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