Conference Photography Performing Humor

Talks, lezingen en congressen

Although humor is clearly omnipresent in a wide spectrum of photographic practices — ranging from advertising or art photography to family snapshots with their obligatory ‘smile’ or the classic Tower of Pisa joke — the topic has yet to be fully discovered by researchers. While in recent years photography theory has witnessed the affective turn, its focus remained largely on photographic representations of suffering, trauma and loss.
It is no coincidence then, that one of the central metaphors to think the affective quality of the medium, Barthes’ punctum, relates affect to being wounded. This conference resolutely chooses to elaborate a lighter, humorous side of photography and aims to map different strategies and practices.

PROGRAM

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

9:00 am     Coffee & registration

10:00 am    Welcome
Carl Van Eyndhoven (dean LUCA School of Arts)

10:10 am     Opening word
Mieke Bleyen (KU Leuven)

10:30 am     Keynote lecture
Louis Kaplan (University of Toronto)
A Morbid Sense of Humor: Reflections on Photography’s Dark Comedy

Moderator: Hilde Van Gelder

11:30 am     Coffee break

11:45 am     Heather Diack (University of Miami)
Playing It Straight: The Alliance of Humor and Photography in Conceptual Art

12:15 pm      Sandra Križic Roban (Institute of Art History, Zagreb)
Elements of Humor in Proto- and Conceptual Photography in Croatia

12:45 pm       Johan Pas (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp)
“Défense de photographier.” Parody as a Postmodern Strategy in Some European Artists’ Books, 1960s-70s

Moderator: Liesbeth Decan

1:15 pm     Lunch break

2:30 pm     Sian Bonnell (based in Cornwall; Falmouth University, Cornwall)
Wilful Amateur

3:00 pm     Lieven Segers (based in Antwerp; MAD-Faculty, Hogeschool PXL, Hasselt - LUCA School of Arts, Genk)
8 words on making something good

3:30 pm     Thomas Mailaender (based in Paris and Marseille)
Screening A Very Serious Job

Moderator: Nicola Setari

4:00 pm     Break

8:00 pm     Lieven Gevaert Leerstoel Lectures (at deBuren, Leopoldstraat 6, 1000 Brussel)

Paulien Oltheten (based in Amsterdam)
Sifting and sorting / centrifugal thoughts

Hilde D’haeyere (KASK School of Arts, University College Ghent)
CINEMACINE. Lecture on the Mechanisms of Screen Comedy

Moderators: Mieke Bleyen & Liesbeth Decan

9:30 pm                  Reception

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Thursday, 14 April 2016

9:30 am    Coffee & registration

10:00 am     Keynote lecture
Esther Leslie (Birkbeck University of London)
Photography and Laughter’s Shattered Articulation

Moderator: Edwin Carels

11:00 am    Coffee break

11:15 am     Alexandra Olivia Tait (University College London)
Düsseldorf’s Commedia dell’Arte: Artistic Self-Staging in polke/richter richter/polke (1966)

11:45 am    Ann Kristin Krahn (Braunschweig University of the Arts)
Adding a Giggle: Lee Friedlander’s Practice of the “Shadow Self-Portrait”

12:15 pm     Andrei Venghiac (based in Gothenburg)
Reflections on the Concept of Play

Moderator: Volkmar Mühleis

12:45 pm    Lunch break

2:00 pm     George Emeka Agbo (University of the Western Cape)
Facebook and Photographic Humourisation of Political Activism in Nigeria

2:30 pm     Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Uneasy laughter. Photography and Humor in Poland

3:00 pm     David Helbich (based in Brussels)
Being Part of the Problem is the Solution. Sharing and Conceptual Art. On "Belgian Solutions" and "Trying to Look Like a Building"

3:30 pm     Kevin Atherton (based in Dublin; National College of Art and Design, Dublin)
Performing the Performance Documentation

Moderator: Els Opsomer

4:00 pm     Mieke Bleyen (KU Leuven) & Liesbeth Decan (LUCA School of Arts)
Closing remarks

4:15 pm    Reception