Wars of images

From the Iconoclastic Controversy to the Black Lives Matter movement, images have been at the centre of political changes, cultural clashes, and global events. Even though they are often addressed as ephemeral illustrations or as mere representations of power, across history images proved able to elicit powerful drives and to generate profound conflicts. They can also extend the range of human perception, enhancing the capacity of visualization of what would otherwise remain inaccessible to the human eye. AI-assisted machine vision and so-called operational images produced by war drones and remote-control technologies are prominent examples within the contemporary mediascape.
The course will focus on the role of images as historical forces able to articulate and orient the field in which our vision of the world takes shape, so as to single out their impact on the political, economic, and social sphere. By presenting the main methodological approaches in visual culture and through in-depth analysis of selected case studies, the course will provide students with essential tools for the study of the visual dimension from a historical-critical perspective. The course aims to offer the students a critical contribution both to their studies in cultural history and to their future professional activities in the fields of digital humanities, historiographic research, and international relations.

As a result of the exchange conducted during classes, students will develop an awareness of the fundamental historicity of vision and of the specific ways of meaning production proper to the visual dimension. They will become familiar with the methodologies and conceptual framework of aesthetics and visual culture studies. The course will provide them with a set of tools for examining the role of visual media in shaping cultural hegemony, reframing wars, and inflecting public opinion over social and political issues, also taking into account the complex set of discursive and bodily practices which underpin our relationship to images.

By the end of the course, students will be able to master and discuss some of the fundamental notions of visual culture (gaze, scopic regime, visual attention, strategies of visualization, and so on) and put them into practice for the critical analysis of visual documents in order to single out emerging issues as well as social and political implications. They will have acquired the ability to critically understand the dynamics of power, the conflicts, and the resistance that images bear, by identifying the multilayered manifestations of social agency expressed within the visual sphere. By leveraging the set of competencies acquired, they will be able to develop autonomous and original interpretations.