Exploding iconography: The Mindbomb Project

The Mindbomb project was started by a group of young artists, journalists and writers, rich in creative resources. Together they created the social poster. It became a means to hack into the dominant discourse of mainstream politics, the mass media and the advertising industry. This paper will attempt to give an answer to the question: how to localize this critique in a non-differentiated global consumer culture? The argument in this paper centers around the idea that the Mindbomb project started as a challenge to the consumer culture. However, it later developed into a broader critique of contemporary Romanian society. A set of theoretical filters in the literature on aesthetic movements and culture jamming were used to map out the Mindbomb project. The present discussion of a single case may be a relevant addition to existing theoretical debates

An iconography of insularity : a cosmological interpretation of some images and spaces in the late neolithic temples of Malta

This paper proposes a fresh model for interpreting some of the iconography and megalithic architectural forms that emerged in Malta during the Late Neolithic. Recent studies of the relationship between the Maltese archipelago and the world beyond, and between the monumental megalithic sites and their landscape setting, will inform an interpretation of some of the iconography and architectural forms that characterize these sites. Patterns in their use of spatial order, architectural devices and carved reliefs are interpreted as elements in a programmatic recreation of an island cosmology. It is suggested that the prehistoric islanders used these images and spaces to express and mediate concerns with cosmological order.peer-reviewe

New Developments in Aniconic Jaina Iconography

The article analyses for the first time the phenomenon of burial ad sanctos and of the necropolis in the aniconic Jaina traditions, which in certain respects serves as a functional equivalent of the temple city as the principla pilgrimage site, tīrtha, in the Mūrtipūjaka and Digambara traditions. Many originally anti-iconic traditions came to accept and worship certain aniconic images, such as relic shrines, empty thrones or stylised footprint images, that is, real or simulated relics of contact, and hence have become, to varying degrees, “image-worshipping” traditions in their need and desire to establish networks of abodes and of sacred sites, whether labelled tīrtha, dhām or aitihāsik sthal. A problem for the cult of the multi-shrined necropolis is that it invokes primarily the example, values and powers of a particular deceased mendicant and of his or her lineage or monastic order, not of the Jaina tradition in general. This limits the potential for symbolic universalisation within the aniconic traditions and draws them back towards either idol-worship or imageless meditation – or both as the example of a new ecumenical shrine featuring for the first time multiple three-dimensional portrait statues of prominent Sthānakavāsī mendicants in the Panjab shows. Only in combination with representations of the Namaskāra Mantra, the "Jaina prayer", can relic shrines, footprint images or photographs of individual Jaina saints can gain universal appeal

Approaches to the use of iconography in historical reconstruction, and the curious case of Renaissance Welsh harp technique

It is an oft-repeated cliché that ‘smart is sexy,’ and while cynics may find plenty of reason to scoff at the thought, some solace can be taken in the economic success and increase in the social cachet of the ‘historically informed performance’ (or HIP) movement. Countless millions of people over the last thirty years have been drawn to the world of medieval and renaissance music, many as a result of the exciting new sounds created through the thoughtful synthesis of artistic and intellectual sensibility demonstrated in historical reconstructions of early instruments and their playing techniques. In light of this economic and cultural success, it therefore seems fitting to take a step back and think about how individuals today arrive at a view of historical reality in the world of instrumental performance, especially when faced with images and artifacts which may be interpreted in many different ways. This research, as ‘an authentic expression of our contemporary cultural condition bringing new experiences and insights into our world,’ 1 is immensely valuable. However, are we justified in going further and asserting that our modern reconstructive work sheds light on ‘the way things actually were,’ or in other words, that it reveals objective historical truth? In the following pages I will take a closer look at the research methodology of historically informed performance and propose a refinement based on a probabilistic analysis of the data produced. While the areas of research which might benefit from such an inquiry are virtually unlimited, my specific focus for the purposes of this exercise is the harp technique in late medieval and early renaissance Wales. This is one branch of the musicological tree which remains relatively infrequently visited in early music circles, yet one which, as we will see, is richly rewarding when explored through the multifaceted methodology and interdisciplinary orientation of modern HIP research

Cultural Interactions and Religious Iconography in 16th Century Kerala: the Mural Paintings of St. Mary’s Church in Angamaly

St. Mary\u27s Jacobite Syrian Church is an ancient church in Angamaly (Kerala). One account has Syrian Christians arriving in Angamaly in 384 CE and the church being established in 409 CE. Syrian Christians are the earliest Christian community of India, and they attribute their origin to the evangelical efforts of the apostle Saint Thomas who is believed to have travelled through the Malabar country in 52 CE evangelizing and building churches. It was when he moved east that he is supposed to have met his death and (martyrdom) at Mylapore near Madras

Roman imperial iconography and the social construction of early Christian identity

Issue topic: Festschrift in honour of Erwin Buck

The Code of Protest. Images of Peace in the West German Peace Movements, 1945-1990

The article examines posters produced by the peace movements in the Federal Republic of Germany during the ColdWar, with an analytical focus on the transformation of the iconography of peace in modernity. Was it possible to develop an independent, positive depiction of peace in the context of protests for peace and disarmament? Despite its name, the pictorial selfrepresentation of the campaign ‘Fight against Nuclear Death’ in the late 1950s did not draw on the theme of pending nuclear mass death. The large-scale protest movement in the 1980s against NATO’s 1979 ‘double-track’ decision contrasted female peacefulness with masculine aggression in an emotionally charged pictorial symbolism. At the same time this symbolism marked a break with the pacifist iconographic tradition that had focused on the victims of war. Instead, the movement presented itself with images of demonstrating crowds, as an anticipation of its peaceful ends. Drawing on the concept of asymmetrical communicative ‘codes’ that has been developed in sociological systems theory, the article argues that the iconography of peace in peace movement posters could not develop a genuinely positive vision of peace, since the code of protest can articulate the designation value ‘peace’ only in conjunction with the rejection value ‘war’

Iconography

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. I have always considered myself an artist even though my artistic endeavors had been limited to literature and music. However, in the past few years, since my time at Saint John Fisher College, I have been studying at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium; and as part of my continuing seminary education, I was fortunate enough to have taken instruction in iconography. I initially thought that this exercise would be rather uninteresting and I didn’t take it seriously, but I have found a true home as an iconographer, and I am thrilled with the enriching practice of the writing of sacred icons

The iconographic transformation of the “tail of the dragon of the eclipse” into the “hunting cheetah”

Medieval Islamic iconography includes many depictions in which the tail of Sagittarius takes the form of the “dragon of the eclipse”. The current paper examines the gradual transformation of this imagery into that of a quadruped, eventually detached from the body of Sagittarius, and placed on the centaur’s back in the characteristic position of the seated “hunting cheetah”, as can also be seen in images of the chase assisted by this feline