Global circulation of images

Book covers as visual materials convey what reading audiences can expect from texts. A quick glance at covers of translated Turkish books, translations from other languages and also German books (fiction and nonfiction) in the German-speaking book market shows that covers of works containing the word "Istanbul" in their title are typically decorated with mosques and minarets. Taking this observation as a starting point, this paper aims to question the underlying motivations of this special case focusing on selected literary translations, non-literary works on Istanbul, and local literary productions written in German. The analysis indicates that Istanbul holds a predefined, fixed, and clear-cut image in the minds of professional and nonprofessional German-speaking readers.

Keywords: book covers, visuality, Istanbul, publishing habits, circulation of images

Link: https://tusaaji.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/tusaaji/article/view/40424/36626

The history of images is nothing but a history of their mediums and a history of physical bodies. And hence, it is a history of circulation. As an introduction of this volume, this paper seeks to go "behind the circulations of images" by combining the fields of cultural, political and geopolitical studies, and by bringing together different methodologies from monographic and formal analysis to digital approaches (quantitative, cartographic, visual). These diversified case studies make it possible to answer three major questions: 1) How do images circulate? 2) Why do images circulate? 3) What does circulation do to an image and, more generally, to people?

This volume presents the findings of a side research of my project on the Gregorymass in Italy that was conducted from 2008 to 2011 –a partial presentation was published in the article “Il monogramma dei Nomi di Gesù e Maria in Sant’Andrea ad Asola,” appeared in a special issue of Brixia Sacra (2009).

The book focuses on the analysis of the unusual monogram formed by the intertwined Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, with scenes of the Passion and a Mass of St. Gregory in its letters, depicted in a 1516 fresco in the church of Sant’Andrea in Asola (Mantua, Italy). The volume addresses the creation of various 'animated Holy Names', or Names of Jesus in whose letters are depicted scenes from the Passion, and how one of these images was the source for Asola fresco. The role played by prints and printed material in the process will be crucial.

Key findings pertain to:

1 – the figurative history of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary
2 – the internationalization of images in the sixteenth century
3 – the different functions the fresco could perform in Asola, as part of a Corpus Domini chapel

The book has been published by Gilgamesh Edizioni, with the financial support of the parish of Asola.

Im Zuge der Globalisierung geraten Bilder mitsamt den sie tragenden Kulturen in neuer und massenhafter Weise in Bewegung. Bilder werden zunehmend Teil transnationaler und transregionaler Migration, fließen millionenfach durch neue globale Kommunikationskanäle und wandern über Grenzen des Verstehens. Dabei sind Bilder – über soziokulturelle Akteure wie auch über ihre mediale Verortung – kulturell gebunden an neue Perspektivitäten, an Vektoren- und Skalierungsordnungen, an Formen von Beweglichkeit und Mobilität, aber auch Sistierung. Im Zeitalter eines unablässigen Rapports zwischen Globalität und Lokalität und neuer Formen von Translokalitäten fusionieren Bilder und ganze Bildwelten ununterbrochen zwischen soziokulturellen Domänen, Teilkulturen oder vormals separierten Bedeutungsräumen. Bilder sind offen für die Begegnung, die Gegenüberstellung und den Transfer von Bedeutungen, sie werden angeeignet, ausgelegt, aufgegriffen, amalgamiert und annotiert.

Martina Baleva, Ingeborg Reichle und Oliver Lerone Schultz: IMAGE MATCH: Neue Indizes einer globalen Bildtheorie. In: IMAGE MATCH. Visueller Transfer, „Imagescapes“ und Intervisualität in globalen Bildkulturen. Herausgegeben von Martina Baleva, Ingeborg Reichle und Oliver Lerone Schultz, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München 2012.

This article focuses on a single-sheet engraving, which was devised by Tomasz Treter, Polish canon of the Roman church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and engraved by Giovanni Battista de’ Cavalieri. Published in Rome in 1574, the print shows an unusual image, an altar cross formed by juxtaposed scenes of the life of Christ, whose significance has up until now been misunderstood. The burin is actually an allegorical representation of the act of signing and its figurative components evoke the mysteries hidden in the act itself. Starting from an overview of Treter’s personality, the article reconstructs the cultural background that produced such an image and contextualizes the print’s creation in a precise historical moment. The Allegory of the sign of the Cross, as we can call it, was the product of an intensified interest in the theme of signing that springs from the teaching of the "dottrina cristiana" and, ultimately, from the anti-Protestant polemic. The article will locate the precedents of such a representation, and will conclude by focusing on the only known copy of Treter’s print, appearing in Mexican Franciscan Diego Valadés’ Rhetorica Christiana (Perugia 1579), and on the differences between this version of the Allegory and the original.

Today's use of digital images is shaped by an incredible acceleration: recording devices such as cellphones seem omnipresent. Photos and videos by bloggers, citizen journalists, and activists go online within seconds of being made; they are circulated, distributed, tagged, and commented upon. The point of departure for this contribution is the visible importance of new media and social networks during the events of the “Arab Spring.” Questions about changing forms of circulation, participation, and timeliness, and what these mean for producers and recipients, are discussed with Florian Ebner, curator of the exhibition "Cairo: Open City", against the backdrop of how to deal with imagery on the internet.