A Driving Force
On the Rhetoric of Images and Power
open access | peer reviewed
-
a cura di
- 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 Russian Empire • Modern art history • Distorted portrait • New media installation art • Semiology • Sixteenth-century Italian art • Image theory • Second Post War Period • Geographical personifications • National image • Visual culture • New Media Installation Art • Symbols • Our Lady of Kodeń • Drone • Folklore • Allegory • The Peggy Guggenheim Collection • Byzantine sculpture • Saint George • Iconography • Kustar • Palazzo Madama, Torino • Contemporary art • Holbein • Postcolonialism • Revolutionary festival • Crossmapping • The Bureau of Melodramatic Research • Countersurveillance Fashion • Coronation of Miraculous Images • Decoloniality • Optic Nerve • Occupational realism • Materialism • Poor power images • Visual identity • Image and power • Macedonia • Rhetoric • Feminist art • Religious submission • Gaze • Poor power Images • Dissidence • Technology • Post-Representation • Neoliberal imaginary • Kodeń • Cittadini originari • Lebanon • Russian style • Wearable technologies • Byzantine Empire • Venice Biennale • Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock • Authority • Design • Paraesthetics • Lucerne • Autotheory • Sapieha family • Wood • Melodrama • Image • French Revolution • New Formalism • Portrait de la jeune fille en few • Exhibition • John V Palaiologos • Political iconology • Un’Ambigua Utopia • Aby Warburg • Power representation • Directory • Palaiologan Renaissance • Visual Culture • Italy • Power of the images • Latin faith • Beirut • Pietro Aretino • Arts and crafts • Painted facade • A/traverso • Vittorio Viale • Scuole Grandi • Surveillance • Byzantine empire • General intellect • Modern Art History • Renaissance • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu • Post-representation • Speculative design • Sursock Museum • Political iconography • Speculative Design • Power • Propaganda • Labour of love • Countersurveillance fashion • Sex • Fascism • Gendered bodies • Historiographical bias • Socially engaged art • Alternative press • Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth • Public sphere • Arts • Jan Fryderyk Sapieha • Venice • Salon d'Automne • Metaphor • Politics • Warfare • Salon dʼAutomne
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-771-5 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-771-5 | Pubblicato 22 Dicembre 2023 | Lingua 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.