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