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