Valeria Federici | National Gallery of Art (original) (raw)
Papers by Valeria Federici
The Italianist (Volume 42:3), 2022
This article illustrates how, like photography in the late nineteenth century, data often possess... more This article illustrates how, like photography in the late nineteenth century, data often possesses an alluring appearance of objectivity which gives it affordance. It reflects on how data has altered methods of investigations and, while rejecting its use as a mere indexical trace of information that leads to unequivocal conclusions, advocates for the humanist’s intervention in directing how data is collected, prepared, used, and displayed. The article explores and illustrates three platforms: MediaWiki and its applications, including the Semantic Web; IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), a tool designed to replicate traditional image-comparative methodologies within a digital realm; and FromThePage, a text transcript platform. Finally, the conundrum of web archiving and data preservation is analysed, to reflect on how data has marked a paradigm shift in our perception, expectations, and understanding of methodologies in the humanities.
Representations of Female Identity in Italy - From Neoclassism to the 21st Century, 2017
In this chapter, I analyze women's role models in television and cinema in early 1950s Italy by e... more In this chapter, I analyze women's role models in television and cinema in early 1950s Italy by exploring who decided on these models and if they were addressed toward women of a specific class. Through this investigation, I highlight how the proper, upstanding woman of the TV represented by Signorine Buonasera (female TV announcers) apparently clashes with the more attractive and tempting diva of cinema while in fact, these contiguous representations of women constitute a reiteration of the subordinate role of the woman in Italian society. I compare images, scripts and ways of speaking of the Signorine Buonasera, with similar features of female characters in three Italian movies released in 1954, the year of the official birth of television in Italy. The movies cited are: Senso by Luchino Visconti, which made use of highly sexualized opera costumes; L'oro di Napoli by Vittorio De Sica, starring Sophia Loren, soon the be a cinema icon and object of desire for many; and Pane, Amore e Gelosia by Luigi Comencini, starring Gina Lollobrigida, another woman who became a starlet. In addition, I consider material from popular newspapers and posters used during the national elections of 1953. Through the analysis of all these elements, I contend that although the image of Signorine Buonasera is used to display good morals in contrast to the image of movie starlets, both representations form a monolithic identity of a woman who is ultimately described as occupying a secondary role in the Italian society, subordinate to men. Finally, I explore the role of the major political parties of the time, the Christian Democratic party, and the Communist party, in defining how women ought to be portrayed in the media, and the influence of the Catholic Church in providing censorship guidelines for both television and cinema.
Exhibition brochures of "A Lot of Possibilities" a project by artist Anna Lise Jensen that belon... more Exhibition brochures of "A Lot of Possibilities" a project by artist Anna Lise Jensen that belongs to a practice of contemporary art that reflects the concept of artwork as communal and participatory.
Review of a series of contemporary art and film events in Rome, Italy in 2012. Includes an artist... more Review of a series of contemporary art and film events in Rome, Italy in 2012. Includes an artist talk at the MAXXI (National Museum of the Arts of the XXI century) with Michelangelo Pistoletto, and a review of the movie "Une Vie Meilleure" by Cedric Kahn featured at the Rome Film Festival. This blogpost was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/une-vie-meilleure/
XMALIA is a performance created by C. Ryder Cooley, an inter-disciplinary artist, musician and pe... more XMALIA is a performance created by C. Ryder Cooley, an inter-disciplinary artist, musician and performer. Weaving together found materials with chimeric images, her work reveals a terrain of lost dreams and phantom memories.This interview was published in Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/xmalia-a-graveyard-cabaret/
Bureau for Open Culture (BOC) is a non-profit nomadic organization for the contemporary arts that... more Bureau for Open Culture (BOC) is a non-profit nomadic organization for the
contemporary arts that operates through unlimited forms of representation in and outside of the gallery space. This conversation with founder and curator of BOC, James Voorhies was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/bureau-for-open-culture-2/
Virginia Inés Vergara was born and raised in NYC. After receiving her BFA from Rhode Island Schoo... more Virginia Inés Vergara was born and raised in NYC. After receiving her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA in photography from Hunter College, she has maintained a studio practice in Brooklyn, NY. this interview was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/virginia-vergara-quantity-and-form-of-a-substance/
Ven Voisey is a multidisciplinary artist, working in sculpture, installation, painting, and sound... more Ven Voisey is a multidisciplinary artist, working in sculpture, installation, painting, and sound. His practice, however an overarching interest in communication — the possibility or impossibility of translation — between each other and o across circumstance and species, and through time and technology. This interview and his work was featured on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/ven-voisey-visceral-vs-intellectual-knowledge/
This is a blogpost regarding an yearly event celebrating Jazz culture that takes place on Governo... more This is a blogpost regarding an yearly event celebrating Jazz culture that takes place on Governor Island in New York. It was published in the Culture section of Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/goodbye-mr-moon/
Sandra Mack Valencia is a New York-based artist originally from Medellin, Colombia. This intervie... more Sandra Mack Valencia is a New York-based artist originally from Medellin, Colombia. This interview was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/sandra-mack-valencia/
The Italianist (Volume 42:3), 2022
This article illustrates how, like photography in the late nineteenth century, data often possess... more This article illustrates how, like photography in the late nineteenth century, data often possesses an alluring appearance of objectivity which gives it affordance. It reflects on how data has altered methods of investigations and, while rejecting its use as a mere indexical trace of information that leads to unequivocal conclusions, advocates for the humanist’s intervention in directing how data is collected, prepared, used, and displayed. The article explores and illustrates three platforms: MediaWiki and its applications, including the Semantic Web; IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), a tool designed to replicate traditional image-comparative methodologies within a digital realm; and FromThePage, a text transcript platform. Finally, the conundrum of web archiving and data preservation is analysed, to reflect on how data has marked a paradigm shift in our perception, expectations, and understanding of methodologies in the humanities.
Representations of Female Identity in Italy - From Neoclassism to the 21st Century, 2017
In this chapter, I analyze women's role models in television and cinema in early 1950s Italy by e... more In this chapter, I analyze women's role models in television and cinema in early 1950s Italy by exploring who decided on these models and if they were addressed toward women of a specific class. Through this investigation, I highlight how the proper, upstanding woman of the TV represented by Signorine Buonasera (female TV announcers) apparently clashes with the more attractive and tempting diva of cinema while in fact, these contiguous representations of women constitute a reiteration of the subordinate role of the woman in Italian society. I compare images, scripts and ways of speaking of the Signorine Buonasera, with similar features of female characters in three Italian movies released in 1954, the year of the official birth of television in Italy. The movies cited are: Senso by Luchino Visconti, which made use of highly sexualized opera costumes; L'oro di Napoli by Vittorio De Sica, starring Sophia Loren, soon the be a cinema icon and object of desire for many; and Pane, Amore e Gelosia by Luigi Comencini, starring Gina Lollobrigida, another woman who became a starlet. In addition, I consider material from popular newspapers and posters used during the national elections of 1953. Through the analysis of all these elements, I contend that although the image of Signorine Buonasera is used to display good morals in contrast to the image of movie starlets, both representations form a monolithic identity of a woman who is ultimately described as occupying a secondary role in the Italian society, subordinate to men. Finally, I explore the role of the major political parties of the time, the Christian Democratic party, and the Communist party, in defining how women ought to be portrayed in the media, and the influence of the Catholic Church in providing censorship guidelines for both television and cinema.
Exhibition brochures of "A Lot of Possibilities" a project by artist Anna Lise Jensen that belon... more Exhibition brochures of "A Lot of Possibilities" a project by artist Anna Lise Jensen that belongs to a practice of contemporary art that reflects the concept of artwork as communal and participatory.
Review of a series of contemporary art and film events in Rome, Italy in 2012. Includes an artist... more Review of a series of contemporary art and film events in Rome, Italy in 2012. Includes an artist talk at the MAXXI (National Museum of the Arts of the XXI century) with Michelangelo Pistoletto, and a review of the movie "Une Vie Meilleure" by Cedric Kahn featured at the Rome Film Festival. This blogpost was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/une-vie-meilleure/
XMALIA is a performance created by C. Ryder Cooley, an inter-disciplinary artist, musician and pe... more XMALIA is a performance created by C. Ryder Cooley, an inter-disciplinary artist, musician and performer. Weaving together found materials with chimeric images, her work reveals a terrain of lost dreams and phantom memories.This interview was published in Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/xmalia-a-graveyard-cabaret/
Bureau for Open Culture (BOC) is a non-profit nomadic organization for the contemporary arts that... more Bureau for Open Culture (BOC) is a non-profit nomadic organization for the
contemporary arts that operates through unlimited forms of representation in and outside of the gallery space. This conversation with founder and curator of BOC, James Voorhies was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/bureau-for-open-culture-2/
Virginia Inés Vergara was born and raised in NYC. After receiving her BFA from Rhode Island Schoo... more Virginia Inés Vergara was born and raised in NYC. After receiving her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA in photography from Hunter College, she has maintained a studio practice in Brooklyn, NY. this interview was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/virginia-vergara-quantity-and-form-of-a-substance/
Ven Voisey is a multidisciplinary artist, working in sculpture, installation, painting, and sound... more Ven Voisey is a multidisciplinary artist, working in sculpture, installation, painting, and sound. His practice, however an overarching interest in communication — the possibility or impossibility of translation — between each other and o across circumstance and species, and through time and technology. This interview and his work was featured on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/ven-voisey-visceral-vs-intellectual-knowledge/
This is a blogpost regarding an yearly event celebrating Jazz culture that takes place on Governo... more This is a blogpost regarding an yearly event celebrating Jazz culture that takes place on Governor Island in New York. It was published in the Culture section of Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/goodbye-mr-moon/
Sandra Mack Valencia is a New York-based artist originally from Medellin, Colombia. This intervie... more Sandra Mack Valencia is a New York-based artist originally from Medellin, Colombia. This interview was published on Positive-Magazine.com http://www.positive-magazine.com/sandra-mack-valencia/
Review of the book "Disrupting Business: Art and Activism in Times of Financial Crisis" edited by... more Review of the book "Disrupting Business: Art and Activism in Times of Financial Crisis" edited by Tatiana Bazzichelli and Geoff Cox (DATA browser 05, Autonomedia, 2013), published on the Oxford Art Journal