Iconography of the Non-Iconic

This chapter examines the role of non-iconic elements in the Roman visual arts, highlighting their contribution for the purposes of identifying, situating, and characterizing individual figures and whole scenes. Non-iconic or non-figural elements such as bases, frames, or supports, as well as features that relate to the material identity of an artwork (e.g., the type of metal, stone, and pigments), do not refer to things or facts about the subject or outside the artwork itself. Nonetheless, these elements play an essential role in establishing the meaning and context of an image. As recent scholarship has demonstrated, they participate in a complex semantics of visual codes and stereotypes designed to assist viewers in making sense of an image at both immediate and more sophisticated levels.

Representation of possessiveness in the verbs of languages of different systems

Possessiveness at a certain stage of development could be expressed by the forms of personal pronouns. In many languages, verbs with special indicators of belonging, which are possessive, enclitic forms of personal pronouns, form possessive conjugation. The material identity of the considered indicators in verbs and nouns shows their common origin. As the noun and the verb differentiated, these single formants were subjected to splitting: in the nouns they remained in a personal possessive meaning, and in the verbs they began to express subject-object relations. The present article contributes to the development of general linguistics and is of interest to researchers of the theory and typology of languages.

Digital technology-enabled transformative consumer responsibilisation: a case study

Purpose This paper aims to explore how a socio-digital platform can facilitate consumer responsibilisation in food consumption to encourage sustained responsible consumption and uncovers its possible impacts on different stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach Two-year-long case study of a socio-digital platform that aims to integrate consumers with the farming process; creating value for them and the farmers in India. Findings The process of consumer responsibilisation happens through three mechanisms; construction of a moral-material identity, vicarious self-artisanship and shared responsibilisation. Through these key mechanisms, the socio-digital platform could foster consumer responsibilisation and engender positive societal impacts by promoting both responsible production and consumption. Research limitations/implications This study shows how the construction of moral–material identity could move beyond an either-or choice between moralistic and material identity and allow space for the coexistence of both. This paper highlights how a socio-digital platform can be leveraged to facilitate responsible consumer engagement in an aestheticised farming process. Practical implications This paper aims to guide policymakers to design digitally-enabled human-centred innovation in facilitating consumer engagement with farming and cultivating responsible consumers in achieving sustainable development goals. Social implications This study shows how consumer responsibilisation can actually address market failures by enhancing the value created in the system, reducing wastage and cutting costs wherever possible, which drive better incomes for the farmers. Originality/value Previous studies have discussed heterogeneous motivations for responsible food consumption. However, this research explores the processes through which an individual reconnects to food production and the mechanisms that support this process in the long run.

11. Translation

‘Translation’ explores the concept of translation which reflects the central conceptual and political dynamic of postcolonialism. Translating a text from one language to another transforms its material identity. Transforming an indigenous culture into the subordinated culture of a colonial regime or sovereign settler colony, or superimposing the colonial apparatus into which all aspects of the original culture have to be reconstructed operate as processes of translational dematerialization and reconstruction. Translation is an intercultural communication, but it also always involves questions of power relations and forms of domination. Colonized people must therefore retranslate themselves and their cultures; Frantz Fanon’s politics of translation offer a means to political empowerment and social transformation.

The Visuality of Materials and the Materiality of Visuals

This chapter explores an abandoned industrial site—a jute mill— and its material decadence. It argues how an industrial ruin subverts several normative modes of movement, vision, and arrangement. It draws attention towards how things lose their ‘material sovereignty’ as they degenerate. It makes sense of how technological shifts and restructuration of capital lead to the abandonment of productive space. It also argues that the ruining materials that are endowed with visuality of decay and the visuals that convey the transient nature of deterioration overlap each other conceptually and physically. ‘Visuality of materials’ and ‘materiality of visuals’ intersect and interact to create a unique visual and material identity of ruins.

Communicative resources and credibility in public discourse on refugees

This article examines how communicative resources affect the construction of credible texts and identities in a public debate on Australia's treatment of a refugee. It centres on two key written statements—one from the Immigration Minister, and another from a Somali refugee. The analysis is divided into four levels, exploring the parties’ respective linguistic, material, identity, and platform resources, and how these impact their statements’ creation and reception, and their participation in discourse creation more generally. The article finds that there are inequalities on all four resource levels that largely undermine the refugee's ability to present a credible text and identity and challenge mainstream discourse on refugees. The article demonstrates how a multi-level analysis of communicative resources can challenge assumptions about participation and uncover inequalities invisible in the prevailing discourse. (Asylum, Australia, communicative resources, discourse, intercultural communication, media, power, refugee)*

The Individual Tone and Musical Context in Albert Simon’sTonfeldtheorie

Albert Simon’s analytical approach, or Tonfeldtheorie, is applicable to most compositions of the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries. Pitch fields are not based on voices or voice leading; instead, individual pitches are understood as elements of a particular pitch field. The identity of pitches is partly defined systematically, partly through the sound material itself, that is, by material aspects that determine respective concrete, sensually experienceable properties. Compositions, then, are analyzed as aggregates of timbrally defined individual notes whose material identity reveals their membership in structures.