Cruise ships. Non-human modern monsters

The aim of this article is to literally explore the declinations of the status of the “monstruous thing”, investigating if and when monsters are abnormal phenomena, not of nature but of culture. Which features, of both expression and content, must a non-living artificial subject (one that is neither human or ani- mal) present in order to be perceived and judged as a “monster”? In the West, the image of the monster is traditionally associated with an abominable creature belonging to the universe of nature whose touchstone is a standard unit of measurement associated with a human or animal body. Here, we are interested in seeing what happens when these value judgments about monsters are applied to non-organic entities. Our case study of the large cruise ships, starting with ocean liners and moving toward the modern behemoths that now enter our historic cities, discloses a new semiosis of monstrosity caused by the war of movement produced by globalization

Discovery or invention? The difference between art and communication according to Ernst Gombrich

This paper sets out to explore the boundaries between artworks and advertising works in line with the thinking of Ernst Gombrich. His distinction between art and other forms of communication emphasises the importance of ‘discovery’ as opposed to mere ‘invention’. What are the symptoms of an artwork according to Gombrich? The difference with advertising is not ontological at all: anything that comes out of the artist’s top hat and is traded between dealers, gallery owners and collectors is art, whereas any graphic work produced for communication purposes and conveyed by the media is propaganda. Ultimately the most valid distinction lies in the modality and the internal dynamics of the artwork itself. By re-examining some examples provided by Gombrich – from the colour of light in John Constable to Giulio Romano’s Palazzo Te, from Raphael’s Madonna della sedia to Saul Steinberg’s work – this paper delves further into an issue not comprehensively dealt with by Gombrich and whose importance is still underestimated

Diagrams - images in the form of texts: Maria Lai, Tying oneself to the mountain

The present contribution intends to outline diagrams in the process of their becoming and as the result of live-action gestures between people. It aims to demonstrate that diagrams are images produced in form of “texts”, that is in form of any interweaving of relations. After a re- reading of the notions of “image” and “text”, our article highlights the continuities of Peirce's views on the diagram, as a not only verbal function, into Deleuze and Guattari's theory, and provides a closer look at Wittgenstein's idea that diagrams are indissociable from their use. A semiotic analysis of Maria Lai's work of art Legarsi alla montagna (1981, To Tie Oneself To the Mountain) will show this recurrent dimension of performativity in diagrams, revealing the extent to which they create not general relations, but social and intersubjective ones

Ernst Gombrich on the knowledge, theory and analysis of art

The opening preface to the following collection of essays introduces the papers written for the Venice Gombrich Colloquium (March 2009), dedicated to the cultural inheritance of Sir Ernst Gombrich. A short text, it indicates the main disciplines and the authors involved in the project as landmarks. It sums up all the contributions. It also tries to consider how Gombrich, particularly through Karl Bühler’s visual linguistics, has developed a semiotic method of describing pictures: to analyze signification processes taking places in images. The strength of his approach lies in having enhanced the relationship between the enunciative signification of the artistic image and its communicative role for the viewer, who is its enunciational counterpart

The sense of the end. Arsura, Urbs Incensa

There is a complex and controversial relationship between the ideas of the end and of sense. This is evident in the Latin word finis, which presents numerous semantic meanings lacking in other Indo-European languages. In fact, finis means border, limit, end, achievement, goal, finality, purpose, just to mention a few. This polysemanticity is kept in Italian and is shaped around two crucial meanings. On one hand, it means end and ruin, whereas, on the other, implies result, achievement, aim. Furthermore the Italian word has been enriched by the adjective fine, which has acquired several meanings even in Ethics and Aesthetics. This contribution explores this conceptual field from a semiotics perspective, analyzing the Western imagery of the burning city in art history and in the artistic literature. The essay points out the visibility of fire action and its effects, from the flaring up of flames to the residual ash

To cruise the Med: Banksy fra turismo e migrazione

none1noQuesto articolo esplora l’opera di Banksy mettendo in luce la tematizzazione costante del rapporto fra crisi migratoria e turismo. Spesso, infatti, nei lavori del più importante street artist, i due temi sono trattati non separatamente, ma come se fossero figure bistabili e reversibili l'una nell'altra, specchio ironico dei paradossi del mondo globalizzato. Dimostreremo che c’è un’escalation, in questo senso, che culmina nella Louise Michel, l'acquisto di uno yacht privato convertito in nave umanitaria. L’operazione di Banksy vale non solo come domanda aperta e provocazione, oggi, sulla funzione sociale dell’arte, ma come indicazione della possibilità, salvifica, di un’uscita dalla disuguaglianza fra chi ha e chi non ha, per migrare tutti verso suoli abitabili in comune.opentiziana miglioreMigliore, TIZIANA MARI

Metric Categories in Semiotics

peer reviewedThe present article seeks to erect format, which is inherent to the form modalized by space and modalizing it in return, as a category of analysis. The aim is to describe the manifestations of format : size (maxi and mini, macro and micro), volume, mass and weight. The attention is focused on the (dis)proportions and the changes of scale as well as on the effects produced on a not only perceptivo- cognitive, but sensitive instance. More particularly, the article wonders about the sublime, the kitsch and the monstrous, by identifying an axiological base, according to specific aesthetics. Keywords: form, format, size, weight, volume, scale, spaceLe présent article cherche à ériger le format, qui est inhérent à la forme modalisée par l’espace et le modalisant en retour, en catégorie d’analyse. Il s’agit de décrire les manifestations du format : la taille (maxi et mini, macro et micro), le volume, la masse et le poids. L’attention se porte sur les (dis)proportions et les changements d’échelle ainsi que sur les effets produits sur une instance non seulement perceptivo-cognitive, mais sensible. Plus particulièrement, l’article s’interroge sur le sublime, sur le kitsch et sur le monstrueux, en dégageant un soubassement axiologique, en fonction d’esthétiques spécifiques. Mots clés : forme, format, taille, poids, volume, échelle, espac

Measurement of the very rare K+→π+ννˉK^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar\nu decay

The decay K+→π+νν¯ , with a very precisely predicted branching ratio of less than 10−10 , is among the best processes to reveal indirect effects of new physics. The NA62 experiment at CERN SPS is designed to study the K+→π+νν¯ decay and to measure its branching ratio using a decay-in-flight technique. NA62 took data in 2016, 2017 and 2018, reaching the sensitivity of the Standard Model for the K+→π+νν¯ decay by the analysis of the 2016 and 2017 data, and providing the most precise measurement of the branching ratio to date by the analysis of the 2018 data. This measurement is also used to set limits on BR(K+→π+X ), where X is a scalar or pseudo-scalar particle. The final result of the BR(K+→π+νν¯ ) measurement and its interpretation in terms of the K+→π+X decay from the analysis of the full 2016-2018 data set is presented, and future plans and prospects are reviewed