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 Un’Ambigua Utopia • Visual identity • Contemporary art • Macedonia • Palazzo Madama, Torino • Visual culture • Modern art history • Technology • Politics • Crossmapping • Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock • Palaiologan Renaissance • Pietro Aretino • Post-representation • Sursock Museum • Surveillance • Historiographical bias • Image theory • Directory • Sex • Sapieha family • Painted facade • Design • Image • Aby Warburg • Image and power • Metaphor • Russian style • Dissidence • Decoloniality • Gendered bodies • Scuole Grandi • Feminist art • Saint George • French Revolution • Melodrama • Poor power Images • Warfare • New media installation art • Political iconology • Latin faith • Gaze • Vittorio Viale • Kodeń • National image • New Media Installation Art • Authority • Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth • Propaganda • Speculative Design • Byzantine empire • Second Post War Period • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu • Byzantine sculpture • Occupational realism • Our Lady of Kodeń • Power of the images • Coronation of Miraculous Images • Holbein • Wearable technologies • Fascism • Alternative press • Political iconography • Wood • Optic Nerve • Socially engaged art • Rhetoric • Postcolonialism • Post-Representation • Lucerne • Byzantine Empire • Italy • Arts • Salon dʼAutomne • Sixteenth-century Italian art • Renaissance • General intellect • John V Palaiologos • Power representation • Jan Fryderyk Sapieha • Materialism • Visual Culture • A/traverso • Iconography • Distorted portrait • Neoliberal imaginary • Russian Empire • Exhibition • Symbols • Folklore • Countersurveillance Fashion • Speculative design • Lebanon • Drone • Power • Portrait de la jeune fille en few • Labour of love • Arts and crafts • Geographical personifications • Salon d'Automne • Venice • The Bureau of Melodramatic Research • Public sphere • Paraesthetics • Countersurveillance fashion • Autotheory • The Peggy Guggenheim Collection • Religious submission • Revolutionary festival • Modern Art History • Poor power images • Kustar • Beirut • Semiology • Venice Biennale • Allegory • Cittadini originari • New Formalism
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.