RARO Book

Forthcoming publications:
THE TRANSCENDENT IMAGE:
SIGNS FROM ITALIAN CINEMA
RB 002
The Concept
“Quale”: a quality abstracted as an independent essence
from a thing or image. - Roland Barthe’s Punctum.
The illumination of meaning found in a single FILM STILL revealed
through insights offered by distinguished practitioners
from the realms of art, fashion, design, architecture, literature, philosophy,
politics,

TRANSCENDENT IMAGE: Signs From Classic Italian Cinema.
© 2017 all rights reserved Stefano Curti,Thomas Rose.
La Terra Trema ("The Earth Trembles")1948 directed by Luchino Visconti.
Book Concept & Themes
The symbolic, interpretive speculation of meaning in the images with reasoned understanding of historically relevant sign systems recognizable in fashion, design, architecture, sexuality, religion, gender, all aspects of human experience.

"MODEST FASHION & the concept of Beauty"
(RB 003)
© 2017 all rights reserved Stefano Curti,Krishna Agazzi.
Book excerpt
Reflections: All of this is contextualized in an era of
universalism which certainly implies levels of communication,
circulation and esthetic values which were never reached in the past,
but also, contemporaneously, strong pressures towards cultural
standardization (very evident, for example, in the diffusion of
consumer goods). In this reality, differences also emerge with a
particular force: because of these same demographic dynamics, and
because conceiving of one’s own identity implies ever more facing this
complexity and these contradictions, while we are presented with a
complex, but not renounceable task, that is, to intertwine all the
various differences patiently, without ignoring them or eliminating
them. Hence this is not a time of possible cultural wars and civilizations conflicts , as is often reported/interpreted/proposed by the media, but a time of possible new universal encounters, cultural exchanges empathy and collaboration.

120 DAYS OF S***M by Pier Paolo Pasolini
This absolute significant masterpiece will be featured in TRANSCENDENT IMAGE: Signs from Classic Italian Cinema.
© 2017 all rights reserved Stefano Curti,Thomas Rose.
A book of images: We are all seduced by the power of images, images from films, advertising, fashion, art and architecture, etc. Images are about seduction into a world of dream and fantasy, often taking us far from reality and the humdrum of everyday experience. Consider the motion picture, sequential images making up a story that can leave us breathless, empathetic or arouse us to anger and action. However; as the film is a compendium of still images what are the qualities embedded in the single image, can they be decoded and “read” in their own right— examined for meaning outside the film narrative? Some of the most powerful photographs ever made are hiding in the films structure. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TAKING THESE IMAGES AND OFFERING THEM TO ARTISTS, HISTORIANS, DESIGNERS TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES? WHAT NEW OR UNUSUAL INSIGHTS MIGHT BE REVEALED?

Forthcoming publications:
"MODEST FASHION & the concept of Beauty"
© 2017 all rights reserved Stefano Curti,Krishna Agazzi.

Premise:
The girl in Jakarta is connecting with the girl in New York every day, as part
of a bubbling global fashion dialogue," CNN

Concept:
The modest Muslim fashion, by virtue of its
geographic/cultural/ethical/religious origins, and the incomparable
instinct of the female collectivity for what is brewing in the future,
is in constant contact with both the Muslim historical tradition. and
with future things to come.
The concept of “fashion” can be understood in a wide sense –
considering the arts, but also religions, philosophies, etc. – but
clothes are its first material substratum, to which meaning and
propriety are added. Fashion is a language (linguistic phenomenon) or
better, a non-verbal language, a way of communicating through which
one constructs and manifests one’s own identity; fashion is also a
cultural phenomenon which has to do with matters of gender, sexuality
and relations of power and propriety.
From the point of view of semiological and semiotic studies, fashion
is considered a system productive of meaning, that constructs and
unfolds (discloses) itself in constructing meanings. Hence these
disciplines study clothing as a non-verbal language.