Breaking Images
Breaking Images

Author: Gianluca Miniaci

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2023-02-16

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1789259169

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Archaeological remains are ‘fragmented by definition’: apart from exceptional cases, the study of the human past takes into account mainly traces, ruins, discards, and debris of past civilizations. It is rare that things have been preserved as they were originally made and conceived in the past. However, not all the ancient fragmentary objects were the ‘leftovers’ from the past. A noticeable portion of them was part and parcel of the ancient materiality already in the form of a fragment or damaged item. In 2000, John Chapman, with his volume Fragmentation in Archaeology, attracted the attention of scholars on the need to reconsider broken artifacts as the result of the deliberate anthropic process of physical fragmentation. The phenomenon of fragmentation can be thus explored with more outcomes for a category of objects that played an important role inside the society: the figurines. Due to their portability and size, figurines are particularly entangled and engaged in social, spatial, temporal, and material relations, and – more than other artifacts – can easily accommodate acts of embodiment and dismemberment. The act of creation symmetrically also involves the act of destruction, which in turn is another act of creation, since from the fragmentation comes a new entity with a different ontology. Breaking contains the paradigms of life: creation and reparation, destruction and regeneration. The scope of this volume is to search for traces of any voluntary and intentional fragmentation of ancient artifacts, creating, improving, and sharpening the methods and principles for a scientific investigation that goes beyond single author impression or sensitivity. The comparative lens adopted in this volume can allow the reader to explore different fields taken from ancient societies of how we can address, assess, detect, and even discuss the action of breaking and mutilation of ancient figurines.

Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm

Author: Rachel F. Stapleton

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2019-08-29

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 077355839X

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Iconoclasm – the alteration, destruction, or displacement of icons – is usually considered taboo or profane. But, on occasion, the act of destroying the sacred unintentionally bestows iconic status on the desecrated object. Iconoclasm examines the reciprocity between the building and the breaking of images, paying special attention to the constructive power of destructive acts. Although iconoclasm carries with it inherently religious connotations, this volume examines the shattering of images beyond the spiritual and the sacred. Presenting responses to renowned cultural anthropologist and theorist Michael Taussig, these essays centre on conceptual iconoclasm and explore the sacrality of objects and belief systems from historical, cultural, and disciplinary perspectives. From Milton and Nietzsche to Paul Newman and Banksy, through such diverse media and genres as photography, the popular romance novel, pornography, graffiti, cinema, advertising, and the dictionary, this book questions how icons and iconoclasms are represented, the language used to describe them, and the manner in which objects signify once they are shattered. An interdisciplinary, disconnected, and non-linear consideration of the historical and contemporary relationship between the sacred and the profane, Iconoclasm disrupts entrenched views about the revered or reviled idols present in most aspects of daily life. Contributors include T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko (Toronto), Christopher van Ginhoven Rey (Pomona College), Helen Hester (West London), Emily Hoffman (Arkansas Tech), Natalie B. Pendergast (Yukon College), Beth Saunders (Maryland), Adam Swann (Glasgow), Michael Taussig (Columbia), Angela Toscano (Iowa), Brendon Wocke (Perpignan).

"Striking Images, Iconoclasms Past and Present "

Author: Stacy Boldrick

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1351547682

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All cultures make, and break, images. Striking Images, Iconoclasms Past and Present explores how and why people have made and modified images and other cultural material from pre-history into the 21st century. With its impressive chronological sweep and disciplinary breadth, this is the first book about iconoclasm (the breaking of images) and the transformation of broader sets of signs that includes contributions from archaeologists, curators, and museum conservators as well as historians of art, literature and religious studies. The chapters examine themes critical to the study of iconoclasm: violence, punishment, memory, intentionality, ruins and relics and their survival. The conclusion shows how cross-disciplinary debate amongst the contributors informed Tate Britain?s 'Art under Attack' exhibition (2013) and addresses the challenges iconoclasm presents to the modern museum. By juxtaposing objects and places usually considered in isolation, Striking Images raises provocative questions about our understandings of cross-cultural differences and the value of representational objects from the broken swords of pre-historical bog graves to the Bamiyan Buddhas and contemporary art. Are any such objects ever ?finished?, or are they simply subject to constant transformation? In dialogue with each other, the essays consider this question and expand the field of iconoclasm - and cultural - studies.

Controversial Images
Controversial Images

Author: Feona Attwood

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-26

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1137291990

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Offering a series of case studies of recent media controversies, this collection draws on new perspectives in cultural studies to consider a wide variety of images. The book suggest how we might achieve a more subtle understanding of controversial images and negotiate the difficult terrain of the new media landscape.

Images at Work
Images at Work

Author: David Morgan

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190272112

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Images can be studied in many ways--as symbols, displays of artistic genius, adjuncts to texts, or naturally occurring phenomena like reflections and dreams. Each of these approaches is justified by the nature of the image in question as well as the way viewers engage with it. But images are often something more when they perform in ways that exhibit a capacity to act independent of human will. Images come alive--they move us to action, calm us, reveal the power of the divine, change the world around us. In these instances, we need an alternative model for exploring what is at work, one that recognizes the presence of images as objects that act on us. Building on his previous innovative work in visual and religious studies, David Morgan creates a new framework for understanding how the human mind can be enchanted by images in Images at Work. In carefully crafted arguments, Morgan proposes that images are special kinds of objects, fashioned and recognized by human beings for their capacity to engage us. From there, he demonstrates that enchantment, as described, is not a violation of cosmic order, but a very natural way that the mind animates the world around it. His groundbreaking study outlines the deeply embodied process by which humans create culture by endowing places, things, and images with power and agency. These various agents--human and non-human, material, geographic, and spiritual--become nodes in the web of relationships, thus giving meaning to images and to human life. Marrying network theory with cutting-edge work in visual studies, and connecting the visual and bodily technologies employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to secular icons like Che Guevara, Abraham Lincoln, and Mao, Images at Work will be transformative for those curious about why images seem to have a power of us in ways we can't always describe.

Image and Presence
Image and Presence

Author: Natalie Carnes

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2017-12-12

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1503604233

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Images increasingly saturate our world, making present to us what is distant or obscure. Yet the power of images also arises from what they do not make present—from a type of absence they do not dispel. Joining a growing multidisciplinary conversation that rejects an understanding of images as lifeless objects, this book offers a theological meditation on the ways images convey presence into our world. Just as Christ negates himself in order to manifest the invisible God, images, Natalie Carnes contends, negate themselves to give more than they literally or materially are. Her Christological reflections bring iconoclasm and iconophilia into productive relation, suggesting that they need not oppose one another. Investigating such images as the biblical golden calf and paintings of the Virgin Mary, Carnes explores how to distinguish between iconoclasms that maintain fidelity to their theological intentions and those that lead to visual temptation. Offering ecumenical reflections on issues that have long divided Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions, Image and Presence provokes a fundamental reconsideration of images and of the global image crises of our time.

Image Controversies
Image Controversies

Author: Birgit Mersmann

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-06-04

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 3110773570

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In many contemporary societies we encounter iconoclasm breaking out with renewed violence. Iconoclastic actions against objects of visual material culture and testimonials of history act as dynamite in the public sphere. They are expressions of political, religious, national, and identity conflicts. Even the freedom of art is threatened by censorship and cancel culture. Based on case studies from different world regions, contemporary iconoclasms in art, media, and cultural heritage are critically analyzed from both a global and an interdisciplinary perspective. Divided into three sections, the book discusses attacks on monuments and memorials, idol disputes in museums and the visual arts, and forms of mediated iconoclasm in contemporary art.

Images
Images

Author: Sunil Manghani

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2006-11-16

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1847877699

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Images: A Reader provides a key resource for students, academics, practitioners and other readers engaged in the critical, theoretical and practical study of images. The Reader is concerned with the notion of the 'image' in all its theoretical, critical and practical contexts, uses and history. The Reader provides a map of the differences and similarities between the various disciplinary approaches to images, breaking the ground for a new interdisciplinary study of images, in the arts and humanities and beyond. Images: A Reader is divided into three parts: • Historical and Philosophical Precedents sets the background for contemporary debates about images. • Theories of Images provides key texts of the major approaches through which images are conceptualised. • Image Culture introduces some of the more recent debates about images and today's visual environment. The selection of over 80 key readings, across the domains of philosophy, art, literature, science, critical theory and cultural studies tells the story of images through intellectual history from the Bible to the present. By including both well-established writings and more recent, innovative research, the Reader outlines crucial developments in contemporary discourses about images.

The Core of Judaism – All Essential Books in One Volume
The Core of Judaism – All Essential Books in One Volume

Author: Louis Ginzberg

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-12-13

Total Pages: 9783

ISBN-13:

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The Core of Judaism All Essential Books in One Volume' stands as a monumental collection, encompassing a diverse array of literary styles, from philosophical discourse to theological treatise, thereby capturing the multifaceted essence of Judaic thought. These works collectively paint a comprehensive picture of Jewish philosophy, ethics, and law, highlighting the significance of each contribution within the broader literary context of Jewish scholarship. Noteworthy for its inclusion are seminal pieces that have shaped not only Jewish thought but also the course of ethical philosophical inquiry worldwide, making this collection a cornerstone of religious and philosophical literature. The contributing authors and editorsLouis Ginzberg, Heinrich Graetz, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Samuel Rapaport, Simeon Singer, Nurho de Manhar, and Abraham Cohenrepresent a lineage of scholarly brilliance that spans centuries. Each one has profoundly influenced Jewish thought, from Maimonides' philosophical rigor to Halevi's poetic expressions of faith. This compilation mirrors significant historical, cultural, and literary movements within Judaism, offering readers a unique synthesis of voices that converge on the fundamental principles and ethical underpinnings of Judaism. These contributions collectively enrich the anthology, fostering a deeper appreciation for the vibrancy and diversity of Jewish cultural heritage. This anthology is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to delve into the depths of Jewish philosophy, ethics, and law. It offers readers an unprecedented opportunity to explore a multitude of perspectives, bringing together seminal works that have defined and shaped the essence of Judaism. Through its pages, readers are invited to engage with the discussions that have animated Jewish thought across centuries, making it a pivotal educational tool and a source of endless insight. This collection is not merely a reflection of Jewish intellectual tradition; it is a conversation across time, inviting readers to participate in the ongoing dialogue that constitutes the core of Judaism.