Adventurous Companionship: Statistical Sight and the Bureaucracy of the Image

A lecture by Therese Schuleit, Curator at Museum of Photocopy, Mülheim/Ruhr Chair: Dr. Anja Schürmann, KWI – Institute for Advanced Study in the HumanitiesWhat if the future of photography is about technical inscription to create responsibility, intervention, and credibility in a world of generative images? In her lecture, Therese Schuleit positions photocopy as a precursor to generative systems, highlighting the distinction between »image taking« (capturing the world) and »image writing« (bureaucratic, technical inscription). Photocopy, she shows, has historically been tied to verification, control, and accountability, and its material and procedural logic prefigures many challenges of contemporary AI-generated imagery.Follow the discussion to see how copying practices shaped notions of authenticity, proof, and manipulation in past and presence. What can such a history of photocopy consequently teach us about authorship, trust, and intervention in AI future? Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Therese and us.This session was recorded on February 4, 2026, on the occasion of the 3rd Essen Symposium for Photography »What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate«, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography.Photo credit: Essen Center for Photography / Silviu Guiman