{"id":13240,"date":"2023-06-19T10:38:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=13240"},"modified":"2023-06-19T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T15:38:48","slug":"sigh-n-of-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2023\/06\/19\/sigh-n-of-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Sigh\/n of relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the world breathes a sigh of relief that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/18\/world\/asia\/blinken-china-xi-diplomacy.html\">this meeting happened at all<\/a>, ecocritics can wonder about the semiotics of the image framing Chairman Xi Jinping&#8217;s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image-400x271.png?resize=500%2C338&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13241\" width=\"500\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=400%2C271&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=300%2C203&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=275%2C187&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=768%2C521&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?resize=1536%2C1042&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2023\/06\/image.png?w=1000 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Relief<\/strong> : <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1. a feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2. financial or practical assistance given to those in special need or difficulty. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3. a person or group of people replacing others who have been on duty. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>4. the state of being clearly visible or obvious due to being\u00a0accentuated; a method of moulding,\u00a0carving, or stamping in which the design stands out from the surface, to a greater (<em>high relief<\/em>) or lesser (<em>low relief<\/em>) extent; a piece of sculpture in relief; a representation of relief given by an arrangement of line or colour or shading; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>GEOGRAPHY: difference in height from the surrounding terrain. (Oxford English Dictionary)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Is this: China as a force of nature? Xi backed by the power of the Earth itself? Blinken representing the upstart (phallic) power (on the left) arriving at the (immovable) granddaddy of all things under heaven?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are at least <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npc.gov.cn\/zgrdw\/englishnpc\/GreatHall\/node_3098.htm\">33 other halls<\/a> in the Great Hall of the People that they could have met in (and many more images that they could have met in front of).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the world breathes a sigh of relief that this meeting happened at all, ecocritics can wonder about the semiotics of the image framing Chairman Xi Jinping&#8217;s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Relief : Is this: China as a force of nature? Xi backed by the power of the Earth itself? Blinken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[196,689354],"tags":[118994,103273,711070,710300],"class_list":["post-13240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecoculture","category-image_nation","tag-china","tag-geopolitics","tag-political-semiotics","tag-xi-jinping"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3ry","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14231,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/09\/02\/process-semiotics-in-a-nutshell\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":0},"title":"Process semiotics, in a nutshell","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It's what informs my analysis of images, imagination, and the digital in The New Lives of Images. Here is the three-minute version of it. The universe is a living, dynamic, and responsive universe. It is made not of static objects, but of events -- events which elicit other events. Its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philosophy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/20220422_133709-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6175,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/09\/18\/the-wound-of-eco-trauma\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":1},"title":"The wound of eco-trauma","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"My article \"The Wound of What Has Not Happened Yet: Cine-Semiotics of Eco-Trauma\" appeared in the trilingual (English-German-Czech) arts journal Umelec late last year. (It kicked off the issue, followed by Mark Fisher's wonderful \"Terminator vs. Avatar: Notes on Accelerationism.\") The editors illustrated it with photos from David Cronenberg's Crash,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cinema&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cinema","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cinema_zone\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10862,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/06\/26\/scenes-in-the-image-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":2},"title":"Scenes in the image-world","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Here\u2019s a preview in section headings of the book I\u2019m currently writing. It presents a way of thinking about images, what they've done for people, and how all of that figures into the contemporary world of digital media. It then applies that way of thinking to three sets of images:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Visual culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Visual culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/image_nation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/06\/p003_ramones77_cbgb012h_godlis.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14209,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/08\/28\/new-lives-is-here\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":3},"title":"&#8220;New Lives&#8221; is here","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just gotten my hands on an advance print copy of The New Lives of Images, and it looks and feels wonderful to hold and handle. I'm quite happy with what Stanford University Press has done with the book -- the artwork, the typography, and the entire editorial and publication\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Eco-culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2025\/08\/nli-hardcover-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8908,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/07\/30\/anthropocenic-sublime\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":4},"title":"Anthropocenic sublime","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be giving the following talk at the \"Popular Culture, Religion, and the Anthropocene\" workshop\u00a0at the National University of Singapore this coming week. Navigating the Zone of Alienation: Chernobyl and the Anthropocenic Sublime Abstract: This two-part talk will interpret the Chernobyl nuclear accident and its \u201cZone of Alienation\u201d (Zona vidchuzhennia)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anthropocene&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1053,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/04\/11\/kvonds-spinoza\/","url_meta":{"origin":13240,"position":5},"title":"kvond&#8217;s Spinoza","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been perusing Kvond's wonderful Spinozist blog Frames \/Sing, which synthesizes in-depth readings of Spinoza alongside a broad interest in ontology, biology, semiosis (including biosemiotics), Deleuze, Latour, Heidegger, and much else, and generates insightful discussion with a coterie of other bloggers. For anyone interested, here's a short list of some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philosophy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13244,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13240\/revisions\/13244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}