Gramatyka wizualna katastrofy. Zmieniające się reprezentacje powodzi na Odrze
The Visual Grammar of a Catastrophe. Changing Representations of the Odra River Floods (1997–2024)

Summary/Abstract: An attempt at an anthropological and semiotic reconstruction of the visual representations of two Odra River floods: the “Great Flood” of 1997 and the events of 2024, regarded as socially rooted systems of meaning constituted under changing media and technological regimes. Press photographs, satellite images, social media contents, and institutional communications were analysed as semiotic practices embedded in politics and society rather than as documents. The difference of the visual representation of the floods – from humanitarian disaster to controlled risk – reveals a change of the dominating regimes of representation: from a mobilizing, emotional-symbolic depiction of suffering and collective effort to technocratic forms of data visualization dominated by indexical strategies. In this article the author attempts to demonstrate how representations of floods can shape and justify particular configurations of man–environment relations and the environment, establishing a framework for emotional, epistemic, and ethical responses to ecological threats.

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