Personal Information
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Given name: Mong Sum "Joseph"









Surname: Leung









Email: josephleung@hsu.edu.hk









I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'.: Yes









I agree to the terms of service.: Yes













Your contribution
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Title: On The AI Image and The Dissolution of Indexicality









Format: Project presentation (2)









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: https://www.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/163/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:
{Empty}














Requirements
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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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Create new user: Mong Sum "Joseph" Leung