Agenda

28 Oct 2025 10:00

Art Ecologies | A Sensitive Matter: More-Than-Human Agencies and the Histories of Photography

Biral Room, 4th floor, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà

SYMPOSIUM
A Sensitive Matter: More-Than-Human Agencies and the Histories of Photography

In recent years, scholars have begun to reframe the history of photography shifting focus from a linear account of styles, technological innovations, and documentary practices to a (plural) material history that examines the medium’s entanglements with subterranean resources, animal and plant derivatives, and chemical pollutants — all situated within broader systems of capitalist development. Research into the ‘environment of photography’ reveals the industry’s deep ties to systems of imperial expansion, extractive labour practices, and environmental harm.

This symposium seeks to take stock of these emerging approaches in photographic studies by exploring how environmental questions reshape both the history and the theory of the medium. It invites contributions that consider not only how photography has depicted, studied, and polluted the more-than-human world, but also how ecological conditions, material constraints, and non-human agencies have influenced photographic practices, aesthetics, and discourses. The goal is to examine photography as a site where environmental histories and visual cultures intersect, generating new critical frameworks for understanding the medium.

Organised by Cristina Baldacci and Noemi Quagliati (DFBC and NICHE, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Complete Programme attached.

Language

The event will be held in English

Organized by

Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, NICHE

Downloads

Poster 930 KB
Programme 720 KB

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