Left picture by Paul Muse, Rennes 2009.                   Right picture by Estampes (L.D.)

L'IMAGE PUBLIQUE # 4 presents a European Interdisciplinary Conference

Photography at the Crossroads of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Photographic approaches, uses of photography, cultural and social mediations.

Tuesday 5 th et Wednesday 6 th of October 2010 – Rennes (France).

+ Monday 4 th of October 2010 - Cesson-Sévigné.

Photographic studies have become extremely diversified. Some thirty researchers of various disciplinary backgrounds are to meet over two days in Rennes in order to confront methodological approaches across the fields of the different human and social sciences. This conference, organised within the framework of Image Publique 2010, is to examine the different uses of photography, as well as the views, representations and mediations that are associated with them.

To attend the conference, contact: info@photoalouest.com (special reservation before 7th september, PDF on this website // last reservation before 30th September, number of places limited). The two evening sessions (8.30 – 10.30 p.m.) are open to all members of the public (8 euros / 4 euros).

Each presentation, selected by a scientific committee, will approach one of the following axes (to be published September 8th) :

- Approaches to the diversity of photographic regards: principles and methods (1).

- Studies of photographic practices: advantages and limits of theory borrowing and interdisciplinary methods (2).

- Studies of the functions and values of photographic images: epistemological interest for human and social sciences (3).

- Approaches to usage in the digital sphere of photography: social practices of distributing photographs across/by networks and the status of author (4).

- Studies of photographic discourse in the media: the evolution of practices in the new economy/new market for images (5).

- Studies of the artistic, cultural and social mediations of photographic images: photographic views and representation of the public (6).

DAY BY DAY :

Monday 4th October (9 p.m.) : Photographic regards, between witnessing and creating – Part 1 (with projections on big screen). Cultural Centre Bourg Chevreuil in Cesson-Sévigné. Evening session open to all members of the public (8 euros / 4 euros).

Tuesday 5th October (9 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.):  Methods and principles for photographic studies. Cultural Centre, Le Triangle (Bd de Yougoslavie - Rennes), Pléiade room (Métro Triangle). By reservation (day rate).

Tuesday 5th October (2 – 5.30 p.m.): Thinking on photographic regards and constructing a socio-semiotic approach to photography. Cultural Centre, Le Triangle (Bd de Yougoslavie - Rennes), Pléiade room (Métro Triangle). By reservation (day rate).

Tuesday 5th October (8.30– 10.30 p.m.): Photographic regards, between witnessing and creating (with projections on big screen). Centre d’Information sur l’Urbanisme (rue Le Bastard – Rennes). Evening session open to all members of the public (8 euros / 4 euros).

Wednesday 6th October (9 a.m. – 12.30): Uses and practices of photography. Cultural Centre, Le Triangle, Pléiade room (Métro Triangle). By reservation (day rate).

Wednesday 6th October (2 – 5.30 p.m.): Study of usages and interest for human and social sciences. Cultural centre Le Triangle, Pléiades room (Métro Triangle). By reservation (day rate).

Date limit for submission of proposals : March 4, 2010.

Call for papers published in

www.fabula.org

www.photosapiens.com

For your coming in Rennes

From european countries : contact page « Visites et Echanges » in website of Europe Education Formation Agency of your country.

Hotels : www.tourisme-rennes.eu

All Adresses of the conference : see french version of this website.

Scientific Directions

Phenomenon of mass-communication, photography has also become an omnipresent subject of
research. The coming of the “digital era” has moreover not led to its disappearance, but seems rather to
have contributed to an increase in the studies dedicated to it. At the same time, such studies have also
become increasingly diverse since the 1980s, to the point where nowadays they come into almost every
field within the social sciences and humanities (1).

Photography can be considered a veritable “crossroads object”. Beyond the study of the “graphic
chains” involved in the production of images, it is now possible to outline an approach to “photographic
regards”, considering these as true anthropo-technical apparatus for mobilising knowledge, know-how,
situations, communication networks, imaginary realms, experiences, economic or political contexts, or
as frames of reference concerning a multiplicity of social and cultural dimensions (2). Beyond merely
bringing together an accumulation of new studies on photography, this conference aims above all to
insist on the search for new frontiers with a view to identifying a theoretic domain under construction,
towards the meeting of contemporary knowledge and experience.

We hope that such a conference, open to encounters between researchers, photographers, public and
engineers, will contribute to identifying these “intermediate problems” as well as spaces appropriate to
the contemporary complexity of the photographic object, understood in this renewed anthropological
and semiotic extension.


(1) : See our indicative bibliography on our website www.colloque-photo-rennes.eu
(2) : See Vancassel Paul, “Les regards photographiques comme dispositifs anthropotechniques et processus
transindividuels”, Thesis of doctorate in Sciences of Information and Communication, Université Européenne de Bretagne (Rennes 2), presented 8 February 2008 (available on http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/ and on micro-film).

Practicalities

- Participants

This invitation is open to all researchers (we foresee 50 % of presentations being reserved to
ongoing doctorate students, “young” doctorate holders and post-doctorate researchers) from all
disciplines. Aimed at highlighting the interdisciplinary aspect of current research, the conference
is to provide the occasion for exchange on the diversity of methods and perspectives.

-Proposals for Presentations

These are to be examined anonymously by a two-part scientific committee. Written in French,
each proposed presentation is to deal with one of the six axes listed below. Each is to seek to
present a theoretic project in line with the scientific orientation of the conference, either by
envisaging an interdisciplinary methodology for the study of photography, or by showing how a
given way of questioning cultural and social mediation may enable the development of an
original approach to photography.

Accepted proposals will give rise to an oral presentation of twenty minutes, followed by a debate. These may also be followed by publication, in the form of an article, in the acts of the conference (subject to the opinion of the scientific committee and an editorial committee).

Key Dates :

4 March, 2010 : Deadline for submission of proposals.
16 April, 2010 : Announcement by the scientific committee of accepted proposals.
30 August, 2010 : Deadline for sending complete article (30,000 characters, including spaces).

8 September, 2010 : Annoucement of participants (day by day).

Organisation :

This conference takes place in « Image Publique » (4th edition, 1-24 October, 2010, Rennes, France) :
organised by the association Photo à l’ouest (6, rue des Artificiers, 35700 Rennes - France).

- Scientific Partner :

Host team of PREFics (EA 3207, Plurilinguism, Representation, Expression Francophone, Information,
Communication and Sociolinguistics), of the European University of Brittany (Rennes 2).

- Institutional and associative partners :

City of Rennes / European Community “Gruntvig” Programme / Rennes-Métropole / City of Cesson-Sévigné / Maison Internationale de Rennes / Teaching League of Ille et Vilaine / Zamec Cultural Centre – Poznan (Poland) / City of Erlangen (Germany).

SOLUMEDIA

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