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