More than ever, images as models – along with trust in images and doubt about images – are at the forefront of contemporary discourse and debates. With new urgency, the current moment calls for critical, thoughtful, and questioning approaches to the image, its theorization, its histories, and its future. Since 2017, the NOMIS fellowship program at eikones has supported important and innovative research and the alumni:ae of the NOMIS program represent a genuinely interdisciplinary and international collective of image researchers. Our aim in organizing this workshop is to activate the collective intellectual resource embodied in the alumni:ae of the NOMIS fellowship program at eikones, to spark connections between past and current NOMIS fellows, and to create an open, intellectually risk-taking space for collaborative critical reflection upon the past, present, and future(s) of image studies.

Three input panels are conceived as catalysts for sparking exchange among NOMIS alumni:ae and current fellows, as well as current and former doctoral students and all members of eikones. Rather than traditional academic lectures, we intend for the panels—and the gathering as a whole — to be an opportunity to (re)connect, reflect and think together across disciplines, NOMIS annual cohorts, and academic generations.

Tuesday, June 9, 2026
12:30–14:00: Lunch at eikones

14:00–16:00: Welcome and Introduction

Aden Kumler, Markus Klammer, Ralph Ubl

PANEL 1: Compression, Formalization, Relation, and Conception: Four Modes of Modelling Images
Ruth Ezra, Philipp Ekardt, Jeremy Melius, Molly Warnock

Chaired by Philipp Ekardt, Allison Stielau

Apéro at eikones

19:00–22:00: Vegetarian / Vegan Dinner for speakers

Wednesday, June 10, 2026
09:30–11:30
PANEL 2: Mapping Imaginations : Space and the Politics of Images
Adrian Anagnost, Lior Levy, Anna Vallye

Chaired by Eduardo Harry Luersen, Alena Williams

12:30–14:00: Lunch at eikones

14:00–16:00
PANEL 3: Migrating Images : Unstable Afterlives of Archives
Zeynep Gürsel, Katerina Korola, Olga Shevchenko, Seth Watter

Chaired by Paul Morrow, Janina Wellmann

Apéro at eikones