Miguel Luiz Contani

Elementos argumentativos da carnavalização bakhtiniana na iconografia do heavy metal

Within ‘hard rock’, especially the heavy metal genre, marketed products employ an iconography that could be considered hostile, abusive and aggressive. The presence of the grotesque in the vast majority of LP, CD and DVD cover art indicates that rule-breaking and provocation are natural attributes of the nonconformity and rebelliousness, typical of its discourse. This study is intended to search for a deeper understanding of the use of such strong and aggressive iconography by examining the grotesque as essential to the Bakhtinian concept of carnivalization, in conjunction with the polyphonic and dialogical processes, shifted here from their original literary character to the argumentative semantics of image reading.

Research networks and visualities: new settings for journalistic reflection

This paper discusses the configurations of research networks in journalism. The focus is on the capillarity of the visual culture and the debates continuously reiterated regarding the epistemological code of communication. Why do newspapers keep investing massively in visual resources, operating structural changes in their make-up? In what name are these graphic-visual changes effected? The confluences between communication and visualities (in the plural in order to cover its immense variety and implications) are, as it seems, a non-deferrable confrontation involving contemporary changes in journalism. The formation of these networks thus relies on a variable and dynamic complexity, in an unlimited territory of exploration where simultaneities, ambiguities, levels of determination and indetermination play an important part. In conclusion, we argue that a theoretical-political principle must be encountered in order for the triad visualities, journalism and communication to be viewed in the ambit of research networks.