Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Through its use of image-based technologies individuals, societies, and nations are reconstructing and re-writing history for a multitude of purposes and are calling into question not only the integrity of documented events but our relationship to “historical” images how they function in the broader historical canon. This evolution of expectation and use of images not only detracts from the implicit memory and significance of historical events but also calls for an acknowledgment of how technology (artificial intelligence, internet-of-things, machine learning) is playing an ever-increasing role in reformatting and reforming the data we entrust it to hold and reveal. There are many ethical questions about how the nature of historical photographs are seen within digital and transmutable environments: Is it logical, or even possible, for images to function in the ways we once wanted them to and, if not, is their a moral responsibility for how images of the past are used in present and future contexts? What occurs when existing technologies rearrange the composition or integrity of an image; thus, detracting from its inherent memory or significance? In an environment with an increased multiplicity of presentation and meaning, is it possible for historical authenticity to be preserved? Given how images are now consumed, used, and re-used again, does historical authenticity even matter?