Photography as Artificial Unconscious: Desire, Sublimation & the Alpha Function

A lecture by Daniel Rubinstein, Professor Adjunct at the University of South-Eastern Norway Chair: Francisco Vogel, Folkwang University of the ArtsWhat if the future of photography means to anchor experience in the world? In his lecture, Daniel Rubinstein unfolds how photography has historically been grounded in real events. Even manipulated or ideologically shaped photographs operated within a space where truth could still matter. In contrast to this AI-generated images are not just faster cameras, but generated appearances without exposure, risk, or event. From psychoanalytic and political perspectives, Rubinstein explores how AI images disrupt symbolic processing, temporal integration, and relational witnessing, potentially flattening cultural and cognitive experience.Follow the discussion to consider how the loss of world-reference in images affects judgment, freedom, and social institutions. Can photography endure as a practice of witnessing in an era of images without events? Join the conversation and leave a comment to speculate with Daniel 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