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