Fóram Idirnáisiúnta ar Thaighde Ealaíonta 2026
An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)
Submission Number: 119
Submission ID: 163
Submission UUID: a5c6ed67-84fc-44ed-b285-6a052a673758

Cruthaithe: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 - 14:47
Déanta: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 - 14:56
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:12

Remote IP address: 113.254.18.12
Teanga: English

Is draft: Níl
Current page: webform_confirmation
Given name Mong Sum "Joseph"
Surname Leung
Email josephleung@hsu.edu.hk
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Title On The AI Image and The Dissolution of Indexicality
Format Project presentation
Main language English
Abstract This paper examines how the AI Image transforms the indexical conditions of image-making and, with them, the ethical relation to Alterity that has long underpinned photographic practice. While conventional photography maintains a legible index—what Barthes called "that-has-been"—such indexicality has been lost in the case of AI images, where a single image is in fact produced from computationally dispersed archives in which any visible sign of origin becomes irretrievable. Crucially, the paper distinguishes between the disappearance of indexical presence and the persistence of the Derridean trace: though one can no longer perceive a clear index of an AI image, the trace of the Other nevertheless persists within the very generative process. The loss of a direct index to the Other thus enables an illusion of absolute ownership, where the image appears authored by the user's desire alone. You own the image, but it doesn’t belong to you. Without the recalcitrant encounter with alterity in the image-making process, AI image generation risks becoming structurally auto-erotic. The paper therefore argues that negotiation with Alterity is foundational to ethical image-making and thus essential to artistic research practice.
Link to the Exposition https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/4137673/4137674
Image Trace_JosephLEUNG.png
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Mong-sum “Joseph” Leung is an artist based between Hong Kong and Vienna. Working across photography, text, found objects, and installation, his intermedia practice traces the many manifestations of Anxiety within contemporary socio-political and digital conditions—approaching it as affect, social undercurrent, political apparatus, trauma, and, at times, a moment of vision. Recent work further engages the Real as a speculative object, probing its appearances and withdrawals across image, narrative, and material form.

    Leung is currently Assistant Professor at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. He holds PhD in Art from the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research
Additional information N/A
Spatial and technical requirements I would only need a basic projector for the presentation of my slides.
Potential risks or ethical concerns There is not any risks or ethical concerns foreseeable at this stage.
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Fóram Idirnáisiúnta ar Thaighde Ealaíonta 2026
An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)

Welcome to SAR 2026

Endangered Conceptual Worlds

The 2026 International Forum on Artistic Research takes place from 23 to 26 June 2026. Hosted by the University of Galway on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, the Forum addresses the challenges of Endangered Conceptual Worlds. As the 17th annual conference of the Society for Artistic Research it is the largest conference on practice-based research within and through the arts, bringing together more than 300 international participants: leading practitioners, scholars and policymakers from the entire range of arts-based disciplines.

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Slightly extended deadline for submissions

The 2026 Forum on Artistic Research website has been inaccessible for several hours on Friday night and Saturday morning. Unfortunately, an update to the web server was scheduled to take place, which automatically activated maintenance mode and prevented any work on the submissions during the night and the next morning. We have therefore decided to slightly extend the deadline for submissions to Monday 2 March 2026 at 23:59 GMT. Feel free to work on your proposals until then.