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