, Julie Moss says: The PHOTO 2024 festival has created an incredible platform for artists, curators and education partners to respond to their theme of ‘The future belongs to those who can see it”. AI is here to stay – and and at PSC we are excited to be at the forefront of teaching these new technologies and embracing the challenges they raise. The future belongs to those who can fully embrace these changes and use them to stay ahead of the pack!”

Symposium host and PSC Academic Board Chair, Professor Emeritus Chris Ryan says: “This is the most significant development in technology for image creation. It is already controversial with concerns about the ease of creating fake images. For those educated in photography and digital image making, these new technologies potentially offer a new set of creative opportunities to enhance existing technical and visual skills in telling stories through the image. How we proceed in this domain will emerge from extensive debate and experimentation. This symposium is one contribution to that debate from PSC.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Photography Studies College (PSC) https://psc.edu.au is the only registered and accredited higher education institution of photography and digital imaging in Australia. Featuring a Master of Arts Photography, a Bachelor of Photography and a range of specialist courses in digital imaging, video and screen, PSC has built a reputation over 50 years for delivering high quality industry relevant education. A number alumni are featured in Photo 2024.
About Mishka Henner https://mishkahenner.com is a visual artist born in Belgium and living in the UK. His varied practice navigates through the digital terrain to focus on key subjects of cultural and geo-political interest. His work often reflects on cultural and industrial infrastructures in a process involving extensive documentary research combined with the meticulous reconstruction of imagery from materials sourced online.

His book Photography Is (2010) collected 3,500 found phrases defining photography and was described as a manifesto for photography in the 21st Century. Other works such as Feedlots (2012) and Fields (2012) depicted giant farming and oil installations in great detail through the use of satellite imagery. In 2013, Henner erased one of the masterworks of documentary photography, Robert Frank’s The Americans. With Astronomical (2011), Henner reduces the solar system into a 12-volume book work beginning on page 1 with the Sun and ending on page 6,000 with Pluto.

Henner’s works have featured in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the University of Salford Art Collection, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich,and Turner Contemporary, Margate. He holds a Masters degree from Goldsmiths College in London and in 2013, was awarded the Infinity Award for Art by the International Center of Photography. He was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in the same year and in 2014, was on the shortlist for the Prix Pictet.

About Professor Emeritus Chris Ryan – Professor Emeritus Chris Ryan is the Chair of PSC’s Academic Board and has been one of the key leaders of the academic direction and growth of PSC over the past decade. He has worked for over 30 years across various areas of science, technology and environmental policy and design and in projects that span the community sector, academia, government, international agencies, and business, including as:
• Foundation Professor, Design and Sustainability, RMIT
• Professor and Co-Director, Australian Centre for Science Innovation and Society/Director, Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, University of Melbourne
• Deputy Chair, Community Cultural Development Board, Australia Council
• Expert Reviewer, Design Council London
• Professor and Director at Lund University Sweden
• Visiting professor Domus Academy, Milan
• Visiting professor, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands
He is also Director Eco-Design Australia and Coordinator of Great Ocean Road Futures (RMIT, Monash, Melbourne and Swinburne Universities).