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