João Pedro Amorim
João Pedro Amorim is a visual artist, a PhD candidate and researcher at the Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR), with a FCT fellowship. His papers have been published in indexed journals (Scopus and WoS). His film on shadows and their names was premiered in Doclisboa 2020. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Digital Creativity Centre at the School of Arts at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he coordinated the communication team and the residency program in partnership with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He holds a Master in Contemporary Artistic Practices (Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto) and a Bachelor in Communication Sciences (University of Porto). Between 2014 and 2015 he collaborated with the collective Caucaso Factory (Bologna/ Berlin) in several film projects as assistant director.
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, School of Arts, Digital Creativity Center / Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts
jpamorim@porto.ucp.pt
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0267-1276
With the evolution of the political regimes, the image of a successful leader has shifted from an image of majesty to one of dignity, and later on to one of closeness and simplicity.
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When one visits the rooms dedicated to Velásquez in the Museum of Prado, it is extraordinary how portraits of kings and those of jesters and peasants are laid side-by-side. The nobility and dignity given to the lower members of the court exemplifies an early example of a revolution in the politics of representation. In the antipodes of this example, we analyse how the campaign of the millionaire Michael Bloomberg to be the Democratic Candidate for the 2020 elections hired companies to produce nonsense memes and digital propaganda. Our hypothesis is that on the center of its strategy the goal was to create an image of Bloomberg that besides viral would be relatable and humorous. The article overviews the evolution of the portrait as an element of political of representation and reflects on how the development of modern and contemporary art transformed the art of political portraiture. Furthermore it deliberates on the two-way appropriation of representation techniques between art movements and political movements.
- Keywords: aestheticization of politics, Diego Velázquez, digital propaganda, Michael Bloomberg, politics and aesthetics, politics of representation
João Pedro Amorim is a visual artist, a PhD candidate and researcher at the Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR), with a FCT fellowship. His papers have been published in indexed journals (Scopus and WoS). His film on shadows and their names was premiered in Doclisboa 2020. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Digital Creativity Centre at the School of Arts at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he coordinated the communication team and the residency program in partnership with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He holds a Master in Contemporary Artistic Practices (Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto) and a Bachelor in Communication Sciences (University of Porto). Between 2014 and 2015 he collaborated with the collective Caucaso Factory (Bologna/ Berlin) in several film projects as assistant director.
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