Taking its name from economist Gilson Schwartz’s 2006 neologism ‘iconomy’, THE-ICONOMIST questions our relationship with images in this era of image saturation with each issue using verbs as its themes.  Schwartz judged that “in this iconomy, the nomos is defined by the icon, by something that is tangible, which is a visual, immaterial, real, and symbolic code at the same time…this iconomy that messes with our way of thinking, measuring, and feeling, it looks like a game.

“ICON” + “AFFECTION” + “PROGRAM”

What is an iconomist? The element “icon” comes from the Greek Εικόνα and means “image”. In its origin, therefore, iconomy is the art of managing images. Today it is the science that deals with the production, distribution and consumption of images. The iconomist treats images as mass, raw material, and can either give value to rotten images or destroy images categorized as high value, altering their meanings and functions. It is the administration of the productive system of images of the context in which we live.