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