From October 13th to 14th, the 5th Annual Conference of The Center for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) was held at the lecture hall of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). In addition to the original partner institutions of CCVA that is the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), the Royal School of Art in London has also been specially invited to participate in this conference.

CCVA Annual Conference is hosted in turn by each of the Partnership Institutions. It is constructed as an international platform to bring scholars and research degree students together, primarily within the network, to discuss recent research development, share knowledge and exchange research experiences, and to expand expertise within the interdisciplinary community. The CCVA Symposium is held either in China or in the UK to bring scholars and practitioners from various subject areas beyond the International Partnership, or timely aligned with a particular event in collaboration with other organisations, to focus and reflect on a chosen topic of Chinese visual arts.

The chosen topic for this year's annual conference is "Yingxiang Today". Yingxiang in Chinese, literally means shadow (ying) and image (xiang), and can be referred to as photography, video, film, and digital images, either still or time-based. Having its ambiguity of reference to a particular medium, it creates an opportunity to break the traditional boundaries between disciplines. Today, photographic and moving images have occupied all of our sights, from public to private spaces, and flashed through all kinds of screens, large or small. They have produced a different kind of daily life together with new social relationships. Contributors are invited to focus on the notion of yingxiang in relation to memories, urban development, mass or participatory art, social media, politics of spectatorship, and its new understanding and development in the context of art education.

It’s the second time for the Central Academy of Fine Arts to host this event with the annual discussion topic as “Today Video”. Inviting foreign experts and scholars to inquire into Yingxiang and Memories, Yingxiang and Cities(urbanisation), Yingxiang and Political Power(politics of spectatorship), Yingxiang and Mass Art, Yingxiang and Social Media,Yingxiang and Art Education and so on, this conference also provides opportunities and an exchange platform for PhD graduate students to share their research process and to have interdisciplinary dialogues with doctoral supervisors.