Roczniki Kulturoznawcze

Thoughtful Seeing

Jerzy Olek — 2021-09-30

Conscious reception of works of art has always required adequate knowledge on the part of the viewer. With time, the need for specialized competences of the viewer has grown more and more essential. This process was particularly intensified in the first decades of the 20^th century, when visual narratives, formulated through sophisticated languages, became extremely complicated. One of the most responsible factors in this respect as abstraction, because the forms it created carried completely new meanings. Thus the time of literal referentiality has come to an end. Art has ceased to be a simple mirror reflecting the surrounding reality in a comprehensible way.

Visual Metaphors of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Internet Memes

Justyna Szulich-Kałuża — 2021-09-30

The main goal of the article is to description of visual metaphors about the pandemic COVID-19 in Internet memes. The structure of the paper is a follows: in the first section, I consider the two basic theoretic components of this paper, i.e memes and visual metaphors which are relevant for further own analysis, then in the second section I present the methodology and detailed analyzes of ten selected examples of visual metaphors of a pandemic. Four issues are addressed: What are the two terms of the metaphor — source and target domain; Which term is the target domain of the metaphor, which is the source domain; What characters of the source domain are mapped to the target domain; What elements of primary mataphors can be found in the visualizations. The last part contains some concluding remarks.

Visual Dictionaries of Emotions During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Artistic Communication

Małgorzata Sławek-Czochra — 2021-09-30

This study aimed to investigate which emotions were most often communicated through art created during a pandemic and new symbols of emotions, themes used in the creation process. Two research techniques were used in the study: content analysis and Panofsky’ Method. The research material consists of 100 illustrations from the Internet obtained after entering the keywords article and coronavirus in Google. The most common emotion was fear, next was anger, third was sadness and the least was joy. Street artists appealed to a wide variety of themes: religious, mythological, popular culture. The analysis of the research material showed that new symbols representing the SarsCov-2 pandemic appeared in the social space and culture: the coronavirus molecule (an emotionally universal symbol) and a white or blue surgical mask and latex glove symbolizing fear.

Metaphors of Silence in Audio Media Messages During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aneta Wójciszyn-Wasil — 2021-09-30

Conceptualizing auditory experiences requires the use of metaphors. This paper proposes to analyze those metaphors in audio media messages, including both lexical and acoustic patterns. The category of synaesthetic metaphor is used and the concept of auditory metaphor specific to auditory media is introduced. The interpretative context for metaphorical representations of silence is the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of noise becomes synonymous with loneliness, danger, death but also has positive connotations: peace or appreciation of everyday life. The use of non-verbal sounds enriches the media narrative of the pandemic in phonemic and semantic layers. The presented treatment of metaphor incorporates perspectives from media studies, sound studies, and cognitive linguistics.

Metaphors of Photography in Visual Culture

Małgorzata Gruchoła — 2021-09-30

The aim of the article was to analyze the discussion of the metaphors of photographs by Jerzy Olek and his interlocutors in the context of visual culture as perceived by Piotr Sztompka through the prism of the ‘metaphors’ of the publication Nie tylko o fotografii [Not only on photography] (2020). After a short presentation of the artist and his work, four categories of visual culture were proposed and discussed: iconosphere — photography is… ?; sociosphere — photography as… ?; regimes of imaging, visibility, views and regimes of looking and seeing in the context of photography metaphors. The universality of communication and visual culture, the multifaceted nature of photography, and the ongoing technological changes generate a new and still open catalog of photography metaphors.