Friday 10 July 2026, 1–4pm (British Summer Time) on Zoom.
Please register using the form below.
Friday 10 July 2026, 1–4pm (British Summer Time) on Zoom.
Please register using the form below.
The sixth workshop of Museum Dialogues seeks to explore how the accommodation of a continuously expanding photographic field—now encompassing computational, networked and AI‑generated imagery—demands not only new collecting strategies and enhanced epistemic literacy but also a fundamental rethinking of value systems and institutional frameworks. Central to these discussions are pressing questions of representational ethics, intellectual property, originality and ownership in relation to AI‑generated images. How do such images challenge existing definitions of photography? How are labour and agency reconfigured in the era of AI?
At the same time, artificial intelligence and machine learning can be valuable tools in collection management. Applications such as automated visual identification, cross‑referencing and classification of artefacts, metadata generation and enrichment alongside the organisation and transcription of archival materials have the potential not only to make the cataloguing, care and accessibility of large‑scale collections more efficient. They can also open new paths for interpretation with adaptive AI tools supporting personalised forms of public engagement and curatorial exploration. However, the institutional use of these technologies also raises critical concerns about ethics and accountability. AI models are shaped by existing datasets and may reproduce biases, errors and systemic inequalities. This poses key questions: What are the opportunities and limitations of using AI technologies in museum practice? What mechanisms are required to identify algorithmic bias and foster inclusive museum narratives?
Speakers:
Craig Ames, Visual Artist, Researcher and Senior Lecturer, University of Sunderland, UK
Dr Alex Connock, Media and AI Specialist, UK
Dr Areti Galani, Professor of Digital Heritage Practices, Newcastle University, UK
Museum Dialogues aims to transcend the disciplinary boundaries of art history, visual culture, photography, new media, museum and curating studies and bridge theory and practice. Bringing together academic researchers and practitioners, the programme has supported the exchange of innovative solutions, inquiries, and practical challenges relating to the exhibition, collection and interpretation of photography.
This workshop is supported by the University of Sunderland.
Craig Ames is a UK-based artist exploring expanded forms of evidence, simulation, and representation in the post-photography, post-truth era. Ames works with a range of media, including photography, generative AI, text and sourced, online material. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries, festivals and museums including Noorderlicht, the Netherlands (2024/5), Copenhagen Photo Festival, Denmark (2023/4), Thessaloniki Photobiennale, Greece (2023/4), Sune Jonsson Center for Documentary Photography, Västerbottens Museum, Sweden (2023/4), Landskrona Foto, Sweden (2023/4), Currents Art and Technology Festival, USA (2023). Ames’ works are held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK and Huis Marseille, the Netherlands. Ames is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at the Northern Centre of Photography, University of Sunderland.
Dr Areti Galani is Professor in Digital Heritage Practices in the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University, UK, with expertise in curatorial practice, cultural studies and digital heritage. Areti’s research on the ‘dialogic museum’ explored how dialogue might interface with digital museological practice, digital storytelling and visual culture. She is a lead co-editor/author of the volume European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices (Routledge, 2019). Areti has led the design of archive-based museum installations for the Discovery Museum and Seven Stories, and has deployed futuring methodologies in imaging alternative heritage and memory futures in digital culture. She is currently working with the Great North Museum: Hancock to reassemble the story of Julia Boyd, a Victorian collector from the North East of England, and her donation of south pacific cultural objects and natural history specimens. Areti is a mentor in the ICOM-IMREC Digital Leadership Research Fellowships, an international programme designed to strengthen research-informed digital practice in museums globally.
Dr Alex Connock is a specialist on the media and artificial intelligence. He is Professor of Media Innovation at the University of Sunderland, Senior Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and Professor of Media and AI at University of Exeter. Alex is the author of a trilogy published by Routledge: Media Management and Artificial Intelligence (2022), Media Management and Live Experience (2024), and Entrepreneurship in Media and Entertainment (2025), examining how AI, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking are reshaping global media. His industry experience includes over 25 years of creating, acquiring and running production companies and agencies in factual TV, branded content and digital/social marketing. Alex speaks regularly around the world about media and AI – including recently at Goldman Sachs, ITV, BBC, the UK Government, Warner Brothers Discovery, Fox Studios and many production companies and international conferences.
Dr Iro Katsaridou is an art historian and Assistant Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She was formerly the Director of the MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (2021–2024) and curator at the Museum of Byzantine Culture (2005–2021). She has curated exhibitions of historical and contemporary photography, coordinated the international photography festival Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale 2023 at MOMus, and was a member of the Organizing Committee for the 5th Fast Forward Women in Photography conference (Thessaloniki, May 2024). Katsaridou has published contributions in international collective volumes and journals on photography, socially engaged art history, and curatorial practices. Together with Eve Kalyva and Pamela Bianchi, she co-edited the volume Museums and Entrepreneurship: Capitalising on Culture (Routledge, 2024). Katsaridou is Co-Investigator of Museum Dialogues.
Dr Alexandra Moschovi is an academic scholar, art critic, and curator seeking to situate photographic practices within broader art historical, museological, and visual culture debates. With interdisciplinary studies in photography and media and a PhD in art history, Moschovi has published widely on photography and its interface with digital technologies, the museum, and the archive. She co-authored the volume Greece through Photographs (with Aliki Tsirgialou and Spyros Asdrahas, Melissa Publishing House, 2007/09), co-edited the anthology The Versatile Image: Photography, Digital Technologies and the Internet (with Arabella Plouviez and Carol McKay, Leuven University Press, 2013), and authored the monograph A Gust of Photo-Philia: Photography in the Art Museum (Leuven University Press, 2020). Moschovi is Professor of Photography and Curating at the Faculty of Education, Society and Creative Industries, University of Sunderland, UK, and Principal Investigator of the transnational research network Museum Dialogues.
Crista Dix is Executive Director and Curator at the Griffin Museum of Photography, a role she assumed in January 2022 after two years as the Museum’s Associate Director. Under her leadership, the Griffin has expanded its mission of broadening both the audiences for photographic art and the conversations around it. Crista was founder of wall space creative, a gallery which she ran for fifteen years, building an internationally recognised programme centred on emerging and mid-career artists, presenting exhibitions, events and participating in art fairs across the US and internationally. Her curatorial instincts are grounded in an uncommon range of experience–a background in science, business, and the visual arts–that shape how she thinks about the photograph as an object, an idea and a conversation. Crista is a writer on photography and regularly participates in talks, conferences and portfolio reviews.