Premier’s COFA Visual Arts Scholarship - Generation Touch Screen: Beyond the Instantaneous Simulacra

Aug 30, 2026

Upload by Miles

Investigation centers on the Practice syllabus and on how contemporary photography’s rapid, transformative flux reshapes pedagogy. The study examines the tangible and material dimensions of photographic experience across selected US educational institutions, arguing that photography is at a revolutionary stage shaped by digital technologies and global networked immediacy. It contrasts that speed and ephemerality with photography’s distinctive value: close, attentive looking, intentionality, and the slow sensitivity of alternative, handcrafted processes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Premier’s COFA Visual Arts Scholarship

Beyond the instantaneous simulacra: digital speed vs slow looking

Alternative processes and materiality in teaching

Institutional facilities and hybrid workflows

Curriculum focus: intention, process, and experimentation

Case studies: School of the Art Institute of Chicago and New Trier High School

Premier’s COFA Visual Arts Scholarship Generation Touch Screen: Beyond the Instantaneous Simulacra Michelle Tinta St Josephs College, Hunters Hill Sponsored by This investigation focuses on the syllabus content of Practice and the dynamic and transformative flux that is contemporary photography and its impact on pedagogy. My interest lies in the tangible and material nature of photography and photographic experience provided by a selection of educational institutions within the United States. It is intended to propose questions and spark ideas about what is on offer for photographic practice. The premise of my study is that "photography is at a revolutionary stage of its short history.” Transformed by digital technologies and propelled globally by the instantaneous Internet, photography has become the ubiquitous language of our times, transforming a culture obsessed by the word to one increasingly bound to the image. The implications of the radical social and political metamorphosis are experienced daily, turning each of us into a producer and consumer of photographs, each of us a critic. At the same time, the speed and the ephemerality of the digital image had tended to obscure what remains of photography's unique gift: close and attentive looking at fragments of lost time." As educators we encourage students to experiment liberally with the latest tools and materials, introducing new working methodologies. Technological advancements continue to energise the practice of photography and create new visual language. With large technological steps forward to image production there has been a strong interest to return to handcrafted, more tactile, intimate and historic processes, (alternative processes) of image making. The hand of the student plays a skilful role in the physical production and manipulation of the work, returning to the photograph what artist Brenton Hamilton refers to as the ‘eccentric mark’ in a time of ‘tectonic changes’ in the media. “Light transforming silver now becomes light waves creating a mathematical algorithm with infinite variation”. All become relevant in the practice of photography for student consumption. “As the photo world becomes more digital, we are finding a greater interest in older traditional methods.” Glenn Ruga, PRC Executive Director and Loupe Publisher. The rationale for this may lie in the ‘burning with desire’. How do we facilitate students’ consideration of the expansive possibilities of photography beyond the instantaneous simulacra, capturing the image – to contemplation of content and light capture? What is the position of materiality in contemporary photographic practice? What is cutting edge in photographic practice? How do we focus on intentionality? It is always important to find the correct marriage of intention, image and process. School of the Art Institute of Chicago In conversation and debate with the very committed temporary Chair of Department of Photography Aimee Beaubien and Professor of Photography Robert Clarke-Davis who teaches the Alternative Processes classes, which he refers to as 'slow photo' we conclude that these processes are slow in time and slow in sensitivity. At the School of Art Institute, Chicago all specialised studio spaces, black and white darkrooms facilities are predominantly located on the fringe of a centralised digital studio, open, light and dedicated workstations complete with IMac or Eizo screens, flatbed scanners and localised printers - most Epson 4880 printer connected to iMac, specifically for those students particular interested in specific colour profiles and specialist papers, and not wanting to use the rip system for fast printing (satin, matte and glossy). Some high tech large format Imacon scanners, large format negative scanners allow the many students working with large format photography opportunity to scan negatives. Many students engaging with film technology are doing so for the very first time as they have had minimal expo

FAQs

What central educational problem does the study address about contemporary photography?

It explores how the contemporary shift in photography affects pedagogy, especially how fast digital imagery can obscure photography’s unique gift of close, attentive looking.

Why does the study emphasize alternative, handcrafted photographic processes?

It argues that older traditional methods and alternative processes support tactile, intimate, and historic ways of making images, where the student’s hand and intentionality matter.

How do the institutions described support a hybrid approach to photography education?

They combine dedicated analog spaces like darkrooms and alternative-process rooms with centralized digital studios, allowing students to choose darkroom or digital workflows based on their course.

Aug 30, 2026

Upload by Miles