The Uncertain Image One-day Symposium 12 November 2026

Part of the Powerful Ideas: New Research in Art History at the University of Sydney program Thursday, 12 November 2026 9:00 AM - 4:15 PM (AEST) Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. REGISTER

Convened by Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton, and presented by Photographic Cultures, The Power Institute, the School of Arts, Communication and English, and the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

A day-long symposium on the expanded and uncertain field of photography.

László Moholy-Nagy, Plexiglas-mobile in motion (1943), gelatin silver print.

Bringing together scholars, artists, HDR candidates, and early-career researchers, this symposium will explore the photographic in its most expanded sense. The event will consider how uncertainty operates within photographic images, practices, histories, theories, and systems of circulation. From its earliest experiments, photography has raised questions about evidence, visibility, memory, representation and the instability of images. From synthetic and degraded images to archival loss and extractive practices, and from restorative justice and media manipulation to memory and decolonial fugitivity, the photographic image remains entangled in uncertainty. These questions have gained new urgency as photography expands across computational systems, generative technologies, the moving image, installation, archives, performance, and other material and networked forms.

As a cross-disciplinary forum for research on the photographic image across the School, and in dialogue with scholars from the field of photography, the day will support research development through shared discussion, mentoring, networking, and exchange across disciplines and career stages.

The symposium will include a lecture by Elisa deCourcy, and panel presentations by Rebecca Beardmore, Edwina Biggs, Danica Chappell, Harley Ives, Aiden Magro, Isobel Markus-Dunworth, Remi Siciliano, India Urwin and Tamara Voninski.

Morning Session

9:15 – 9:30am   Welcome Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton

9:30 – 10:30am   Lecture Elisa DeCourcy

10:30 – 10:45am   Morning tea

10:45 – 11:45am   Panel 1 Rebecca Beardmore, Harley Ives, Edwina Biggs

11:45 – 1:15pm   Panel 2 Aiden Magro, Danica Chappell, India Urwin

Afternoon Session

2:00 – 2:30pm   Exhibition Tour: Tracey Moffatt Sorted Lead by exhibition curator Katrina Liberiou

2:30 – 2.50pm   Collection tour: Photographic media in the Historic Photography Collection Lead by collections curator Rebecca Conway

3:00 – 4:00pm   Panel 3 Tamara Voninski, Remi Siciliano, Isobel Markus-Dunworth

4:00 – 4:15pm   Closing remarks Donna West Brett and Yvette Hamilton