What will the future of photography look like? This year our theme, The Real Thing is a provocation and a nostalgic call to come and see what is real. BIFB 2023 is a catalyst for conversation marking an exhilarating exploration into the future of photography.

Images have become the vernacular of modern life as we are bombarded with snaps, portraits, social documents, NFTs, (non-fungible tokens), images generated by Artificial Intelligence and more. It has become our task to sift through this cacophony and determine what has real meaning and what is just visual hyperbole.

Join us to interrogate post-photography Saturday 7 October. Some refreshments provided.

Event Program

12–1pm: The Photographic Program of AI | Keynote Presentation by Katrina Sluis
Recent advances in machine learning would not have been possible without the labour of millions of photographers. And yet, new AI text-to-image models threaten to remove the photographer from photographic production, reducing the camera’s operation to a text input. How might we imagine the future of photography without photographers?

Katrina Sluis is Head of Photography & Media Arts in the School of Art & Design at the Australian National University, where she convenes the Computational Culture Lab. From 2011-2019 she was Senior Curator (Digital Programmes) at The Photographers’ Gallery, London. Her research is broadly concerned with the politics and aesthetics of art and photography in computational culture, its social circulation, automation and cultural value.

1:30–2:30pm: BIFB x Artlink x AI Panel
Hear from Artlink 2023 Spring Issue 33:2:After AI artists and writers including Melbourne-based multi-disciplinary artist and researcher Amalia Lindo, Professor Daniel Palmer, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, School of Art, RMIT University; and Katrina Sluis, Associate Professor, Photography & Media Arts ANU Researcher. Chaired by Alison Bennett, artist and Associate Dean Photography, RMIT University.

3–4:30pm: BIFB x 3-minute AI vs Photography
What will the future of photography look like? Artists and researchers will go head-to-head in battle to share their vision in a short and snappy presentation. Featuring Tom Blachford, Chris Bowes, Isabella Capezio, Lisa Dethridge, Kim Percy, Emma Phillips, J Rosenbaum, Hanna Silver and Laurence Watts.