Search

The article explores legal medieval iconography in its inextricable connection with the religious ideas of the time and ecclesiastical settings reflected in the canon law, theology, and hagiography. The first steps in this direction were taken only in the beginning of the 21st century, even though the iconic turn in historical research has been discussed for decades. Nevertheless, recent publications on legal medieval iconography still come from the pen of art historians, philologists, or literary critics, but not legal historians. As a result, the analysis of the content of these images is often replaced by mere descriptions. The author offers quite a different approach. Instead of studying miniatures and marginalia only as illustrations to the text to which they are formally attached, she attempts to relate the content of these images with medieval religious ideas. Such a turn of study necessitates references to ecclesiastical texts, and in each individual case, as the author accentuates, it requires a distinctly specific source. Thus, the analysis of the miniature from the “Coutumes de Toulouse” (end of the 13th c.) requires the reference to the Decretum of Gratian and the Liber sextus of Boniface VIII, according to which the artist interpreted the degradation of clerics. The marginalia from the “Coutumes de Bordeaux” (1438), which illustrates the death sentence imposed on thieves, recalls the doctrine of atonement developed by Anselm of Canterbury. The image of the Virgin Mary in the scene of fox Renard’s hanging from the Smithfield decretals (second half of the 14th c.) refers to the ideas of the parasudic procedure liberatus a suspendio, repeatedly described in Marian hagiography. The treatise of French theologian Jean Gerson “Requête pour les condamnés à mort” (end of the 14th c.) should be considered as a starting point for changing the iconography of the death penalty in the next century. In general, as the author concludes, the comparison of medieval legal images with the works of canonists, theologians and hagiographic writings allows not only to understand the deeper meaning inherent in miniatures, but also to clarify the dating of manuscripts, the principles of the artists’ work and their relations with clients. Статья посвящена проблеме современного изучения правовой средневековой иконографии. Автор отмечает, что первые шаги в этом направлении были сделаны лишь с началом XXI века, несмотря на то, что об иконографическом повороте в исторических исследованиях говорится на протяжении многих десятилетий и упоминается он уже в трудах Якоба Буркхардта, Аби Варбурга и Эрвина Панофского. Тем не менее, публикации последних лет, в которых рассматриваются иллюстрации правового содержания из средневековых юридических и иных кодексов, до сих пор выходят из-под пера искусствоведов, филологов или литературоведов, но отнюдь не историков права. Как следствие, во многих случаях анализ содержания данных изображений подменяется их описательностью. Автор статьи предлагает свой подход к данному материалу и настаивает на необходимости отказа от его изучения лишь в качестве иллюстраций к тексту того или иного письменного источника, к которому он формально прилагается. Один из вариантов изучения средневековых миниатюр и маргиналий видится автору в попытке связать их содержание с современными им религиозными представлениями людей Средневековья, отражение которых находится в сводах канонического права, авторских трактатах, популярной житийной литературе. В статье последовательно рассматривается несколько миниатюр и маргиналий, взятых как из правовых кодексов, так и из хронистики. Их сопоставление с трудами канонистов (Грациана и Бонифация VIII), теологов (Ансельма Кентерберийского и Жана Жерсона), агиографических сочинений (прежде всего марианского цикла) позволяет не только установить более точное время появления некоторых из этих изображений, но и понять, как именно работали художники, чьи заказы они исполняли, какие именно религиозные идеи нашли отражение в их иллюстрациях.

In today's society the use of new technologies for data visualizations is becoming increasingly widespread. This article seeks neither to give a complete view of its history nor an exhaustive definition of the phenomenon of data visualization. This article takes a new perspective on data visualization by dealing only with a new type of data visualizations, those based on "Big Data" and AI systems. This perspective is completely different from existing ones. Therefore, I explore three main theses: (a) that AI systems applied to large amounts of data that we cannot directly know (so-called "Big Data") can create "living" and interactive images with a multifaceted nature and efficacy (epistemic, phenomenal, and subjective); (b) that this new type of data visualizations is deeply linked to the so-called "iconic turn" trend in the field of social sciences because many of the theses of the "iconic turn" are confirmed and even reinforced by these data visualizations; (c) that through the production of "living" images, digital technologies demonstrate their ability to re-define and re-configure our experience and re-ontologize reality by creating new entities requiring new philosophical tools to be fully understood. I focus mainly on this third thesis by stressing the hermeneutical function of data visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the World and the Image – Signs, Symbols and Visual Metaphors in Iwona Chmielewska’s Picturebooks In this article, Marta Kotkowska appeals to the category of the iconic turn and appoints insignias of picturebooks of Iwona Chmielewska. The researcher also analyses meanings of the artistic expression which author uses in her books. Relying on this characterization, Marta Kotkowska presents how this “in between” words and images works, and how, almost in the real time, it generates and transform meanings. In the description of the almost indiscernible and elusive relation between the word and the image which constitutes picturebook, the semiotic categories, such as the sign, the symbol and the visual metaphor are used. The editorial deliberations concerning the congeniality of analyzing projects are summing the whole article. They emphasize that Chmielewska creates every book even in the smallest detail and with full consciousness and that both format, cover and paper, and words and images, are significant.

The article discusses the neglect that cultural sociology pays to the sciences and technology. Even though the “strong program” in cultural sociology claims that cultural meanings exist in every social fact, its research focuses mainly on culture in a narrow sense, e.g. ethics, aesthetics, politics, memory, religion etc. I overcome this shortcoming by development of two approaches: 1) ethnography of a scientific facility based on science and technology studies (STS); and 2) cultural-sociological analysis of symbols, discourses and narratives related to the research of a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson. Re-interpreting ethnographic studies conducted at CERN and sociological research focused on quantum physics, the article demonstrates that media and popular-cultural discourses on the Higgs boson are tightly related to its material aspects. While the strong program traditionally presumes the arbitrariness of symbolic structures, the “iconic turn” in cultural sociology stresses the importance of the aesthetic material surface in the resulting meaning. Conceiving the Higgs boson as a “secular icon”, we can see that the practically oriented actions of researchers at CERN relate to cultural meanings that reach far beyond the “laboratory” of quantum physics.

This paper focuses on the following question: how is philosophy of anything possible? Where lies the boundary of specialisation area beyond which the term “philosophy” loses not only its strength, but also its meaning? When we talk about specific genre, for example, graphic art or sculpture we use the term “philosophy” in a broader, metaphorical sense. Why then should philosophy of photography be any different? All of the abovementioned questions are discussed in the present article. Philosophy of photography is, indeed, a legitimate discipline, just as philosophy of language, philosophy of science and technology and philosophy of politics are.

In the topic of this article, it is the early modern intellectual history; it will be offered at first an overview of the approaches of the parallelism between the researches of words, pictures, and gestures, based on the author's personal experiences as a researcher of this epoch. The first examples will be several loci of English classics, John Milton, and John Locke; then it will be mentioned the significance of the methodology of the “Iconic Turn,” with the concept of “pictorial (speech) act”, and with the history of religious art. At the end of this overview it will be mentioned briefly the methodological contribution of the Cambridge school of intellectual history, and that of the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe of Reinhart Koselleck. Second part of this article will offer a historical example from the early modern age. The first one is an analysis of several details of Thomas Hobbes’ ambivalent relationship with the antique tradition of rhetoric, and their consequences for the visual sphere. Santrauka Šio straipsnio tema – moderniųjų laikų pradžios intelektualinė istorija. Pirmoje jo dalyje pateikiama tarp mokslinių tyrinėjimų, skirtų žodžiams, vaizdams ir gestams, susiklostančių paralelių traktavimo bendroji samprata. Vienoks ar kitoks jų traktavimas priklauso nuo autoriaus, kaip toje epochoje gyvenančio tyrėjo, asmeninių patirčių. Pirmieji pavyzdžiai – tai keletas anglų klasikų, tokių kaip Johnas Miltonas ir Johnas Locke'as. Paskui pabrėžiama „vaizdinio posūkio“ metodologijos „vaizdavimo (kalbėjimo) akto“ koncepto, religinio meno istorijos svarba. Galiausiai trumpai paminimas Kembridžo mokyklos indėlis į intelektualinę istoriją ir Reinharto Kosellecko Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Antroje straipsnio dalyje pateikiamas istorinis pavyzdys iš ankstyvosios moderniosios epochos. Pirmiausia imamasi Thomaso Hobbeso ambivalentiško santykio su antikine retorikos tradicija keleto detalių analizės, o paskui aptariama šio santykio įtaka vizualumo sričiai. Reikšminiai žodžiai: gestai, vaizdinis posūkis, retorika, kalbėjimo aktas, Thomasas Hobbesas, rašymo aktas

Die epistemische Wirkmächtigkeit wissenschaftlicher Visualisierungspraktiken wird seit dem iconic turn bzw. pictorial turn in verschiedenen Wissensdisziplinen umfassend diskutiert. Der Beitrag von Elisabeth Heyne greift diese aktuelle Forschungsdebatte auf, um sie mit literaturwissenschaftlichen Analysekategorien zu verbinden, die bereits ihrerseits auf das verstärkte Interesse an Bildlichkeit und Anschaulichkeit in den Wissenschaften reagieren. Anhand von Judith Schalanskys Der Hals der Giraffe werden Korrelationen zwischen Abbildung, Diagramm und Text vor dem Hintergrund der Grenzen von Bildlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit ausgelotet. Darüber hinaus widmet sich der Text den Wechselwirkungen ästhetischer Repräsentationsweisen und naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens.

Copyright of Art Inquiry is the property of Lodz Scientific Society / Lodzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Is there any difference between the widely discussed ‘pictorial turn’ and the emerging ‘iconic turn’? If so, does it matter? The answers to these questions are positive if we look at the problem from a cultural sociological point of view. It has been observed that the concept of the ‘iconic turn’, coined by a German philosopher Gottfried Boehm, may capture more effectively the sense of life attributed to visual objects than W.J.T. Mitchell’s famous ‘pictorial turn’. This article endorses this conjecture and provides a theoretical context for its justification. It thus contributes to the emerging debate about the paradigm shift in studies of visual culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article re-examines Vilém Flusser's philosophy of photography and its relation to what I will name the philosophical question of 'image-thinking'. It places his work on photography in the context of the much discussed 'pictorial' and 'iconic' turns in the study of visual culture and, through this, aims to reveal the depth of Flusser's approach to understanding media culture and to argue for the significance and continuing relevance of his philosophy of photography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Members of "the reading class" in the UK display deep attachment to books and reading. • Readers desire to be surrounded by print copies, experience pain when discarding books, and enjoy the active role reading affords. • Books are loved because they are iconic cultural objects. • Books-icons embody and enable the realisation of sacred cultural goods. • Seeing books as icons allows cultural sociologists to capture books' prestige without reducing them to status signals. Why do people in the UK read and collect books when there are so many other sources of information and forms of story-telling available? What are the material and experiential bases of book love? People are attached to books because books are icons: they embody and enable the realisation of sacred cultural goods. Books do not simply communicate or signal social values or ideas. Aesthetic immersion in books' materiality allows for these values to be realised. On the basis of the qualitative analysis of 43 interviews and 60 responses to the UK's Mass Observation project this article advances the cultural sociology of reading by bridging theories of iconicity and attachment and placing materiality at the centre of the analysis. The data are used to illustrate the powerful appeal of the practical fusion of three elements: the material, surface properties of books; the highly valued cultural goods that books represent and realise; and the act of reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]