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Digital Ekphrasis : Through the Digital

Führer, Heidrun LU (2018)
Abstract
In the light of the digital influence of literature and art, my paper focuses on a rather small topic that is traditionally strongly placed in the aesthetics of the interart and intermedia discourse, namely ekphrasis. Whereas the conventional discourse outlines ekphrasis as a “verbal representation of a visual representation” (Hefferan 1993, p. 3) to call attention to poems describing paintings, my research steps beyond this referential definition with its insistence on closed spaces and self-sufficient artworks.
Developing Cecilia Lindhé’s seminal essay on digital ekphrasis, I investigate the rhetorical trope ekphrasis in the context of mediating forces that enhance e/affective experiences of the human body. Thereby, a digital... (More)
In the light of the digital influence of literature and art, my paper focuses on a rather small topic that is traditionally strongly placed in the aesthetics of the interart and intermedia discourse, namely ekphrasis. Whereas the conventional discourse outlines ekphrasis as a “verbal representation of a visual representation” (Hefferan 1993, p. 3) to call attention to poems describing paintings, my research steps beyond this referential definition with its insistence on closed spaces and self-sufficient artworks.
Developing Cecilia Lindhé’s seminal essay on digital ekphrasis, I investigate the rhetorical trope ekphrasis in the context of mediating forces that enhance e/affective experiences of the human body. Thereby, a digital environment might extend and enhance the performative communication in a processual engagement with the world. When deconstructing the traditional conflict between word and image, ekphrasis can be reconsidered even beyond the material and cognitive frame of museum art. Recalling the intra-subjective forces enargeia and energeia, ekphrasis as rhetorical trope shall be revived as an empowering practice of performance and performativity in- and outside the digital realm. Favourably, this ancient concept can be linked to Deleuze’s treatment of art. Rather than making the humans to the intentional interpreter in a rhetorical communication, I reconsider ekphrasis within a more systemic model of human-nonhuman relations, modelled upon Karen Barad ‘s concept of ‘intra-action’. By so doing, I track the breaking point and the discontinuities of the conventional interart concept of ekphrasis as a form of remediation, adaption or transmediation.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Digital Ekphrasis, text, image, mimesis, rhetoric
host publication
R/D/D C(ONFERENCE)
publisher
RepRecDigit
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9afca1a8-d1b5-4dc7-a896-8215000c9f71
alternative location
http://conference.reprecdigit.se/#/contributions/heidrun-fuhrer
date added to LUP
2019-05-06 17:51:04
date last changed
2021-03-22 17:13:58
@inbook{9afca1a8-d1b5-4dc7-a896-8215000c9f71,
  abstract     = {{In the light of the digital influence of literature and art, my paper focuses on a rather small topic that is traditionally strongly placed in the aesthetics of the interart and intermedia discourse, namely ekphrasis. Whereas the conventional discourse outlines ekphrasis as a “verbal representation of a visual representation” (Hefferan 1993, p. 3) to call attention to poems describing paintings, my research steps beyond this referential definition with its insistence on closed spaces and self-sufficient artworks.<br/>Developing Cecilia Lindhé’s seminal essay on digital ekphrasis, I investigate the rhetorical trope ekphrasis in the context of mediating forces that enhance e/affective experiences of the human body. Thereby, a digital environment might extend and enhance the performative communication in a processual engagement with the world. When deconstructing the traditional conflict between word and image, ekphrasis can be reconsidered even beyond the material and cognitive frame of museum art. Recalling the intra-subjective forces enargeia and energeia, ekphrasis as rhetorical trope shall be revived as an empowering practice of performance and performativity in- and outside the digital realm. Favourably, this ancient concept can be linked to Deleuze’s treatment of art. Rather than making the humans to the intentional interpreter in a rhetorical communication, I reconsider ekphrasis within a more systemic model of human-nonhuman relations, modelled upon Karen Barad ‘s concept of ‘intra-action’. By so doing, I track the breaking point and the discontinuities of the conventional interart concept of ekphrasis as a form of remediation, adaption or transmediation.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Führer, Heidrun}},
  booktitle    = {{R/D/D C(ONFERENCE)}},
  keywords     = {{Digital Ekphrasis, text, image, mimesis, rhetoric}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{RepRecDigit}},
  title        = {{Digital Ekphrasis : Through the Digital}},
  url          = {{http://conference.reprecdigit.se/#/contributions/heidrun-fuhrer}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}