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