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