sadreddin taheri

The sublime is one of the most important moments in Adorno's aesthetics and has a special place in his understanding of modern art. Adorno's thinking is such that each of his concepts are combined several times in the context of an inquiry-like and dialectical method of connection and disconnection, to provide a multi-layered and complex intellectual system around that subject. Of course, this does not provide a complete definition of the problem, because he believes that any kind of final solution will be a step in the direction of totalitarianism. Based on this, the present article has focused on recovering the possibilities and strains of the concept of the sublime in Adorno's direct and indirect contributions, especially in works such as Aesthetic Theory and Negative Dialectics, in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of its intertwining with other key philosophical and aesthetic concepts of his thought. This path starts from Adorno's reconceptualization of the traditional sublime and specifically Kantian's attitude and extends to its limits in relation to the inconsistencies of modern art and the realization of artistic truth. Adorno, when confronted with an authentic and autotelic work of art, talks about a truth that goes beyond the range of philosophical concepts and is associated with the concept of "non-identity". In this article, we will see that, what paves the way for such a truth, is sublime. This qualitative research has a descriptive-analytical and text-oriented approach and is based on Adorno's most important texts about art and aesthetics, as well as his other philosophical writings that can open a path to understanding his artistic ideas.

This article titled “A Survey on Representation of Binary Oppositions in the Ardaviraf Nameh of Peshotan" is written by Dr. Sadreddin Taheri[1], assistant professor at the Art University of Isfahan, and Afifeh ShahPir[2], M.A. graduate of Art Studies at the Art University of Isfahan.Religions have always played a special role in human societies. Iran's civilization, as one of the oldest human civilizations, is no exception. Religion can be considered as a set of collectively accepted beliefs that define concepts such as the soul, God, life, the world after death, and heaven and hell. The after-death world is one of the things that have been emphasized in both Semitic and non-Semitic religions. In Pahlavi texts related to the Zoroastrian religion, the world after death, heaven, and hell have been mentioned many times. One of the most important Zoroastrian sources related to the world after death is called Ardaviraf Nameh. According to this text, during the time of Alexander the Macedonian, the texts of Avesta and Zand were burned, religion was forgotten and people became corrupt. So the Mobeds (Monks) decided to choose the most pious man and send him to after world in search of the truth. After consuming Mei and Meng (Drugs) for seven days and nights, Ardaviraf went to visit the afterlife and there he met with Ahura Mazda and Amesha Sepandan. He, along with Azar and Soroush, witnessed the reward and punishment of people in heaven and hell. One of the illustrated copies of this text is preserved in the Manchester University Library, which is known by the name of its Zoroastrian copyist, Peshotan Jiv Hirji Homji. Despite the importance of Ardaviraf Nameh as one of the Pahlavi sources in ancient Iranian literature and also the place of these folios among Zoroastrian paintings, so far, no detailed research has been done on this visual version.The purpose of this research is to understand how the literary text is transliterated into a visual text in the Peshotan manuscript of the Ardaviraf Nameh and to examine the way the painter uses Binary Oppositions - as defined by Levi-Strauss - to convey the inner concepts of the narrative.The investigation of Binary opposition in this article is based on the ideas of Claude Levi-Strauss. Levi Strauss is a Belgian structuralist anthropologist who started his analysis from content because he believes that in structural analysis, content and form are not separate entities, but complementary elements that are considered necessary for a deep understanding of the subject. In semiotic analysis, Levi-Strauss does not seek to discover the way of human thinking in myths, but to understand how myths work in people's minds. One of his prominent works is called Raw and Cooked, and in this book, he deals with dual confrontations. Binary opposition is a system of language or thought by which two theoretical opposites are placed against each other. Binary opposition is an important concept in structuralism, which considers such distinctions as fundamental to all languages and thoughts. Saussure believed that in language, the meaning of each word is understood in contrast with another word or opposite words. In this book, Levi-Strauss considered the contrasts arising from the daily experience of human communication with the more primitive types of these dualisms like fresh vs old or wet vs dry. In his view, primitive man could understand the meaning of life events by resorting to contrasts and differences. In the discussion of Binary opposition, the main theme that can be seen in most myths is the transition from nature to culture. Levi-Strauss considers one of the examples of passing from nature to culture through cooking and turning raw into cooked.By comparing the way of depicting hell and heaven, the current article aims to find an answer to this question: How did the artist represent the narrative text and the distinction between heaven and hell in the illustrations of the Peshotan manuscript of Ardaviraf Nameh by relying on the Binary opposition? This research is a case study with an analytical-interpretive approach, and its data has been collected qualitatively.After the comparison between two selected groups of Peshotan manuscript paintings that mutually represent related concepts in heaven and hell, it becomes clear that the artist has consciously used binary oppositions to convey the goals of the religious narrative to the readers. To increase the dignity of the figures represented in heaven, he has used features such as: being welcomed by a young and beautiful maidservant, wearing a full dress, happiness and dancing, freedom and security, sitting in peace in a group, surrounded by flowers and plants, presence of golden fish and singing birds, and sitting on the bed under the shade. On the contrary, in hell, the soul is welcomed by an ugly, dark, demon-like, and disturbed beast with long nails. The sinner is depicted naked, tortured, frightened, bound, hanged, grieving, wounded, and lying on the ground, and he/she is surrounded by demons and snakes and accepts her/his punishment alone.The main text of Ardaviraf Nameh and its poetic version is written in a verbal system of signs (literature) that allows the writer or poet to give a general description of the events and leaves an important part of the understanding of the event to the reader's imagination, while the painter has had the facilities of a visual system of signs (painting) which he has consciously used to represent what is absent in the text. For example, the painter has depicted heaven with a bright and shining background, low contrast, gentle shading, static and calm composition, and detailed decoration with delicate motifs to double its spiritual values in the eyes of the viewer. On the other hand, the background of hell is painted flat and neutral. Curved lines are used to induce movement and tension, and some images have a circular composition and diagonal lines that evoke tension and unrest in the environment. Colors have also helped the painter to create the atmosphere of hell and heaven. A wide range of warm colors have been used for pictures associated with heaven, while hell is mainly represented with neutral, cold, and dark colors. The good side of the scales is painted in gold and the bad side in black. The artist also has been aware of visual elements and spatial values. He draws the heavenly people standing on the right side and the hellish people on the left side of the picture. The good side of the scales is on the right and the bad side is on the left. Also, the heavenly people are shown upright and standing, while the hellish ones are fallen, hanging, or twisted.

This study tries to explore the role of Dolls in the process of their connection with the other self in the human psyche. The symbolic nature of the relationship between the doll owners and the dolls themselves conveys the message that puppetry is more than just an aesthetic behavior, it is related to the spiritual needs and shortcomings of the puppet owners. By examining in-depth the human spiritual actions and various functions of the doll, it can be seen that the dolls have been a reflection and continuation of their bonding process and the transformation of themselves and human beings over the course of history. This concept can be thought of as the passage of the spectra of the mentioned process through the human psyche, which, in the end, all forms of ego and Alter Ego, are embodied in existing, ideal or imaginary forms. The information in this qualitative case study is documented and fielded and organized through phishing. The descriptive-analytical readings reveal that traditional and ethnic Iranian puppets have evolved in at least three ways for their owners: the ideal character (for example, the functioning of the Behik and Leily, Lal, Gulen, and Goraken and Baz); Forgiveness (such as Chehel Gis and Panbehei), and redemption (such as Choobi, Bazandeh and Abu Darda).

Persbook event has been active in Iran's art scene for more than a decade. This article, using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis method with a focus on ecofeminism, intends to study this event, especially the works of female artists participating in the fifth to tenth periods of the Persbook event. The most important question of this research is: How has the Persbook event interacted with the discoursive atmosphere of the decades of 1380 and 1390 AH  and the appearance of ​​ecofeminism? The results of this article show that Iran’s discoursive space in this period provided a basis for critical approaches in art that allowed attention to marginal narratives, including feminism in art, and subsequently, events such as Persbook with ecofeminist tendencies has emerged. Contemporary Iranian female artists in the context provided by events such as Pressbook, by challenging the ideal definitions of art and focusing on that part of women's work that was considered insignificant, have tried to give value and credibility to women's art and to establish a link between women, the earth and the ecosystem; and thus bring marginal narratives to the center and draw the audience's attention to the inequalities that go against women and the earth. Setting up annual press book events in the form of installation or environmental art and the use of media such as natural materials, crafts, strings, fabric, tapestry and abstract representation of female organs, gives the artworks a feminine-earthly meaning; a sign that both women and land have always been marginalized and oppressed by the patriarchal system.

The 8th art is a title which sometimes used to refer to videogames. It’s been about 25 years from the late 1980’s first institutional considerations of videogames as art, when art museums began to show some old, first and second generation videogames in their collections. Video games in modern world have become cultural, economic and political tools to shape the thought of the younger generation. Examples of these games have made their way to the museums; scientific circles have focused on game aesthetic; and different countries are trying to take part in the growing market of game design. However, some critics still believe videogames can never be works of art. The mail question of this research is whether the medium of videogame is an artistic one or not. To answer that, we ask: based on which theory and definition of art we can consider videogame an artistic medium?The present paper is based on an analytical descriptive study, whose qualitative data are compiled in a documentary manner. The main goal of this research is to attempt to determine the signification of video games as a new medium in the contemporary artworld.The first step to solve the problem is to examine and criticize two main arguments against the artistic nature of this medium, Masterpiece argument and Disqualification argument. Followers of masterpiece argument believe that no video games ever produced which can be convincingly recognized as an artistic masterpiece. They have forgotten that artistic mediums like Minor Art / Low Art or Public Art / Mass Art, as well as any other newfound artistic medium, are incapable of producing a masterpiece at the beginning. Disqualification argument states that video games have features which does not exist in traditional arts and this denies their qualifications as artworks. One of the disadvantages of this argument is that its followers forget about other interactive forms of contemporary art like Participatory art. However, we should not forget that at the onset of the emergence of any new artistic medium (including photography and cinema), some people have resisted the acceptance of its artistic nature; but the new media has been recognized in the artworld, with the passage of time.After adapting videogames to nine theories of art (Immanuel Kant’s point of view, and theories like: Neo-Representational, Expressivism, Formalism, Institutional, Historical, Functional, Cluster, and Lively Art), we can claim that, many video games can be artwork, due to complicated narrative, significant form, historical connection with cinema, acceptance by the artworld, sophisticated aesthetics, expressive feelings, etc. Although video games are still in their childhood, but they can stimulate artistic and aesthetic sentiment. In the end, by discussing the ontology of video game as an interactive art, an attempt has been made to reveal the nature of this emerging artistic medium. Also, by examining the concepts and functions of game aesthetics, it turned out that there is a huge potential for research on the aesthetics of this contemporary artistic medium.

Video games in modern world have become cultural, economic and political tools to shape the thought of the younger generation. Examples of these games have made their way to the museums; scientific circles have focused on game aesthetic; and different countries are trying to take part in the growing market of game design. This article is a feasibility study on using the ancient motifs of Iran’s national art as patterns of computer game design. Taking advantage of the views of scientists like Rudolf Arnheim, our most important purpose is to survey on abilities of the motifs of ancient Susa ceramics to convert to graphic patterns utilizable for game design. We gathered the research data in a library and museum survey. The study of selected works (retrieved from the collection of Susa ceramics from 4th millennium BC in the Louvre museum) shows that these motifs can be used in visual style of stylized abstraction to create various samples of characters, textures, items and icons. Utilizing them we will be able to design attractive video games based on our national identity.

Full dependency on human interaction, has made video game different from other narrative media. Two major viewpoints on narratology of video game are: Narratological and Ludological; The first one emphasizes the importance of narration and the necessity of its existence in video games, and the latter puts a fundamental distinction between video game and the literary narrative. The main purpose of this research is to review and compare the most important challenges and perspectives on the issue of narratology in video games and also to dissect the narrative of the game “God of War 2018” based on the examined perspectives. The research was enforced by a comparative-analytical method, whose qualitative data were compiled in a documentary manner with theoretical framework of narratology as its basis. In order to achieve the goal of the research two main points of view on video game narrative were deliberated and thereafter three categorizations of video game narrative were scrutinized and God of War’s narrative was reconciled with each of them. With all that the article shows a holistic scheme of video game narrative, plus using it on a specific game..

This research seeks to recognize the mind-healer ritual dolls in Iran. These dolls are made or destroyed in rituals to reduce the psychological burden, stimulate a sympathetic sense. This article is a development and historical descriptive study. The data collection was document and fieldwork. The statistical population of the research was the Iranian mind-healer ritual dolls. The studied cases can be divided into two general historical and imaginary groups. The historical dolls are divided into two categories: Dolls from the Iranian history, and Dolls derived from the history of Islam. Also, among the imaginary dolls, one can specify three categories: Dolls derived from the mythological creatures, the ones from the literary characters, and the dolls used to meet every day needs. The use of dolls as a replication of a strong "Other", or the symbol of supernatural forces, has been a method to express all the words that nature, political power, ruling religion, or general beliefs have made them inexpressible for the doll maker. The ritualistic destruction of these dolls has led to the complaints of nature, abandonment of anger, and relaxation from the psychological burden.

Batman is a recognized modern hero, which has been the axis of many narrations. Two examples of Batman's most successful narratives are Batman (1989) by Tim Burton, and The Dark Knight (2008) by Christopher Nolan. This article attempts to analyze and compare these two movies' mythological structures by a comparative analytical method based on the theoretical framework of Vogler's the writer's journey. This survey's primary purpose is to find the differences between the styles of two filmmakers in using the same mythical narrative. Tim Burton's Batman is centered on photojournalist Vicki Vale, who investigates Batman's real identity. Critics categorized Burton's Batman as a high concept film, less movie than a corporate behemoth. In Nolan's The Dark Knight, District Attorney Harvey Dent created an alliance to dismantle organized crime in Gotham City, but Joker menaces them. Film critics considered it one of the best films of the decade and one of the best superhero films of all time. The film received highly positive reviews, particularly for its screenplay. Based on the analyzed data, Nolan has been more successful in shaping his movie's mythical texture, which can be one of the reasons for admiring the film both by critics and the general public. The twelve stages introduced by Vogler are discoverable in both movies. However, as a movie in the superhero genre, faithful to the ups and downs of the journey, Nolan's film has been able to create a more engaging narrative for its audiences.

Due to various continuing social, environmental, and economic challenges facing contemporary Iran, striving for sustainable development is our first serious and undeniable national need; and achieving sustainable development depends on our effort to recount the historical experiences. The main purpose is to measure the Sustainability of development during the period of Shah Abbas I Safavid. This study is historical research with an analytic approach. The authors have used the TBL framework to evaluate the success rate of Shah Abbas I. Based on the results obtained in this paper, the strengths of his management strategies can be categorized in three sections, as follows: social (securing the country, avoiding religious and ethnic prejudices, legal protection of minorities, etc.), environmental (successful management of water resources, water sensitive urban design, transferring economic orientation from agriculture to trade, etc.) and also economic (permanent support for craftsmen and traders, reconstruction and securing the roads network, creating economic security, etc.). By implementing these management policies, he succeeded in achieving sustainable development, that its benefits continued until four decades after his death. Learning from historical experiences, like what was discussed in this article, can be a path out of the current situation.

Frida Kahlo, leading Mexican artist, inspired by the folk culture of her hometown, created a personal, indigenous and naive style to portray her concerns about identity, gender, class, race and post-colonial status. Her works depict the story of her life, as well as narrating the lifestyle of women of her era. Frida’s works are deep, multi-layered, symbolic and rich in hidden meanings. Therefore, it’s not possible to discover the connotations of her signs at a glance, unaware of her cultural context and lived experience. The author has used the method of visual rhetoric analysis, to achieve the meanings of these paintings. This research perspective, is a useful way to unravel the hidden connections between images and semiotic systems. The current research is a case study in the field of visual semiotics, with a descriptive-analytical approach. Of the 143 known paintings by Frida Kahlo, 55 examples are self-portraits. Of these, 8 works have been selected by targeted sampling, to be analyzed for the discovery of rhetorical tropes and encoding methods in Frida’s work. Frida believed in Mexicanidad, a nationalist and romantic movement to counter the humiliation of the indigenous Mexican culture by the Spaniards. Thus, in many of her works, she represents ancient rituals, Aztec myths and popular culture. In contrast to the patriarchal tradition of female objectification in artwork, she always stares at the viewer of her self-portraits with a strong and excavator gaze. According to Kenneth Burke, the most important rhetorical tropes are the four main tropes of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Among these, Frida has used metaphor in self-portraits such as The Dream (1940). In this work, the skeleton is a metaphor for death and Frida herself is depicted as a metaphor for life. Also, in another painting, The Wounded Deer (1946), Frida depicts the deer as a metaphor for her past and her sufferings. Metonymy can be found in a work called Two Fridas (1939). In this painting, European clothing is metonymy for modernity, Tehuana is metonymy for tradition, and scissors are metonymy for patriarchy. Also, in a work called Thinking About Death (1943), the artist’s forehead is metonymy for thinking, and the skull is metonymy for dying. Synecdoche can be seen in Self-Portrait Along the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States (1932). Ford complex, skyscrapers, industrial products and the flag, each are synecdoche for the US or the modern world. On the other hand, the Aztec temple, ancient fertility statues, and pristine nature are synecdoche for Mexico or the pre-modern world. Also, in another work called Roots (1943), the piece of land on which Frida sleeps, can be considered as synecdoche for her homeland and birthplace. In My dress hangs there (1933), Frida brings together the values and symbols that are the pride of the US, but in fact, she ironically mocks the cultural signs of this country. She also uses irony in Memory (1937). Cupid, the Greek symbol of love and affection, is used in this work to portray suffering from tragic love.

Banknotes are social and semantic texts with the power of visual impact, which governments have often used to achieve cultural and political hegemony. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the visual structure of dollar bills and the social context of the United States community and to examine how social developments in US history have affected changes in the structure of dollar bills. The social semiotics approach of Kress and Van Leeuwen is the basis of this descriptive-analytical study. The documentary and qualitative data of this research were collected by the purposive sampling method. According to this analysis results, the dollars represent only the face of white male politicians, and the most representation belongs to persons affiliated with the Republican Party. The common symbols and design of the dollars have changed little over the last century, indicating policymakers’ emphasis on building a stable picture of the country’s economic system. The framing of politicians’ images on old banknotes reflects their distance and distinction from their audiences, but in newer dollars, these frames have been deliberately removed to represent a sense of closeness to the people. This change represents that banknote illustrators are following the social developments.

As problem-oriented research in the field of Sociology of culture, this article tries to pursue the concept of “Sacred object”, its position and value, and displacement of its guarding places over time. Derived from the Latin root Sacer, the meaning of sacred is dedicated or consecrated. Durkheim saw religion as a system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, and Otto wrote about a non-rational, non-sensory experience whose primary object is outside the self. Kant’s description of the beautiful and the sublime, as two subjective universal judgments, can explain our aesthetic perception of a sacred object. Weber has determined three types of legitimate rule: charismatic, traditional, and legal-rational authority. Even though all these three types are still prevalent today, we can propose a historical trend for this tripartite classification, a century after expressing the theory: ancient charismatic rule, historical rule based on succession, and the modern state. Sanctuaries and palaces are premodern places to guard the sacred objects, related to the two basic types of legitimate authority. However, museums have inherited this position in the modern period, as the most substantial institutions to protect the selected objects. A museum turns a thing into an object in the process of museality, involving selection, separation, and framing. A ritual/religious object may lose its virtue in this process, yet a regular thing may earn sanctity. To communicate with the sacred object is a non-obligatory, optional, internal, and subjective experience that depends on each visitor’s background, age, interest, and knowledge.

Banksy is an anonymous British street artist and political activist, which is known for his satirical street art combine dark humor with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. He displays his art on publicly visible surfaces and self-built physical prop pieces. He characterises graffiti as a form of underclass revenge, or guerrilla warfare that allows him to snatch away power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy. Banksy’s works have dealt with various political and social themes, including anti-consumerism, anti-war, anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, anti-authoritarianism, nihilism, anarchism and existentialism. Additionally, the components of the human condition that his works commonly critique are greed, hypocrisy, poverty, absurdity, boredom, alienation and despair. His works usually rely on iconography and visual imagery to put forth their message. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for Exit Through the Gift Shop < /em>. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the Webby Awards. The main objective of this paper is to first to tracing defamiliarization and semioclasm in the artworks of Banksy. This research is a semiotic case study with a descriptive - analytical approach. Defamiliarization is the artistic technique of presenting common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. Semioclasm begins when the creator of a cultural message, uses the signs with a different signification from their common meanings, with the aim of breaking the ruling conventions of a social context. By analyzing eleven artworks of Banksy, this paper attempts to reveal the methods of defamiliarization and semioclasm in his work. In this regard, we specified three categories: 1. Political defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Napalm Girl (2004, referring to the link between warfare and capitalism as two major tools of American hegemony); Unwelcome Intervention (2005, to protest against all the walls and barriers between people around the world); Rage, the Flower Thrower (2005, to complain about war, bellicosity and carnage); Crayola Shooter (2011, to blame child abuse on battlefields) and Missile instead of Javelin (2012, to protest against political interventions in sport). 2. Economic defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Paris Album (2006, mockery of the celebrities’ greed) and Coney Island Adventure (2018, protesting large companies from seizing property of the poor). 3. Religious defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Toxic Mary (2003, criticizing the ineffectiveness and profitability of the religious authorities); Christ with Shopping Bags (2004, to complain about consumerism); Grin Reaper (2005, to minimize death) and Sale Ends (2017, protesting against greed and shopaholism). The artist in these works, by removing the meaning of known symbols, has been attached a new concept to them. He used alternate codes as follows: Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald instead of soldiers, window instead of wall, flowers instead of grenade, Crayolas instead of bullets, missiles instead of javelin, dog’s head instead of Paris Hilton’s, growth charts instead of lashes, venom instead of Madonna’s milk, shopping bags instead of cross nails, smiling emoji instead of skulls, and auction-end billboards instead of crucifixion icon. The main objective of this paper is to first to tracing defamiliarization and semioclasm in the artworks of Banksy. This research is a semiotic case study with a descriptive - analytical approach. Defamiliarization is the artistic technique of presenting common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. Semioclasm begins when the creator of a cultural message, uses the signs with a different signification from their common meanings, with the aim of breaking the ruling conventions of a social context. By analyzing eleven artworks of Banksy, this paper attempts to reveal the methods of defamiliarization and semioclasm in his work. In this regard, we specified three categories: 1. Political defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Napalm Girl (2004, referring to the link between warfare and capitalism as two major tools of American hegemony); Unwelcome Intervention (2005, to protest against all the walls and barriers between people around the world); Rage, the Flower Thrower (2005, to complain about war, bellicosity and carnage); Crayola Shooter (2011, to blame child abuse on battlefields) and Missile instead of Javelin (2012, to protest against political interventions in sport). 2. Economic defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Paris Album (2006, mockery of the celebrities’ greed) and Coney Island Adventure (2018, protesting large companies from seizing property of the poor). 3. Religious defamiliarization and semioclasm: in Toxic Mary (2003, criticizing the ineffectiveness and profitability of the religious authorities); Christ with Shopping Bags (2004, to complain about consumerism); Grin Reaper (2005, to minimize death) and Sale Ends (2017, protesting against greed and shopaholism). The artist in these works, by removing the meaning of known symbols, has been attached a new concept to them. He used alternate codes as follows: Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald instead of soldiers, window instead of wall, flowers instead of grenade, Crayolas instead of bullets, missiles instead of javelin, dog’s head instead of Paris Hilton’s, growth charts instead of lashes, venom instead of Madonna’s milk, shopping bags instead of cross nails, smiling emoji instead of skulls, and auction-end billboards instead of crucifixion icon.

Contemporary Combination of images and texts together is one of the approaches postmodern artists use to transfer the artistic message. Barbara Kruger, feminist conceptual artist, has created most of her collages with a combination of visual/literary signs. Her works have conveyed strong social messages about culture, power, identity and gender to a large audience. The main purpose of current article is to analyze a number of her collages based on their visual rhetoric, to formulate her method of encoding the semiotic message. This research is a case study in the field of visual semiotics, which has been done with a descriptiveanalytical approach. This article makes it clear that Kruger has deliberately used rhetorical tropes (especially the four main tropes, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony) with the aim of encoding the artistic message. She uses this method to criticize issues such as blind idealism, patriarchy, feminine passivity, consumerism, commodification, and so on.

This article, which is the result of a research in the field of iconology, tries to look at the presence of Capra motif in the petroglyphs of Jorbat, North Khorasan. The Jarbat petroglyphs have a special position due to quantity and quality of motifs and continuity (at least from the Bronze Age to the contemporary era). A considerable amount of motifs in the Jorbat petroglyphs are animal drawings and many of them (more than four hundred) are different images of Capra with prominent, curved horns. Two different biological species can be distinguished in these drawings: Capra aegagrus or Bezoar ibex with tall and curved horns, and Capra aegagrus hircus or Domestic goat with short and straight horns. From the cultural point of view, the place of Capra in Iranian thought can be traced back to ancient texts, where he is a prowess symbol and a body for the valorous god Bahram in battle with demons. But the main reason for repeating this motif is the economic significance of Capras in the life of the residents of this region. Capra was domesticated by the inhabitants of the Iranian plateau around ten thousand years ago. Since then, this animal has been continuously featured in the Iranian art, as chief of flock, and the symbol for abundance of herd and crops. Shepherds of Jorbat probably portrayed Capras on the cliffs over thousands of years, as a blessing rout sign and in the hope of fertilizing their flock. 

In animist cultures, the chosen animal represents an eternal power, which needs to be ritually sacrificed to blessing or as atonement for sins. In an altar, sometimes the chosen man and the chosen animal substitute one another. In the Abrahamic religions, the successor sacrifice is often a camel or a sheep. But taking a look at pre-Islamic Iranian beliefs reveals that for the ancient Iranians the chosen animal is cow which in its archetypal role, as the sacrifice, blesses the nature. The purpose of the present article is to explore the mythological roots in Gāv (The Cow), a screenplay by Gholām-Hossein Sā'edi, with a comparative mythological approach. The research has been done by using descriptive-analytical and developmental method and its qualitative data have been collected in a documentary manner. The result of the research reveals that the mythological actors of this narrative are as follows: the shaman (Mash Islam), the nuns (Naneh Khanom and Naneh Fatemeh), the devilish powers (the Porusi bandits), the sacrificial animal (the cow) and the sacrificial man (Mash Hasan). After the cow dies, Mash Hasan substitutes for it, and eventually he suffers the same death as the cow. In this way, the border between the sacrificial animal and the sacrificial man is abolished.

Since folk poems are outside the realm of official literature, they have received less attention in the field of literary studies. Also, women are often overlooked as creators of literary works; and this has made it difficult to search for female individuality in the context of literary discourses. Thus, the role of women in shaping Kurmanj literature has not yet been addressed. This essay as a case study in the field of feminist literary criticism with an interpretive analytical approach, has tried to reveal the significance of female voice in the collection of Kurmanj Sechischtis, by discovering the signs of ecriture feminine. Sechischti lyrics are an important part of the literature and folklore of the Iranian Kurmanj nomads. A Sechischti has three hemistiches, each with eight to ten syllables, with words derived from nature and everyday life based on individual experiences and ethnic memories of anonymous poets. In search of these signs, the authors have examined 1386 poems; of these, 269 poems (a quarter of poems with gender identity) have obvious features of feminine expression. Sechischtis written by women, can be divided into five categories, in terms of subject matter: 1. love; 2. marriage; 3. immigration and war; 4. social role-playing; 5. advice, cursing, self-introduction etc. Signs of feminine expression in these poems are either denotative or connotative, each of which has been used in four different methods. In these short and simple folk poems, the woman’s soul is revealed without veil and mask and talks to the audience. She’s no longer a woman described by male writers, whether praiseworthy as a lover or a mother, or disgusting as a tempter or a witch. With the help of ecriture feminine, poetess describes the world around her through her own eyes for the audience, with all its amazing events and phenomena.

The main objective behind this research Digital games are the converging point of numerous arts like literature, painting, architecture, cinema, animation, Music… in a single art media. This paper has been written using descriptive, analytical and comparative approach and developmental objective and its qualitative findings are based on data gather in referral way. work is to find out the characteristics of the digital games which influence the user, audio- visually. The paper tries to find answer to this question that in general what kinds of themes are used in audio-visual digital games. The researchers of the game studies talk about three light visual, abstract and realistic themes in digital games. The most important categories of the themes used in digital games are personality designs, object designs, playing environment designs, visual effects designs. Meanwhile, the sounds used in digital games are also divided into two categories of dynamic and non-dynamic sounds. Sound in the digital games have interactive nature and active role of the player is important in all stages of the game. There are 5 audio elements in digital games namely dialog, nonverbal visual element, audio effects, environmental sounds and music. The secret of a highly appealing and successful digital game in attracting audience, could found in proper understanding of these themes. When talking about the future of visual themes of the digital games, usually topics such as augmented reality and cyber reality are brought up. One of future developments in the field of themes of visual games, is probably using Randi or Zaya music in such games.

This paper, as a semiotic study with an interpretive analytical approach, has tried to classify the common allegorical or metaphorical signs in 750 selected Sechischti, in order to achieve a morphology. Sechischti lyrics are an important part of the literature and folklore of the Iranian Kurmanj nomads. A Sechischti has three hemistiches, each with eight syllables, with words derived from nature and everyday life based on individual experiences and ethnic memories of indigenous anonymous poets. A survey of common signs revealed that, the four main categories of signs represents or substitutes of human in the Kurmanj Sechischtis are as follows: 1. Signs taken from animals; 2. Signs taken from plants; 3. Signs taken from objects; 4. Signs taken from natural phenomena. Connotations of these signs has deep dependence on ethnic characteristics, socioeconomic conditions, lifestyles and historical experiences of Kurmanjs. Literary communication with Kurmanj Sechischti will be difficult without recognizing the significance of these signs and understanding their connotations.

A large number of merchants, political representatives, catholic friars, explorers and adventurers traveled to Isfahan, during the reign of Shah Abbas I. But how did he make his capital such an attractive destination for travelers? The main purpose of this article is to examine the impact of his management policies, on the formation of a flourishing travel market. This study is a historical research, with analytic approach, based on library and documentary data sourcing. The period of the Safavids dynasty is often considered the beginning of modern Persian history. During the reign of Shah Abbas I, as he tried to upgrade the Silk Road to improve the commercial prosperity of the empire, an abundance of caravanserais, bridges, bazaars and roads were built. Shah Abbas I transferred his capital to Isfahan, which he transformed into one of the most attractive cities in the world. Our main discussion will be divided into two major sections. First, by referring to historical sources, especially travelogues, we will evaluate the Safavid Isfahan as a travel destination. Afterward, we will attempt to find the political, economic and social foundations of this developement. Due to the analyzed data, the reasons for acceptability of Safavid Isfahan as a travel destination, are based on four management foundations: expanding and beautifying the city, achieving economic centerality, providing the required infrastructures on the route and destination, and acceptance of non-Iranians / non-Muslims.

Based on archaeological and anthropological findings, some of ancient societies were governed by social system of matriarchy. Among the ancient civilizations of Iran, Shahr-i Sokhta is a proper case study to examine the social status of women, due to its continuous publications, which are results of long-term scientific excavations. This article is a historical research with descriptive analytical method and quantitative and qualitative data, looking for evidences of matriarchal system in Shahr-i Sokhta. Seals in an ancient society represent prominent social status, state power, or participation in trade. In Shahr-i Sokhta graveyard, seals are almost entirely owned by women. Based on the high number of valuable objects, many of the buried females can be considered rich. Plentitude of these objects, especially in the second period, when the city’s population and commercial capacity reaches its peak, reveals that women of Shahr-i Sokhta (at least in the second and fourth periods) were on average richer than men. Guns are rarely found in Shahr-i Sokhta, and instead, alongside the deceased women often there are decorative objects and various accessories. Given the ownership of the seals, it can be suggested that the goods manufactured in the surrounding villages, have been sold in the city or exported to other regions by women. Based on the evidence analyzed in this article, the author believes that the society of Shahr-i Sokhta was governed by a matriarchal system, at least in an important part of its 1300-year history, and its women have contributed significantly to the social and economic formation of this civilization.

This article has tried to look at the political representation of mythical creatures in the Achaemenid architecture to find the semantic roots of them, in the art of ancient Iran and adjacent civilizations, by the method of Jakobson’s six communication functions. By researching their myths and beliefs, and looking at the motifs of their artifacts, we want to shine a flash on relationship between these cultures, and perusing the migration of these symbols. Roman Jakobson defined six functions of a communication act; Sender (with the emotive or affective function), Reciever (with the conative function), Context (with the referential function), Channel (with the phatic function), Code (with the reflexive function) and Message (with the poetic function). In this issue, sender is supposed to be Achaemenid court. Recievers are the political representatives of the Achaemenid states. Context is an intelligent combination of various cultures and religious credences of ancient east’s inhabitants. Channel is the art of stone carving, observed by the court. Code is a selective collection of prevalent mythical beliefs in the states of the kingdom. However, the most important function is the message: imperial art is transnational. We reviewed nine archetypal symbols in the Achaemenid architecture. First, a bas-relief in Pasargadae, most likely a resemblance of Cyrus himself, possessing four wings shown in an Assyrian style, dressed in Elamite traditional clothing, with the Egyptian Hemhem crown. A fish-man on the walls of palace “S” in Pasargadae may refer to an Apkallu, one of the seven Mesopotamian sages or demigods who are said to have been created by the god Enki. Beside that, we can find a Bull-Man, maybe Kusarikku, an ancient Mesopotamian mythological demon. Winged Bulls on the walls of Apadana palace in Susa are maybe symbols of Tishtar (god of rain) in his battle with Apush (demon of drouth), or just mighty protectors of the palace. Achaemenid winged globes are derived from an Egyptian origin, placed above the entrances to all the temples in order to commemorate the victory won by Horus over Set. This pattern turned to the symbol of god Assur in the Assyrian art. The battle between a king and a beast in the entrance of Tachara palace is presumably connected with a bas-relief from the Ninurta temple in Nimrud, that Ninurta with his thunderbolts pursues Anzu (Imdugud). Gopat (winged bull or lion with human face with a great emphasis in the Avestan literature) and Shirdal (eagle-head lion) have used in all the ancient eastern arts. Man, eagle, lion and bull each have their magical power and territory. When they combine, the result would be an unconquerable guardian for shrines. The mythical creature found on the walls of Tomb-e Ajori must be mušḫuššu, the sacred animal of Marduk and his son Nabu depicted on the Ishtar Gate of the city of Babylon. Achaemenid diplomacy was based on political, cultural and religious tolerance; therefore, it’s not unexpected for their art to be combined and transnational.

History is a chain without breaks, which shift flowingly from an era to another. A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Institution of art will rearrange, when a paradigm shift occures as result of a dialectical encounter. Thus art world coordinate itself with philosophical, political, economical and social aspects of the emerging era. This essay is trying to persue paradigm shifts in the western thought from Renaissance to beginning of Modernism, and their impacts in formation of art schools. Renaissance art rose with emblem of genius godlike man, to supersession pivotal position of god in the art of Middle Ages. Baroque artists took the first steps to be independent. Neoclassic art used ideas of the Enlightenment to serve the french revolution. Romantics became rebellious and restless illustrators of nature. Realists reflected protests of the downstream in their works, and Impressionists challenged these traditional approaches to be the pioneers of an endless conflict named Modernism.

This article tries to look at the Oxus treasure and to have a survey on this glorious ancient collection, typology of its objects and semiotics of its motifs. Our most important purposes in this article are; first, a survey on techniques of making and decorating and typology of the objects in the collection based on form, material and usage. Second, a survey on the semantic meanings of the motifs and patterns. Researchers believe these handmade artifacts to be native and territorial. In addition, they think that these artifacts had been formed with combination of Persian experiences with the art of adjacent cultures (e.g. Mesopotamia, Urartu, Egypt and India), and the art of immigrant tribes. We gathered the research data through a library and museum study. The surviving objects have at least 22 dissimilar types and usages including model chariots, figurines, stoppers for a flask, vessel handles, horse models, cloth ornaments, an aigrette, earrings, necklaces, pendants, armlets and bracelets, rings, votive plaques, a shield ornament, a sword sheath, a jug, bowls, a fish vessel, a strap fitting, coins, rods and seals. There are five types of artistic decorations and patterns on these handmade artifacts: human motifs (like men and women), animal motifs (like lion, goat, ram, eagle, fish, bull and horse), mythical motifs (like Egyptian god Bes, winged globe, gopat and shirdal), vegetational motifs (like lotus and barsom) and geometric motifs. Semiotic analysis of motifs reveals the ritual and courtier functions and Iranian origin of this treasure.