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