scholarly journals Picturesque Pictures: Italian Early Non-fiction Films within Modern Aesthetic Visions

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-65
Author(s):  
Ivo Blom
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Film Archives ◽  
Radical Revision

Abstract Within early non-fiction film, the Italian travel or scenic films of the 1910s may be considered the most picturesque. They are remarkable for their presentation of landscapes and cityscapes, their co-existence of modernity and nostalgia, their accent on beauty – at times at the expense of geographic veracity and indexicality – and their focus on the transformed gaze through the use of special masks, split-screens, and other devices. The transmedial roots for this aestheticization can be found both in art (painting) and popular culture (postcards, magic lanterns, etc.). While the author was one of the firsts to write on this subject decades ago, today there is a need for radical revision and a deeper approach. This is due to the influx of recent literature first by Jennifer Peterson’s book Education in the School of Dreams (2013) and her scholarly articles. Secondly, Blom’s co-presentation on Italian early nonfiction at the 2018 workshop A Dive into the Collections of the Eye Filmmuseum: Italian Silent Cinema at the Intersection of the Arts led to the recognition that revision was needed. Finally, the films themselves call for new approaches while they are being preserved and disseminated by, foremost, the film archives of Bologna, Amsterdam, and Turin.

Leading Through Art: An Interview With Vicki Heywood CBE, Chair, Royal Society of Arts

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Gareth Edwards ◽  
Nicholas O’Regan
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Global Society ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Society Today

A recent interview with Vicki Heywood, Chair of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA), highlights the role that arts can play in dealing with complex problems in society today and particularly from an international perspective. The message from this interview resonates with recent literature on leadership that also recognizes the importance of the arts in leading successfully through wicked problems. The importance of linking arts interpretations of leadership with culture and place is also taken into consideration within the analysis of the interview. The article concludes by suggesting that leadership practice into the future should promote leading through art to uncover the multiple identities and belonging that shape global society. More specifically, the article proposes that by leading through art, artists can help uncover and discover complex intricacies within context and culture which may help to problematize large scale generalizations which have become the epitome of serious global issues.

Art and Brand Contamination

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-354
Author(s):  
Marta Massi ◽  
Chiara Piancatelli ◽  
Sonia Pancheri
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Brand Awareness ◽  
Arts Organizations ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Low Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Cross Fertilization

Albeit often perceived as two worlds apart, low culture and high culture are increasingly converging to collaborate in mutually advantageous ways. Brands—including the name, term, sign, symbol, or combination of them that identify the goods and services of a seller or group of sellers, and differentiate them from those of the competitors—are the new territory where high culture and low culture co-exist and collaborate, creating new possibilities of cross-fertilization and hybridization between the two. Through the analysis of successful examples coming from different industries, this chapter aims to highlight how brands have blurred the distinction between low culture and high culture. On the one hand, brands can use the heritage of the arts world to gain authenticity and legitimate themselves in the eyes of consumers and the society. On the other hand, artists and arts organizations, such as museums and other art institutions, can indulge in popular culture in order to become appealing to younger target markets and enhance their brand awareness and image.

scholarly journals On Taking our Sources Seriously: Servius and the Theatrical Life of Vergil's Eclogues

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-140
Author(s):  
Ismene Lada-Richards
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Republican Rome ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Question

This article revisits a famous staple of the Vergilian tradition, Servius's heavily contested scholion on the actress Volumnia Cytheris's theatrical rendition of Vergil's sixth Eclogue. By shifting the focus of inquiry from the strictly historical question ‘did it happen?’ it cuts through, identifies and disentangles a nexus of prejudices which have led to the devaluing of Servius's information. The sidelining or dismissal of this piece of evidence, I argue, has more to teach us about our own culturally entrenched and discipline-inherited assumptions than about what could have happened in late Republican Rome. Scrutiny of the evidence on the stage re-mediation of high poetry suggests it is entirely plausible that Cytheris would have performed a theatricalized version of Vergil's masterpiece. Indeed at the very heart of the story lies the convergence between élite poetry and the world of professional stage artists. Moreover, Cytheris's possible performance of a repertoire that coincides with the mythological core of pantomime dancing in its artistic maturity opens pivotal questions concerning what Plutarch (Mor.748a) aptly calls the “full association and mutual entanglement” between the arts of poetry and dance. Taking Servius seriously gives us the impetus to explore more decisively dimensions of Roman life that have been messily sidelined as a result of the systematic privileging of “texts” in our surveys of Roman intellectual landscapes over the centuries. Even if Servius's extract turned out to be no more than a “myth”, an “anecdote”, as such narratives go, this is an incredibly helpful one, provided we are willing to press it into the service of larger inquiries regarding the “circulation” of cultural energy between élite and popular culture.

1960s Africa in Historical Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Talton
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
National Politics ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Economic Underdevelopment ◽  
The 1960S

Scholars and other commentators have largely characterized the histories of African nations in terms of failed states, economic underdevelopment, political corruption, and civil war. This introduction and the articles that follow demonstrate the utility of breaking out of the mold of measuring African “successes” and “failures” in terms of national politics and economics, without due consideration of local political histories, popular culture, and the arts, which offer a dramatically different view of Africa’s and Africans’ influences and success within the continent and on the global stage. Toward that end, this introductory essay advocates mitigating the standard analytical model through close studies of relationships between Africans and people of African descent in which politics and economic “development” are placed alongside the arts, popular culture, and sports, with a particular emphasis on the critical decade of the 1960s as central to shaping the course of “postcolonial” African histories.

Application of Western Surrealistic in Design of Landscape Architecture

2012 ◽  
Vol 226-228 ◽  
pp. 2394-2397
Author(s):  
Dan Huo ◽  
Fan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Architecture Design ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Modern Landscape ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Surrealism was the twentieth century’s longest lasting art movement in the arts. It explored the mysterious dream world of the unconscious mind. Surrealist works depict a familiar yet alien world of dreamlike serenity and nightmarish fantasy, and their legacy pervades much of contemporary art, literature, film and popular culture. As a representation of irrational aesthetics in the modern art trends, it is worthwhile to study the influence and construction of Surrealism in modern landscape architecture. This paper explores the modern landscape form under the influence of Surrealism Art by analyzing and investigating the intrinsic relationship between Surrealist Art and the modern landscape architecture. Besides that, this paper described the connection between surreal spirit and Chinese landscape architecture design term metaphor of “presence”.

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