183 research outputs found
The Mirror, the Self(ie) and the New Sacred: Bodies, Objects and Figures of the Contemporary "Cult of the Self"
No full textThis paper investigates the "cult of the Self" pervading contemporary mediatised cultures, adopting a semiotic approach. More specifically, it draws on the analysis of the fictional case of Ionismo, ironically represented by director Alessandro Aronadio in the movie Just Believe (orig. IO C'È, 2018), to shed new light on the figure of the "influencer", which has become fundamental in contemporary mediascapes. Thus it problematises the bodies, as well as the sacred objects, and more generally the figures, of today's cult of the Self, with specific reference to the "generative model" suggested by Just Believe, as well as to the understanding of the sacred in the "postsecular" era
La semiotica può migliorare l’apprendimento supervisionato delle reti neurali? Il caso di studio del tweet di Papa Francesco
No full textThe paper focuses on a case–study: a corpus of 1234 Italian tweets in reply to Pope Francis’ ecological tweets related to the encyclical letter Laudato si’ has been collected and labelled by the research team of the Semiotic and big data lab at the University of Turin using semiotic categories to substitute the vague notion of “subjectivity” in use in sentiment analysis. A simple neural network has been trained on the corpus to classify messages into “history” and “discourse” with a final accuracy score of 97%. The paper explores the practical and social implications of the feasibility study as well as its limitations and suggests further transdisciplinary research using semiotics as a standard vocabulary to increase cooperation between social and computer sciences. The analysis is accompanied by a historical premise and a brief analysis of the concordance between Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures and Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’
Nostalgia, prefigurazione, riscoperta: percorsi semiotici tra pre- e post-gastromania
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has had evident effects on the gastrosphere, as the lively debate on the perceptions of edibility in different cultures, as well as the development and spreading of new food practices and discourses (see in particular Marrone 2020; Niola 2020; Stano 2020), prove. As people went (back) to their kitchens and (re)discovered the magic of “grandma’s recipes”, also experimenting new forms of conviviality and commensality, comfort food has become the undisputed protagonist of most desks and screens. This has highlighted a new conception of temporality as related to the food realm. On the one hand, in fact, comfort food directly calls on nostalgia (as evidenced by its very definition: “Food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal”). On the other hand, such a “nostalgic appeal”, and the “obsessive regret” (Greimas 1986) that it presupposes, seem to extend far beyond a “lost past” to be retrieved à la Proust, extending to the more recent, and partly still present, gastromaniac pornography (see Marrone 2014; Stano 2018), as well as to the prefiguration of a “post-gastromaniac” future (see Marrone 2019). This paper deals with this crucial issue, reflecting on the effects of meaning generated by our experience of the pandemic, with particular reference to the temporal dimension.https://mimesisjournals.com/ojs/index.php/ec/article/view/1511/121
“Better Than Us”. L’icona androide nella serialità televisiva contemporanea
No full textThe aim of this essay is to explore the cultural function of the android icon. The hypothesis is that the android icon plays a fundamental narrative role in highlighting culturally dissonant issues. The reference definition of icon used here will be that of a cultural icon as a narrative core. Such a definition of a cultural icon is historically defined as a narrative intertextual corpus, or a set of narrative models, that can be drawn upon, both to create new narratives and to interpret and understand them. The intention is to conduct an exploration of a small portion of the vast field of the android cultural icon (literature, cinema, comics, video games), through a very limited reference corpus, in order to identify its function in a popular form of narrative communication like television series.
But why can a single cultural icon like the android one assume a broader significance than just that of a single narrative device? And why is it in a popular narrative form like television series that we can find effective answers regarding the relevance of this cultural icon?
There are commercial products tied to popular narrative genres that hide or mask complex or controversial themes from an ideological and cultural perspective. We can call this mechanism "narrative camouflage," borrowing the sense of this expression from the context of evolutionary biology. Just as some animals hide their presence by assuming an appearance that allows them to blend into their environment or context, similarly, some culturally dissonant themes can be conveyed through the narrative structures of a popular narrative genre in a more or less concealed manner.
This mechanism can be traced back to a more general aesthetic-narrative principle, namely that a specific aesthetic form represents an indirect response to a dissonance or contradiction present in the real world. A problem in the real socio-cultural context finds an indirect response in an aesthetic work through the use of a specific linguistic, discursive, or narrative form. The hypothesis here is that one of these aesthetic forms is the android icon and that the function of its repeated use in many contemporary television series is linked to the issue of using it as a "response" to particular cultural dissonances.
The figure of the android is prevalent in contemporary science fiction television series. Three specific cases will be considered here, which are relevant because they belong to three different cultural contexts (UK/Sweden, USA, Russia) and three different production mechanisms (Channel 4, HBO, C1R). The three TV series in question are: Humans (UK, Channel 4, 2015-18), a remake of Real Humans (Sweden, SVT1, 2012-14); Westworld (USA, HBO, 2016-22); and Better than Us (Russia, C1R, 2018-present). In each of these series, the figure of the android receives its own particular characterization but exhibits constants. The analysis of these recurring features is important to understand the function of this figure in terms of aesthetic-narrative response to significant socio-cultural issues
I “graffi” della protesta Street art, barriere artificiali e forme di espressione del dissenso
No full textStreet art is any art – specifically visual art – developed in public
spaces. It can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil, sculpture,
sticker art, street poster art, video projection, guerrilla art, flash mobbing, wheatpasting, etc. Typically, the term is used to refer to unsanctioned
or “prohibited” art, as opposed to institutional artistic initiatives. So, is
it possible to speak about street art as a form of protest art? If so, what
are the signs, texts, codes and practices through which graffiti, stencils
and other forms of street art can serve as means to express opposition
and dissent? The present paper aims at answering these questions at first
through a general historic introduction that will try to contextualize and
describe the street art phenomenon and its evolution over time, then
focusing on two specific case studies whose purpose is to investigate,
from a semiotic point of view, its role in the expression of dissent and
protest acts. Especially, we will deal with the use of graffiti, stencils
and posters as means of protest against two very known and discussed
examples of separation barrier
Unusual Presentation of a Gangrenous Cholecystitis that Mimics a Bowel Perforation.
No full textWe report the case of a diabetic 49-year-old man affected by
phlegmonous cholecystitis with an unusual radiological presentation
mimicking a bowel perforation. Actually, abdomen X-ray showed free
intraperitoneal air spots (dark crescent beneath the diaphragm)
in the upright positions. We have not found any similar cases in
the published literature, except for a case report about an unusual
presentation of an emphysematous cholecystitis. The clinical
practitioner has to pay attention not to fall into a fixation error during
diagnosis
Isolated in connection. Un progetto di ricerca multidisciplinare sulla Silver Age e la sua cultura digitale
No full textDo I Need to Operate on That in the Middle of the Night? Development of a Nomogram for the Diagnosis of Severe Acute Cholecystitis
No full textBackground: Some authors have proposed different predictive factors of severe acute cholecystitis, but generally, the
results of risk analyses are expressed as odds ratios, which makes it difficult to apply in the clinical practice of the
acute care surgeon. The severe form of acute cholecystitis should include both gangrenous and phlegmonous
cholecystitis, due to their severe clinical course, and cholecystectomy should not be delayed. The aim of this study
was to create a nomogram to obtain a graphical tool to compute the probability of having a severe acute
cholecystitis.
Methods: This is a retrospective study on 393 patients who underwent emergency cholecystectomy between January
2010 and December 2015 at the Acute Care Surgery Service of the S. Anna University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy.
Patients were classified as having a non-severe acute cholecystitis or a severe acute cholecystitis (i.e., gangrenous
and phlegmonous) based on the final pathology report. The baseline characteristics, pre-operative signs, and abdominal
ultrasound (US) findings were assessed with a stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis to predict the
risk of severe acute cholecystitis, and a nomogram was created.
Results: Age as a continuous variable, WBC count ≥ 12.4 × 103/μl, CRP ≥9.9 mg/dl, and presence of US thickening
of the gallbladder wall were significantly associated with severe acute cholecystitis at final pathology report. A
significant interaction between the effect of age and CRP was found. Four risk classes were identified based on the
nomogram total points.
Conclusions: Patients with a nomogram total point ≥ 74 should be considered at high risk of severe acute cholecystitis (at 74 total
point, sensitivity = 78.5%; specificity = 78.2%; accuracy = 78.3%) and this finding could be useful for surgical planning once
confirmed in a prospective study comparing the risk score stratification and clinical outcomes
- …
