ABOUT

People

The research-coordinators are Dr Marc Boumeester at ArtEZ University of the Arts (NL) and Dr Miriam von Schantz at Konstfack (SWE). Other participants come from Lithuania, Italy and Ukraine. Dr. Marc Boumeester – Head of Research & Development, ArtEZ University of the Arts Zwolle (NL), is founder and coordinator of the network and has been working on the ontogenesis of the image as part of his longer standing research on mediated perception theory from a New Materialist perspective. His latest publication “The Image by Proxy” serves as a starting point for the formation of the research agenda, offering a critical framework for interrogating how images operate as proxies in the construction – and dissolution – of reality. Together with Boumeester, Miriam von Schantz is the second founder and coordinator. In her own research, the materiality of the image, what she calls mediamateriality, is central as well as her focus on developing pedagogical methods for working with the image as an intra-active agent in the constitution of the material world. Addressing the current state of ‘mockumentality’ pervading the relation between the socius and imageworld she investigates media pedagogies grounded in an ethics of critical and creative human responsibility. Bob Verheijden, Director of Art & Design at ArtEZ University of the Arts, has for many years investigated the image as an “in-between space” a relational field that unfolds between things, bodies, and social constellations. Rather than conceiving the image as a discrete representation, he approaches it as a continuous condition of the world: something that emerges through encounters, persists through time, and remains fundamentally unfinished. Within this perspective, the image is not an object to be consumed, but a durational presence, an enduring artwork that exists through its ongoing entanglement with perception, context, and lived experience.

Olena Chepelyuk is the Rector of Kherson National Technical University and served as Head of the Design Department for 15 years. Her interest in "The Ontology of the Image" stems from the urgent need to rethink the role of visual culture and critical work with images in education, particularly in wartime conditions where image manipulation has become a tool of information warfare. Dr. Rūta Spelskytė work at Vilnius Academy of Arts, where they teach in the Photography, Animation, and Media Department. The students work daily with hacking, faking, multiplying, and bending enormous amounts of image flows leading to Dr. Spelskytė to a joyful opportunity to stop, gather, and ground thoughts on the image and their own trajectory as user and professor. Philip Schütte is an artist and creative worker with a background in mathematical psychology and art. Working internationally across commercial and cultural commissions, he probes digital culture and the psychological, social, and physical imprints of technology on our lives. He often builds new formats and self-devised tools, using imagery as a relatable proxy for the systems that quietly shape our technological environments and psychological realities. As co-founder of fORMATS aND mECHANISMS, he challenges and rewires creative industry power structures to open space for bolder, healthier constellations of work. From Italy, Michelle Davis joined as a dynamic thinker and connector with a deep immersion in contemporary photography. Michelle excels at reading between the lines, uncovering opportunities in overlooked spaces, and acting with the agility of someone who understands that the most transformative solutions often arise from the unexpected.