DialogRaumGoethe
The Power of Images is the launch event of the new event series titled DialogRaumGoethe, which will take place regularly at the event hall of the Goethe-Institut Cyprus in the Buffer Zone. Cypriot and German experts from academia, culture and media will be speaking on current topics and inviting the audience to participate in discussions and ask questions.
For the first DialogRaum event the invited speakers are media scholars Evripides Zantides and Klaus Sachs-Hombach will talk about the power and independent existence of images in media. The discussion will be moderated by theatre professional Diomedes Koufteros. The idea for this discussion arose from the theatre performance Picture Perfect by the SRSLY_yours Ensemble. This performance, which is supported by the Goethe-Institut, premiered at Rialto Theater in March and will be shown in Nicosia at ARTos House in early November. Achim Wieland and the SRSLY_yours ensemble will take part in the discussion at DialogRaumGoethe.
Since Plato, the status of pictorial representations has been controversial. On the one hand, pictures were considered inferior to words when it came to expressing abstract thoughts. On the other hand, an almost magical aura has been attributed to them. This ambivalent attitude has prevailed to the present day, with all kinds of newly invented pictorial media such as photography or virtual reality evoking reactions that range from greatest enthusiasm to utmost skepticism. Alongside this background, our talk attempts to clarify the specific properties of visual communication with images playing a pivotal role in the rhetoric of communication. While the lecture introduces relevant theoretical frameworks, it aims to analyse and discuss images through specific examples and analytical tools.
Klaus Sachs-Hombach is Full Professor for Media Studies at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. Having received his PhD from the University of Münster, he went for a research scholarship to Oxford and to the MIT in Boston. Thereafter, he received his Habilitation from the University of Magdeburg and became full professor at the University of Chemnitz before finally moving to Tübingen. His main research interests are picture theory, communication and media theory, semiotics, and visual culture studies. His work on picture there is best documented in Das Bild als kommunikatives Medium. 3rd edition. Halem 2021. Among the various anthologies he co-edited are Origins of Pictures (together with J.R.J. Schirra, Halem 2013) and Multimodal Media (together with J.-N. Thon, special issue of Poetics Today 40.2, 2019).
Evripides Zantides, PhD, is Professor in Graphic and Visual Communication at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. His professional activities include the presentation of research papers at a number of journals and international conferences on Semiotics, Graphic Design Education, Typography and Visual Communication, and his participation, with distinguished work, in refereed Art and Graphic Design biennials and other international exhibitions. Moreover, he is also involved as a reviewer in scientific journals, in accreditation bodies, conference and Art & Design evaluation committees. He is country delegate of Cyprus for the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS-AIS) and for the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI), as well as a member of the Hellenic Semiotic Society (HSS), co-founder and member of the Cyprus Poster Triennial (CPT) and the Cyprus Association of Graphic Designers and Illustrators (CAGDI). His research interests are based on theories of semiotics in the process of fine or applied visualisation of verbal language, using image, text/typography and sound. He is also founder and director at the Semiotics and Visual Communication Research Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology.
Diomedes Koufteros is a theatre actor and director. He has taught at Bowdoin College (Maine, USA) as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater (Theater for Social Change) and University of Nicosia (Cyprus) as part-time faculty (Gender, Culture, Politics of the Body); has worked as an expert in Arts and Culture for the European Commission’s Creative Europe funding program; and was the artistic director for Greater Nicosia 2021, Nicosia’s bid for the European Youth Capital.
Diomedes is the founding director of Campos Culture and Arts, an emerging not-for-profit organization focusing on projects relating to interdisciplinary performance, peacebuilding and social impact, as well as, innovation and entrepreneurship within the Cultural and Creative Sector. He also coordinates Communications and Outreach for the Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival (powered by the Home for Cooperation).
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