INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE OF ART + DESIGN

May 10 + 11, 2024
Richmond, B.C.

Urban Rainforest, 2020, part of the Making Streets for People Program (w/@hcma.ca, @fastepp, Great Northern Way Scene Shop), and Ola Volo’s Stable House Mural at Granville x West 13th Ave Plaza
‘Giants’ by OSGEMEOS, part of the Vancouver Biennale, at Ocean Concrete on Granville Island
Steven Beckly, Phantom Eye, 2023, at 944 Burrard Street as part of the Capture Photography Festival
Iridescent Dreams by Shadow Puppet Productions at 844 W. Hastings Street as part of the Lumiere Festival

We are pleased to present a second year of Big Pictures: Murals, Billboards, and Urban Interventions. This conference of art and design was first produced in the spring of 2023 at the Wilson School of Design at KPU.

On May 10 + 11, 2024, we welcome you for another opportunity to share your work and gather inspiration from artists, designers, curators, producers, and researchers exploring the role of imagery in the built environment. How are narratives constructed or disrupted through the visual signs and symbols adoring our urban spaces? How do images reflect the values of a culture, and create a sense of agency — or alienation? How can meaningful experience be formed through interventions in the routines of everyday life? In digital screens, neon installations, augmented reality, or surfaces re-imagined via murals, graffiti, and photographic works, messages weave through the density of cities across the globe. 

We are seeking submissions for 300-word proposals presenting projects or research for our in-person panel presentations.

The Big Pictures conference is an inclusive, dynamic environment, inviting participation from a wide range of creative and academic focuses, as well as practitioners from related industries. Each presentation will run 15-20 minutes, followed by questions. 

After the conclusion of the conference, participants have the option of submitting proposals for photo essays or written work of up to 2000 words for consideration in an upcoming Big Pictures publication. 

Submissions Closed

List of Potential Themes:

  • Festivals, exhibitions, and inspiring interactivity 
  • Decolonizing urban space, images and indigenization 
  • Urban interventions and community building 
  • Creating a sense of place, local voices and collaborative projects 
  • Billboards, advertising, and imagery that sells 
  • Screens, projections and transitory visuals 
  • Heritage, personal narrative, collective memory 
  • Media and augmented reality projects in the built environment 
  • Architecture and unexpected imagery 
  • Messages in neon, signage, and text installations 
  • Living walls and immersive landscape 
  • Placemaking through Play 
  • Making data visible 
  • Activating temporary and transitional public spaces 

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Image courtesy of City of Vancouver