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