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