Kader Mokaddem is a professor of philosophy and aesthetics in Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design. After studies of philosophy, he was an archeologist from 1990 to 1997, developping researches on Early Middle-Ages.
As a researcher in aesthetics, his work focuses on the issues of image as a form of thinking. In Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art (ESADSE), he leads the Laboratory Images, Narrations, Documents (IRD). This research lab in an Art School develops
– a practice of writing by images, questioning the notion of text
– a practice of investigation of reality thanks to the set-up of a network of images, questioning the systems of organizing the representations: collection, anthology, digital neworks of images
– a practice of documentation: questioning the level and status of images to determine forms of reality
– a questioning on visual thinking : mapping and knowledge, visualization by image techniques

The IRD Lab is collaborating with a regional research multidisciplinary network called Labex IMU, focused on the Intelligence of Urban Environments, and labellised as Laboratory of Excellence.