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