The SCAN Symposium revises old and new ideas about photographic theory

The SCAN Symposium is directed by Pedro Vicente Mullor, visiting professor of photographic theory from UCA University, Farnham, England, and codirector of the Postgraduate course in Photography at the Elisava School in Barcelona. The Symposium puts forward the premise that, despite the fact that in this day and age the practice of photography is very extensive, and we are living in a  moment in which we are saturated with images, we probably are still very far away from knowing what exactly photography is. The difficulty in defining and formulating a theory comes from the very flexibility, defencelessness, instability and permeability of photography itself, owing to it hybrid nature and its constant motion.

Titled Snapshots of Photographic Theory, the Symposium hopes to provide a framework for debate which allows the exploration of the state, uses, consumption and future of photography and its theory. At the same time  it hopes to explore contemporary thought by researching new ways of understanding photography and its relationship with the world and, by the same token, our relationship with it.

In order to debate these themes, the Symposium offers a series of conferences and round tables that will begin on 14 May with a conference titled Discovering the Theory of Photography, in which we will ask ourselves if we can really speak about photography as a structured and independent discipline. We will also consider the current state of the field, particularly in Spain.

The conference will continue on 15 May, with Other Theories. The sessions offered that day will analyse the influences that other disciplines exert on our way of seeing photographs, as well as the way in which we think about and understand them.

Finally, on 16 May, a series of sessions which come under the title Other Photographs will attempt to address the complexity and plurality of the discipline. We will consider the question of whether or not we need to reinvent the theory in order not to fall behind in the practice.

Amongst the speakers are  Peter Osborne, professor of Modern European Philosophy and director of the Centre for Research into Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, London, and one of the editors of Radical Philosophy magazine. Elisabeth Edwards professor in Cultural History of Photograpy and Senior Reserach Fellow, University of the Arts London; Martin Lister is a Professor of Visual Culture at the University of the West of England. Jean-François Chevrier is an art historian and teacher at the Higher National School of Fine Arts in Paris, and an independent exhibition commissioner. Daniel Canogar is one of the most internationally renowned Spanish artists in the field.

You can consult our complete Symposium programme in the Programa section of our website.

If you are interested in the Symposium, you can sign up at inscripcions@scan.cat. Students can ask for further information and sign up at the Department of History and Art History at the Faculty of Arts, Rovira i Virgili University (Avinguda de Catalunya, 35), by telephone (977 559 595) or email guillermina.rubio@urv.cat. Attendance at the Symposium is equivalent to 2 free credits.

Symposium
14, 15 and 16 May
Aula Magna  of the Law Faculty, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
Avinguda de Catalunya, 35
43003 Tarragona

Project management: Pedro Vicente Mullor, visiting professor of photographic theory at UCA University, England, and codirector of the postgraduate course in Photography at Elisava School in Barcelona.
Organised by: SCAN in collaboration with  Rovira i Virgili University.
Production and Coordination: Jordi Nicolau, SCAN production team.
URV Coordination: José Carlos Suárez,  URV professor and director of the URV Aula de Cinema.