On The Image 2026

x26-banner2 (1)

1-2 October 2026 | Nanyang Technological University Singapore

The Image as Advocate: Shaping Cultural Conversations

This year’s special focus examines how visual media serve as agents of cultural dialogue, activism, and change, particularly within complex and pluralistic societies. Images do more than reflect the world; they intervene in it. Whether mobilised to document injustice, amplify marginalised voices, reframe dominant narratives, or inspire solidarity, images carry the capacity to advocate. As technologies evolve and the circulation of images intensifies, so too does the need to critically assess how they shape public consciousness and cultural meaning.

This conference invites an exploration of how visual forms, across analogue, digital, and emerging mediums, operate as tools of advocacy within their own cultural contexts and in dialogue with others, placing an emphasis on practices that are situated, responsive, and ethically engaged.

We ask: What are the possibilities and limits of the image as advocate? How does visual advocacy operate across linguistic, societal and cultural thresholds? And what pedagogies, platforms, or ethics are needed to support such work? In gathering diverse voices, we aim to cultivate a conversation on how images not only represent but also actively shape the cultures from which they emerge.

Click here for more information and to register


Local Conference Chair: Associate Professor Lisa Winstanley

Local Conference Committee:

  • Angeline Yam
  • Candice Ng Ee-Ching
  • Desmond Pang Hee Wee
  • Jesvin Yeo
  • Wang I-Hsuan Cindy

 

Plenary Speakers

Yu Jin Seng
Director (Curatorial, Research & Exhibitions) and Senior Curator, National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore
Reworlding Images: Towards Planetary Futurisms in the Age of A.I.

Chen-Hsi Wong
Filmmaker and Associate Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Vanished Landscapes: Cinematic Testimony

Jackson Tan
Co-founder and Creative Director, BLACK Design, Singapore
Image as Identity