Mapping a global dialogue on images and imagination.
Established to connect visual theory and practice across disciplines, the Network has grown into a truly international forum for research, making, and curation.
Founded in 2010 by Phillip Kalantzis Cope and Tamsyn Gilbert, the Image Research Network set out to examine images in their empirical, normative, and imaginative dimensions—how they reflect reality, encode perspective, and project futures. Since its early editions, the Conference on the Image has traveled across regions and institutions, shaping an interdisciplinary conversation that now spans every continent.
Over the years the conference has been hosted with universities and cultural partners including the University of California, Los Angeles, Kursaal Conference Palace (San Sebastián), Free University Berlin, UC Berkeley, Liverpool John Moores University (with Institute of Cultural Capital, Liverpool Biennial, and Face Lab), Venice International University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Manchester Metropolitan University (and SODA), the University of New South Wales (Virtual), the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, The University of Texas at Austin, Universidad San Jorge (Zaragoza), Universidad Abierta Interamericana (Buenos Aires), and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, among others.
Plenary speakers have included Douglas Kellner, Howard Besser, Sean Cubitt, Dina Iordanova, Tomasz Wendland, Erkki Huhtamo, Adam Harvey, Caroline Wilkinson, James Coupe, and Kate Pullinger, among others—each contributing perspectives that situate the image as a force in culture, technology, and public life.
Guided today by the Network Chairs and Advisory Board, the Image Research Network continues to expand geographically and intellectually—linking annual convenings with peer-reviewed publishing and year-round collaboration on CGScholar, and sustaining a shared commitment to rigor, inclusion, and actionable knowledge across the visual field.
We are thankful for the leadership of the following past and present Research Network Chairs.
Chair, Editor
(2019- )
Chair, Editor
(2014-18)
Founding Chair, Editor
(2010-13)
Founding Chair, Editor
(2010-13)
Current Chair and Editor
The International Conference on the Image has a rich history of featuring leading and emerging voices from the field, including:
Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
(2010)
Professor & Associate Academic Director, New York University, New York City, USA
(2010)
Joint Head of Department of Media & Communications, University of London, London, UK
(2010)
Film Studies Director of Research, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
(2011)
Director, Mediations Biennale, Poznan, Poland
(2012)
Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
(2013)
Artist & Researcher, Berlin, Germany
(2016)
Director of the School of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
(2016)
Artist & Associate Professor, Center for Digital Art & Experimental Media (DXARTS), University of Washington, Seattle, USA
(2016)
Bath Spa University, Bath, UK
(2019)
The Image Research Network has had the pleasure of working with the following organizations:
