Research

Find a wealth of research projects, experiments in media and new thinking about the role of photography in a digital climate.

A white mouse

Research

Find a wealth of research projects, experiments in media and new thinking about the role of photography in a digital climate.

In 2011, The Photographers’ Gallery established its Digital Programme in order to generate new knowledge and thinking about the role of the post-photographic image in contemporary art and society.  

As well as commissioning multi-form projects and displays for the Gallery’s Media Wall, the programme further operates as a unique platform for experimentation and research.  

Over the past decade, the Digital Programme has initiated and launched a number of collaborative PhDs and research projects as well as a dedicated online resource, Unthinking.Photography exploring the increasing networked and computational development of visual culture and its political, environmental and social effects.

Each project involves a range of international cultural and educational partners with the aim to foster a global research and knowledge network.  

To keep updated about latest projects and activities, please sign up to the Digital Programme Mailing List.

Curating the networked image - a cat looks at a screen showing a cat looking at a scene with another cat

Curating the Networked Image (2011 - present)

The Photographers’ Gallery has been committed to questions concerning how cultural institutions should value and ‘curate’ digital photographic culture.

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the poster image for the dreamcore aesthetic

Digital Folklore and the Vernacular

This project will visit and learn from online countercultural communities. The research will explore how these communities construct their own cultures, the ways their vernaculars evolve, and the potential ripple effects arising from these grassroots practice.

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Climate Emergency (2020 - present)

This project acknowledges the materiality and weight of visual data circulating within networks, its material effects and asks what alternative practices currently exist that try to reduce its impact on the planet.

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Documenting Digital Art - two figures are silhouetted against a pink background

Documenting Digital Art (2019 - 2022)

In exploring contemporary methods of documentation, the project will address shifts in photographic technologies that have been central to the practice of art history.

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Machine vision - a scrawled patent image of a doll

Machine Vision (2015 -present)

Whilst the photographic image has become a ubiquitous feature of digital culture, it has undergone far-reaching transformations through computational systems.

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