Visual Protests on Social Media (Phase One)
Table of contents
What role do images play in protest movements worldwide? To what extent can images be viewed as political actors that not only document, but shape and initiate protests online? The DFG-funded research project investigates the aesthetics, affects and algorithms of contemporary image protests on social media.
About the Project
Since January 2022, our small team consisting of Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler, Dr. Verena Straub, Tanja-Bianca Schmidt (M.A.) and Kay Zeisig has been researching the topics "Image Protests on Social Media - Internet Memes, Videos of Police Violence and Relations to Art". The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) until December 2024 (due to leaves extended until summer 2026).
Together we examine how images, protest and social media are interrelated. The term "image protests" refers not only to the representation of protest in images, but also to how images become the cause of protests, how protests are conducted with images, and how images develop their own dynamics and can themselves become actors in protests. Closely related to this is the question of the visibility or invisibility of protests and the economies of attention and power structures associated with them. The concept of image protests reveals how contested the field of the visual is in the context of current protest cultures online.
More about the Project "Image Protests on Social Media - Internet Memes, Videos of Police Violence and Relations to Art".
Memes as Political Image Practice
Memes are more than funny images circulating the web. In the context of political protests, they serve complex communicative functions. Which aesthetics, which platforms and algorithms render memes politically effective? Which methods can we employ to analyse memes as image-text networks in the context of visual culture? Find out more
Videos of Police Violence
Videos of police violence have a particularly mobilising force in social media. Up until now, videos showing violence against migrants have received little attention. What are the characteristic perspectives and the distribution channels of these images? Can we determine iconographic patterns and can we situate them historically? Find out more
References to Contemporary Art
Image protests and contemporary art are linked in multiple ways. Artists negotiate, appropriate and reflect upon Internet memes and videos of police violence. To what extent can artistic appropriations serve as a mode of image protest of its own? Find out more
For latest news about the project, our exhibition "Dangerous Border" and our Instagram series #READINGS visit our Instagram-Account.