[Commlist] CfP: ECREA Visual Cultures Section: Seeing Through Complexity: Entanglements in Visual Cultures

We warmly invite you to submit abstracts to the online interim 
conference of the ECREA Visual Cultures Section:
Seeing Through Complexity: Entanglements in Visual Cultures
6th November 2025
/A one-day online conference organised by the ECREA Visual Cultures Section/
Visual media and practices have always been multi-layered sites of 
meaning-making. The one-day online conference “Seeing through 
complexity” highlights the inherent challenges of conducting research on 
visual cultures in our recent post-digital, late and platform capitalist 
societies. Issues of access, authorship, and platform-specific dynamics 
further complicate how visual data is gathered, analysed, and ethically 
represented. As such, studying visual cultures in the contemporary 
moment involves not only analysing visual data, but also critically 
engaging with the infrastructures, algorithms, and sociotechnical 
conditions that shape how images are produced, circulated, and seen. 
These issues call for a methodological pluralism that includes, 
combines, and rethinks ethnographic, archival, computational, and 
artistic approaches to adequately address the multifaceted nature of 
visual phenomena.
The ECREA Visual Cultures Section invites scholars to examine the 
entanglements of visual cultures with power, identity, technology, and 
truth-making. We seek contributions that analyse visual cultures through 
lenses attentive to epistemologies and ethics. In particular, we are 
interested in questions that reflect on research objects, methods and 
teaching practices in visual social research, such as: How do visual 
cultures both reflect and challenge the deepening crisis of trust in 
democratic, scientific, and journalistic institutions? What roles do 
AI-generated images and deepfakes play in amplifying or destabilising 
collective perception? How do images, visual narratives, and aesthetic 
practices participate in shaping collective experiences, identities, and 
histories? In what ways do visual cultures and regimes (re)mediate but 
also disrupt collective memories, ideologies and identities? What 
methodological innovations are needed to “see through” complexity in our 
research? What kind of visual pedagogies do we need to adequately 
address these themes in education?
Authors may submit to one of three conference streams: the general 
conference stream, the methods, or teaching streams. Across all streams, 
we welcome work in progress.
Potential contributions to the /general conference theme/ may focus on 
the following:

  *
    Polycrisis and prolonged crises
  *
    Deepfakes, (dis)information, AI, and fact-checking
  *
    Post-digital societies and deep mediatization
  *
    Data and methodologies in visual cultures
  *
    Platforms, commercial interests, and surveillance capitalism
  *
    Governments, governance and technocratic regimes
  *
    New conservatisms and fascisms
  *
    Pop culture, memes, and mash-ups
  *
    (In)visibility and countervisualities
  *
    Identities, memories, and ideologies

/Methods stream:/ In this stream, participants will present 
demonstrations of a specific methodological approach on visuals, for 
example a walkthrough or worked example/case applying their 
proposed/developed method of data collection, method of data analysis, 
data visualisation techniques, reflections on research ethics, 
(critical) methods theory, or epistemological considerations. These 
presentations do not constitute regular conference presentations but 
should be more practice-based and illustrative.
/Teaching stream:///These should be presentations that demonstrate 
pedagogical approaches to teaching visual research and cultures. The 
presentation can focus on a specific case study of a teaching activity, 
the whole course design, or on a curriculum in visual studies, visual 
communication, or a related field of study. The presentation may address 
both challenges (e.g., in assessing visual work) or share best practice 
in teaching. Research projects on visual pedagogies are also welcome.
We expect that presentations from all streams will be in the realm of 
8-20 minutes, but may opt to accommodate longer presentations. All 
submissions should be made via this _FORM 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvhA8ZMmj-YoJNoMPq73IztEpHTR6kZ3Z8JKuEjqXMoSh_3A/viewform?usp=sharing>_ (https://forms.gle/c1u2BQF4zXkWdEXN8) 
by 15th August 2025. Decisions will be announced at the end of September.

ECREA Visual Cultures Section management team:
Joanna Kedra, University of Jyväskylä
Maria Schreiber, University of Salzburg
Grace Omondi, Kristiania University of Applied Sciences
Suay Melisa Özkula, University of Salzburg
Patricia Prieto-Blanco, University of Lancaster


*Contact:*
*Dr. Suay Melisa Özkula*
Email: (suaymelisa.oezkula /at/ plus.ac.at)

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