A Driving Force
On the Rhetoric of Images and Power
open access | peer reviewed
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edited by
- Angelica Bertoli - Ca' Foscari University of Venice - email
- Giulia Gelmi - Ca' Foscari University of Venice - email
- Andrea Missagia - Ca' Foscari University of Venice - email orcid profile
- Maria Novella Tavano - Ca' Foscari University of Venice - email
Abstract
The volume comprises a selection of papers presented at the 5th Postgraduate International Conference organized by the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Venice, 4-6 October 2023): A Driving Force. On the Rhetoric of Images and Power. In the introduction to his well-known The Power of Images (1989), David Freedberg claims not only that images hold power over us, but they are also, inevitably, related to ‘power’ itself. Art is therefore a powerful and non-neutral tool. Its forms and expressions influence and manipulate the realm of the real. Throughout human history, the artist’s creative power gave form, substance, and meaning to otherwise inert matter. This process turned the artist into a demiurge. Furthermore, once images are given their final form, they circulate and live a life of their own. The 5th Postgraduate International Conference was aimed at investigating the rhetorical nature of the intersection between image and power. In 1979 Yuri Lotman claimed that “rhetoric” is the displacement of the structural principles of a given semiotic sphere into another semiotic sphere. The Tartu semiologist’s approach implies that the “correlation with different semiotic systems gives rise to a rhetorical situation in which a powerful source of elaboration of new meanings is contained”. In exploring these meanings from a multidisciplinary perspective, this volume investigates two main themes: the power of the image, as an autonomous device, endowed with a pervasive and persuasive character; the image as a form for representing power which addresses questions concerning the sense of authority, and its negation, namely a sense of dissidence and counter-narrations.
Keywords Religious submission • Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth • Lebanon • Politics • Byzantine sculpture • Salon dʼAutomne • Renaissance • Revolutionary festival • Modern art history • Speculative Design • Arts and crafts • Vittorio Viale • Technology • Design • Russian Empire • Power of the images • Countersurveillance fashion • Modern Art History • Visual identity • Materialism • Gendered bodies • Poor power images • Surveillance • Holbein • Venice • A/traverso • Venice Biennale • Our Lady of Kodeń • Salon d'Automne • Post-representation • Directory • Sapieha family • Wood • Byzantine empire • Kodeń • Feminist art • Beirut • Neoliberal imaginary • Scuole Grandi • Russian style • Rhetoric • Drone • Power representation • Gaze • Saint George • Painted facade • Sursock Museum • General intellect • Aby Warburg • Labour of love • Distorted portrait • Image theory • John V Palaiologos • New media installation art • Authority • Wearable technologies • The Bureau of Melodramatic Research • Image • Speculative design • Macedonia • Sex • Coronation of Miraculous Images • Lucerne • Alternative press • New Media Installation Art • Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock • Historiographical bias • National image • Symbols • Metaphor • Occupational realism • Propaganda • Folklore • Exhibition • Latin faith • Palazzo Madama, Torino • Geographical personifications • Portrait de la jeune fille en few • Post-Representation • Second Post War Period • Countersurveillance Fashion • Arts • Semiology • Political iconology • Kustar • Un’Ambigua Utopia • Visual culture • Cittadini originari • Dissidence • The Peggy Guggenheim Collection • Warfare • Visual Culture • Public sphere • Autotheory • Iconography • Crossmapping • Italy • Pietro Aretino • French Revolution • Image and power • Power • Contemporary art • Byzantine Empire • Sixteenth-century Italian art • Postcolonialism • New Formalism • Allegory • Melodrama • Poor power Images • Decoloniality • Jan Fryderyk Sapieha • Fascism • Political iconography • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu • Socially engaged art • Optic Nerve • Paraesthetics • Palaiologan Renaissance
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-771-5 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-771-5 | Published Dec. 22, 2023 | Language en
Copyright © 2023 Angelica Bertoli, Giulia Gelmi, Andrea Missagia, Maria Novella Tavano. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.