LONDON.- The Royal College of Art announced the appointment of James Coupe as Head of Programme for Photography within the School of Arts & Humanities. The programme focuses on photography as a discourse that encompasses and extends across multiple practices.

Professor James Coupe will join the RCA from the faculty at the Center for Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington, where he has taught classes in Video, Internet and Data-Driven Art since 2004. Coupe’s work explores questions of visibility, surveillance, labour, and identity by engaging with prevailing and emergent image-making systems, including social media, deep-fakes, and machine learning. His recent solo show, Warriors, was the inaugural exhibition at the International Center of Photography’s museum in New York. Coupe will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the College, having achieved a range of awards and honours as well as being widely published in leading publications.

James Coupe said of his new role at the RCA: “Whether we think about new image circulation practices via social media and the Internet, or synthetically generated images using AI and Deepfakes, photography and image-making is at the core of how we experience and understand our world today. For artists this is an opportunity to develop experimental work that can dissolve seemingly fixed cultural hegemonies into new, more equitable configurations and possibilities. I feel privileged to take on this role at the RCA at such a crucial moment. I am looking forward to supporting the outstanding staff and students in the Photography programme, as well as developing new interdisciplinary collaborations across the College.”